Marietta Johnson Museum

About Us

The Marietta Johnson Museum, located in Fairhope, Alabama, is dedicated to one of its most remarkable citizens, the revolutionary educator who founded her school here in 1907. John Dewey endorsed the school.

Humble Beginnings

Mrs. Johnson, a teacher from St.Paul, Minn., read the works of Nathan Oppenheim and C.Hanford Henderson, and became inspired to start her own experimental school. She moved to Fairhope, a Utopian community, at age 38.

...and World Reknown

A Unique Approach
Encouraged and funded by friends in the small experimental community of Fairhope, Alabama, Mrs. Johnson began her revolutionary school on a ten-acre campus - teaching, writing, training teachers in her method. Her little school attracted national attention, and she was one of the founders of the Progressive Education Association.

A speaker of great power, she was able to persuade audiences and educators of the validity of her philosophy, and her school attracted a number of intellectuals to Fairhope to enroll their children in The School of Organic Education. Mrs. Johnson believed in classes without final examinations, homework, or failure.