While officially I’m working with the Education Department this summer, it is my great fortune to be working with Professor Bair on a project in the history of education field. She does have a Masters in history though, so nobody panic about me learning any bad habits this summer. The project expands on an article that will be published in… November, I think she said, about the Scotland School for Veterans’ Children. After the Civil War, Pennsylvania set up an extensive school system for war orphans (initially just from the Civil War, but it was expanded for veterans at large as time went on). As the state’s interest in funding the schools fell behind the need to keep them running, eventually all of the other schools closed, and their students were funneled into the Scotland School, which was chartered in 1893.
I spent my day today galavanting around Chambersburg, PA in search of history, in all its dusty glory. I started at their historical society, and aided by the wonderful folks there, went through a big vertical file and a number of yearbooks that they had available. Coolest thing in the drop file was almost definitely what seemed to be an edited copy/rough draft of the Act of 1893, which chartered the school. It also seemed to be signed by some of the state representatives and senators that worked on it. Also in the file was a book entitled “I Was Proud to be an Orphan.” It was one graduate’s story about how much he loved the Scotland School, essentially, but seemed as much like propaganda for the school as anything else. It was printed by the S.O.S. Press, and if it wasn’t distributed directly, it was almost certainly would have been available for students to read.
Afterwards, I ventured over to the library a half-block away, and started rummaging through their files as well. I found a few newspaper articles from when the school was closed in 2009, and a few brief book entries but nothing mind-blowing. To my dismay, I also learned that they had no digital copies of old papers, only the good old microfilm (where I’m certain Professor Bair will have me digging soon enough).
My intention at this point was to leave, but somebody had done me the favor of double-parking me, so then I was stuck in Chambersburg until further notice. I got lunch, and then tried stopping by the courthouse to see if they had anything of value. The lady looked at me like I had three heads when I asked about records for the Scotland School, so I decided I would just try back some other time. In all, a successful day of historical work.
Tomorrow: Harrisburg archives and the state library!
TvA
–Edit–
While at the Harrisburg Archives (2 days straight of reading student newspapers, with two more to come this week) I found an article about the “Proud to be an Orphan” booklet. The newspaper article was interesting however, for its negativity. It characterized the author as a shining example of what students could be, but not without the disclaimer that most students, even if they try hard, will fail to be as successful as the author. So maybe it wasn’t as much a piece of propaganda as I thought…