Collections | Manuscripts | Allen, Jack Collection

Jack Allen Collection

Jack Allen was born in 1914 in Prestonsburg, Kentucky to Anna Mayo Allen and Edward Allen. Jack Allen attended school in Prestonsburg and graduated high school in 1931. After high school he attended Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College where he received his A.B. in 1935. After teaching high school for two years in Prestonsburg Allen left for Nashville, Tennessee to attended graduate school at George Peabody College. He graduated with a doctoral degree in 1941 and took a job at his alma mater, Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College.

The Jack Allen Collection is an accumulation of Allen’s productive life as an educator at George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee. The collection comprises five linear feet (4 Paige boxes) relating to Jack Allen’s career and writings.

Only a few letters appear in the papers though the three from Jack Allen to his mother written in 1961 discuss his life in South Korea while on assignment from George Peabody College. Other items of interest are his writings on the teaching of Social Studies in high schools and primary grades.

Making up three-quarters of the collection are textbooks which Allen wrote or co-wrote with colleagues. These textbooks trace the career of Jack Allen from 1949 to 1982 and are indicative of the progression of styles of social studies textbooks created for schools during those periods.

The Jack Allen Collection was donated to Special Collections in 2007 by his widow Cherry Allen of Nashville, Tennessee.

Overview | Biography | Boxes 1 - 4 | Complete Guide (PDF)