Archive Reports

MADRAS COLLEGE ARCHIVE SUPPORT GROUP

ANNUAL REPORT - JUNE 2016

1. Chairman's report

2. Sub-group reports:

2.1 Cataloguing sub-group
2.2 Drama and Music sub-group
2.3 Oral archive sub-group
2.4 Scrapbook sub-group
2.5 Website sub-group

1. Chairman's Report

The Archive Group goes from strength to strength, thanks to the commitment of its members. It was pleasing to note that several senior pupils took an active role, and that we can look forward to recruiting less senior pupils in the future.

My thanks are due to all members, but especially those who have headed working groups. The Secretary, Lindsay Matheson, continues to perform a sterling role, and keeps me on the straight and narrow (or is it strait?).

Maia Sheridan enabled S6 members to visit the Special Collections. They also were shown the Preservation Trust Museum by curator Sam Bannerman.

The Oral Archive, led by Colin Mackay, is making progress, but a great deal remains to be done. The website, expertly worked on by Arlen Pardoe, has considerably increased in size. A new feature has been biographies of former pupils and members of staff, a number of whom have attained a measure of celebrity.

The Scrapbooks continue to be regularly updated by Frances Humphries. Liz Higgins has experienced delays in setting up the Excel database, but hopes these will soon be overcome.
Professor Edmund Robertson has continued his work on notable mathematicians.

The Archive Group has received several gifts over the past year. These include an academic volume on the spread of the Bell-Lancaster monitorial systems in Russia and northern Europe (in German), which has been placed in the library, as has a book by Dr Eve Soulsby on the golfing Kyle family.
When (or should I say if?) a new school is built, it would be useful to have a dedicated space for objects relating to the history of the school, as we have at present nowhere to store such gifts as a silver cup which was recently received.

We were sorry to lose the attendance at meetings of David Galloway, compiler of the booklet on the Burgh School, although he has agreed to assist with biographies of Rectors.

I conclude by thanking all members for their continuing efforts.

Donald Macgregor

2.1 Cataloguing sub-group

We finish the year with the good news that the Archive database has been transferred to Microsoft Excel, which will allow full descriptive records to be created and transferred to the University of St Andrews Special Collections’ CALM database. We are using the laptop computer kindly donated by Arlen Pardoe to store the database because this allows access to Archive members who do not have access to the closed school network. Backups are taken after every use and stored on an external hard drive. Copies can be downloaded onto the school network for reference.

We are hoping for volunteers to join the cataloguing team to add digital records for the items awaiting listing and description which are accumulating in K3.

We are particularly grateful to Katie Stewart and Lewis Garippa, S6 pupils, for sorting new acquisitions and keeping the resources tidy during the year and for encouraging fellow pupils to be involved.

Although staff in school seem to be aware of the Archive, and are now offering resources to the Library when clearing out paperwork, we still have difficulties obtaining copies of posters and programmes etc. produced in school which record the rich variety of events happening throughout the year. Requests to staff, and to pupil members of the Archive Group who had promised to collect and collate these records have not resulted in any being handed in.

Many records, such as the School Prospectus, which used to be printed, are now produced digitally, so will not be available as a paper copy unless the Archive group has them printed.

On Tuesday, 26th April 2016, we were delighted to welcome Dr Eve Soulsby when she visited the school to donate a copy of her book, ‘The Golfing Kyles of St Andrews’. This celebrates the lives and careers of members of a St Andrews family with strong ties to Madras College, and, as the title suggests, a notable prowess on the golf course. Dr Soulsby also presented the Archive with a globe dating from the early 1920s, and an abacus, which were used at Madras. They had been left, outmoded and forgotten, in a cupboard, and were rescued from the rubbish bin by Dr Soulsby about 1980, when the former Kindergarten rooms, by then the Geography Department at Madras, were being cleared.

We have also very recently been given a tiny silver cup, sent to the Special Collections at the University, awarded by Madras College Ladies Golf Club, in 1915, to H G Petrie. It was sent from Tom McKeachie, in Salt Spring, Canada. Special Collections do not hold artefacts, so it was decided to donate the cup back to Madras College.

We are grateful for the continued support and advice from Maia Sheridan, from the Special Collections Dept at St Andrews University.
 

Liz Higgins

2. Sub-group reports

2.2 Drama and Music sub-group

Drama and music activities

I have contacted former pupils engaged in these activities, and also by using internet channels, I am compiling a list of “destinations” - some prestigious – Professor of Mathematics – others less so – Charity shop worker.

I have recently found video taped performances of Quad Theatre plays. Some need editing, and all need transferring to a modern format. I have bought a VCR so that I can view these and decide which are the best “takes” of some of the plays.

