Founded by
Bessie Locke in 1909, initially as the National Association for the Promotion of Kindergarten Education, the NKA functioned on the local, state and national levels. The company was initially based in
New York City's brand-new
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, located at 1
Madison Avenue in
Manhattan, but later moved one mile north to 8 West 40th Street, on the southern side of
Bryant Park. The association once received a $250,000 donation from oil executive
John Dustin Archbold. In 1912,
National Kindergarten and Elementary College (now National Louis University) became affiliated with the NKA. From 1913 to 1919, the NKA worked with the
United States Bureau of Education to promote kindergarten. By late 1927, the association reported that 206 kindergartens had opened across the United States over the course of the year, bringing the total up to 942. Those kindergartens had 356,000 children in their care. There were, however, still four million children without access to a kindergarten. In the 1930s and 1940s, the NKA lobbied in
Washington, D.C., for a permanent form of
federal aid for kindergartens. In the association's 25th anniversary year, it had brought about the opening of almost two thousand kindergartens in total across the United States, bringing kindergarten classes to around 628,000 children. By 1952, the totals had increased to over 3,200 kindergartens and 1.6 million children. Bessie Locke died on April 9, 1952, aged 86. The following year,
John H. Niemeyer, president of the
Bank Street College of Education, became the NKA president, succeeding Dr. Howard Richard Best, The National Kindergarten Association dissolved in 1976. ==References==