Around the Neighborhood
Each "Around the Neighborhood" newsletter focuses on a Neighborhood theme week. The front page of the newsletter is an explanation of the child psychology theories behind each theme week.
The Fred Rogers Archive
The Fred Rogers Archive preserves over 22,000 items from Fred Rogers' personal and professional life. The Archive is essential to the work of the Fred Rogers Institute, and is a source for research into children’s television, early childhood development, and Fred Rogers’ unique role in bridging both fields. Undergraduate students, graduate students, and researchers may request access provisions to study Fred’s life and legacy. Please complete the form below to reach out to our Archivist. Below, you can explore a sampling of the Archive - you're sure to find a treasure!
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I Made It
The episode that Fred intended this song for is about building things by hand. Mister Rogers puts together a go-cart and Bob Trow shows a pulley system. Mister Rogers talks about wanting something that his parents couldn't buy him, so he made it instead.
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Makeup
Margy Whitmer was the producer of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. She worked closely with Fred on many of his projects. Here she helps Fred to apply his makeup as he prepares to shoot an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
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Art Vogel Oral History
Art Vogel was a cameraman at WQED who spent many years filming Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Vogel witnessed some of those times when Fred would go to the piano to express his anger.
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Chuck Aber Oral History
Chuck Aber was a frequent neighbor on the television program, both in Mister Rogers' real world and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. In this oral history, Aber remembers rehearsing for the television operas, specifically "Josephine the Short-Neck Giraffe" and "Spoon Mountain."
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"Mister Rogers" Music
Fred Rogers composed all of the music for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. He studied music composition at Rollins College and continued to write for the rest of his life. For Fred, the piano represented more than work; it was therapy and a means for him to play and explore.
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Daniel Singing
This clip of Daniel Tiger and Lady Aberlin is from "Making Mistakes" week. Inspired by events that happened earlier in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Daniel is thinking about mistakes. He wonders if he is a mistake because he is tame and lives in a clock, unlike any other tigers he knows.
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Sign Language
Fred Rogers studied many languages throughout his life, including French, Spanish, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and American Sign Language. He presented these languages in different ways throughout the Neighborhood series.
Contributing to the Archive
If you have an item you believe belongs in the Fred Rogers Archive, please let us know! The items in the Archive must be directly related to Fred Rogers and his production company. We do not accept self-created items such as creative, journalistic, or research writings, or artwork. We do not purchase items to include in the Archive or sell memorabilia from the Archive.