The history of Ecolint has been charted in four volumes published in different decades. The first, bilingual one (
Ecole Internationale de Genève – Son premier demi-siècle / International School of Geneva – the first 50 years, Geneva: 1974, 311 pages), edited by René Lejeune (better known as René-François Lejeune), compiles the contributions and eyewitness accounts of various authors, including the historian Robert J. Leach and Ecolint's second director,
Marie-Thérèse Maurette. The second one (
Ecolint – A portrait of the International School of Geneva, 1924–1999, Geneva: 1999, 218 pages) was written by the historian Michael Knight. The third volume (
Marie-Thérèse Maurette – Pioneer of International Education, Geneva: 2009, 84 pages), which focuses specifically on the director who headed the school between 1929 and 1949, was authored by Professor George Walker, former director general of Ecolint and of the International Baccalaureate Organization. The fourth and final volume to date (
Ecolint – A History of the International School of Geneva, Geneva: 2014, 170 pages) is the joint work of educators Conan de Wilde (an alumnus of the school) and Othman Hamayed (a former director of La Grande Boissière's Secondary School). In addition, Robert J. Leach published privately in 1974 his own account of the school’s history,
International School of Geneva, 1924–1974 (63 pages). Most recently, the geographer and economist Phil Thomas, who served as interim Director General and held a wide range of teaching positions in the school during his 35-year Ecolint career, published the booklet
Ecolint and the Origins of the International Baccalaureate in 2018. From 1920 to 1921 the
League of Nations and the
International Labour Office established their headquarters in Geneva. In 1924 the International School of Geneva was founded by senior members of these two international organizations, most notably
Arthur Sweetser and
Ludwik Rajchman, in partnership with
Adolphe Ferrière and Paul Meyhoffer, educators from Geneva's
Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Meyhoffer, originally trained as a theologian, had previously taught at
Bedales School in England and, for eight years, at the
Ecole Nouvelle de la Châtaigneraie (also known as
Ecole Nouvelle du Léman), which in 1974 was integrated into Ecolint. Ferrière housed the first class in a
chalet that was part of his family's estate, on the Route de Florissant in Geneva. He was also technical adviser to the school from 1924 to 1926. The nascent school was supported by
William Rappard,
rector of the
University of Geneva; the neurologist and child psychologist
Édouard Claparède; and Sir
Arthur Salter, a senior official of the League of Nations. After occupying rented accommodation on the Rue Charles Bonnet in Geneva's
Vieille ville (Old Town), the school finally acquired its own premises in 1929: a historic site known as
La Grande Boissière. The acquisition of this large property was made financially possible by
Arthur Sweetser, who personally gave the school thousands of dollars and sought contributions from his network of affluent acquaintances. These donations included 25,000 U.S. dollars from
John D. Rockefeller Jr. Among Ecolint’s notable teachers during the early decades of its existence were
Paul Dupuy, formerly doyen (dean) at Paris’
Ecole normale supérieure and defender of
Alfred Dreyfus in the late 1890s; the psychoanalyst
Charles Baudouin; the philosopher
Jeanne Hersch; and the novelist
Michel Butor. The school became a foundation in 1968, and continued to evolve as it acquired new campuses. In 1974 it incorporated as its second campus
La Châtaigneraie (also called "La Chât"), which had originally been founded in 1908 as the
Ecole Nouvelle La Châtaigneraie (later known as
Collège Protestant Romand) near
Founex in the Canton of Vaud. La Châtaigneraie itself had become the home of the secondary school section of the
Lycée des Nations in 1973. It had been established in 1964 as a small international school on the Rive Droite, in the village of
Bellevue, Switzerland. == Campuses ==