In 1922, Abigail A. Eliot founded the Ruggles Street Demonstration School. She put great emphasis on educating parents about their children. She considered research in child development a high purpose. She was instrumental in supervising the Work Progress Administration nursery schools sponsored in 1933 by the government during the depression, including the Cambridge Nursery School. By the end of 1933, there were 700 nursery schools throughout the country. She realized that a college education was vital in this work. She approached Tufts and in 1951 The Nursery Training School [NTS] of Boston became a professional school under the College of Special Studies. The NTS had merged with the Ruggles Street Demonstration School in 1945 to become the Ruggles Street Demonstration School and Training Center. In 1955, the name was changed to Eliot-Pearson School and, in 1964, it became a major department of Tufts University. Ms. Eliot retired in 1952, but became a vital fund-raiser when the school was destroyed by fire. She also founded the Mental Health Association of Central Middlesex and the Community Action Committee for the Elderly. Tufts paid tribute to her skills in conferring the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in 1967. The NTS became the Eliot-Pearson School (EPS) in 1948. In 1964, the EPS became a part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Tufts and was renamed the Eliot Pearson Deapartment of Child Study.
From the description of Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development records, 1879-1994. 1879-1994. (Tufts University - Tisch Library). WorldCat record id: 638983011
