Part 2 in a series introduced here.
→I surveyed the collection of historical material at William Burgess public school in part to assist distribute historically appropriate material to classrooms, each of which was focusing on a particular decade. I also wanted to learn about its contents, and determine whether it was organized.
I found a mixture of original material and copies. For example: original prints of photographs as well as copies, or newspaper clippings and photocopies of clippings. The miscellaneous school and classroom records, such as attendance books or student workbooks, were originals, as were the few artifacts included. The photographs were mainly class photos, as well as photos of office and custodial staff, some of which were chosen for digitization, and displayed in a central hallway of the school, along with this plaque.
There were also photos of school teams, and a few casual pictures of students in the playground, of class trips, and of the local area. A handful of pictures were of William Burgess and his family. Burgess was a school trustee and educational leader in the area from the late 19th century through 1930. The school adopted his name either upon his retirement, or near the end of his career in public service.
The provenance of the material was impossible to specify. Class photos and documents such as attendance records could be assumed to be official or semi-official records produced by the school. Some memorabilia, such as commemorative programs from earlier decades, were possibly school-produced as well. But as the material itself was uneven in coverage, and there was no description for the collection of any kind it was not possible to be more precise about the provenance. My inquiries did not turn up anyone with substantial knowledge of the history of the collection, either.
The insight I gained from the school’s staff was that it had certainly been there since the 1980s, and was almost certainly a sample of material that accumulated over the past century. It was, apparently, housed in a records room of some kind as late as the 1980s, but that room no longer existed as such, and the collection had moved from time to time since then.
From discussion with school staff, alumni, and from the collection itself, the 1994 celebration of the school’s 80th anniversary appears to have profoundly shaped the collection. A great deal of work went into recognizing that anniversary, some of which involved using and copying material from the school’s historical records to display at the celebration. Much of the labeling of items that was part of the collection was likely created for the 1994 event, which included making a time capsule that was opened at the centennial celebrations. The 1994 work also created new records – of organizing committee work, an 80th anniversary book, and photos of the event. The various people who worked on that anniversary celebration of 1994 probably determined, directly or indirectly, much of the content of the collection I came to know.
As I leafed through, sorted, set aside, and moved boxes, I was stuck by the contrast between the print-heavy work of the 80th anniversary committee with the digital tools and platforms that our own committee and school staff relied on. The 80th and 100th anniversaries of the William Burgess school were on opposite sides of a revolution in digital and online technology.
This image of a sign that used to hang on the exterior of the school is an example of the overlapping of such technologies. The photograph was digitized in the past decade, and became part of the school’s small album of digital images shared with the Centennial Committee.