There are also heaps of photographs to go through.

Ann Bridges-Marshall.

2.3 Oral Archive sub-group

It was decided early in the session to split the group into sections: TB would interview members of the community and CM would work with the S6 pupil group.

TB interviewed Lena Croll and Jean Gillespie before Christmas.

CM and the pupil group met 3 times to discuss actual recording, pupil groups to interview and a variety of questions to use. The pupils met once to make arrangements for interviewing sixth years. Unfortunately no recordings were made due to constraints of school: assignments, exams, deadlines, applications, etc.

As stated at the last committee meeting, CM felt that a fresh approach is now required if the pupil oral archive group is to be successful.

Colin Mackay

2.4 Scrapbook sub-group

Background to the sub-group’s activities

A Record of notable School events was initiated in 1992 by Mary Rust, a member of the Administration Team in the South Street Office. Originally it was designed as a Photographic Record and between 1992 and 1997 four Volumes of photographs were collated.

In 1997 it was decided to expand this aspect of the Archive and Linda Murray, another member of the South Street Team, took on the task of identifying apposite Newspaper Cuttings, drawn from the local Press, for inclusion in the Scrapbooks.

In August 2011, as she was moving to the Kilrymont Campus, Linda handed over eight volumes of Press cuttings which were a significant and important contribution to the Archive.

Progress to date

Two members of the Madras College Archive Group, Frances Humphries and Anne Morris, meet on a regular basis in K1, the Archive’s storeroom, to continue with the compilation of the Scrapbooks. Meantime, the completed scrapbooks are stored in a room off the School’s Main Office until such time as a permanent location is identified.

Frances collects, collates & prepares all of the Newspaper cuttings for inclusion in the scrapbooks. She also creates the scrapbooks by pasting in the newspaper cuttings. There are now 19 volumes of Press Cuttings.

It has been noted by the members of the sub-group that the articles pertaining to the building of a new school have recently taken over much of the space available in each scrapbook.
In addition, conversely, the coverage of any sporting activities and achievements by Madras Pupils no longer appears regularly in the Press & thus this aspect of school life is no longer on record in the Scrapbooks.

Frances Humphries, Anne Morris

2.5 Website sub-group

Website biennial report 2014-16

2014-15
There have been few additions to the site in terms of new photographs and journals. This is to be expected as the main sources of these items have made their donations already.

One recent addition to the archive was the John Grant Golf Medal from 1931, a link to the Burgh School and reported in the 'Citizen'. The details have been added to the website in a new section on medals and shields, a part of the Madras Trophies section.

The main work done in the past year has been site maintenance and updating of awards, in terms of extra information for specific awards, the addition of new awards and keeping the names of recipients as up to date as possible. This is an annual exercise.

Another small change was to remove the section on Linked organisations. This was only sparsely populated and was easily covered elsewhere. The thumbnails were also tidied up and made more relevant.

2015-16
Many small changes have been made to the website. In terms of structure, the legacy from the first set-up where possible content was identified on each page with the archive index reference but no content was seen as unhelpful; these blank entries have been deleted though a record has been kept for future investigation and the contents will be added if suitable when they have been digitised. The number of exhibition entries has expanded, from the original four to fifteen and this will increase. These items cover a range of years and so do not fall into the five year groupings used for much of the archive, instead they cross the year boundaries.

A significant development has been the addition of a section on newsletters dating back to 1976. This involved the digitisation of old newsletters which were only available in paper format and the organisation of more recent ones which were available as pdfs. A total of 131 newsletters are on the archive site and this will be maintained as each new one is issued (#132 due out anytime soon!)
A further major task undertaken has been the addition of a section on notable former pupils. This has involved extensive research, firstly to identify candidates and then to flesh out biographies and pictures where possible. To date some 65 born in the 19th century and 36 born in the 20th century have been added. There are several others in preparation and no doubt other names will be put forward.

A task that has been waiting for some time because of the magnitude of the task has been the digitisation of the algebraic exercise books from the late 19th century. These are over 100 pages each and required some post-scanning processing to make them readable. Five are now on the website with one more to go.

For the coming year 2016-17 the following work is envisaged:

• The section on the Kiel exchange which was started during the last year will be extended. Dorothy Orem has donated a large amount of material to the archive some of which will be added to the website.
• Following on from the work on former pupils, biographies of former members of staff will be developed and added to the website as a new exhibition.

This year sees the end of the 5 year web hosting contract negotiated in 2011. A number of options are being considered for the best way to continue to provide the website at an economic cost. For information, the website has over 40,000 files and uses over 3.5 Gb of storage.

Arlen Pardoe