The 2013 Heely Scholars have completed an exhibit in the Heely Reading Room of the Stephan Archives, showing off their research from last summer on Lawrentians in World War I. Read an article about the exhibit on the Lawrenceville School’s news feed.
We at the Archives have recently begun digitizing some of our high-use reference materials and making them available through the Bunn Library’s ebrary catalog. The first two titles added were Five Miles Away by Samuel Slaymaker and The House System at The Lawrenceville School by A.R. Evans. Now anyone on campus can access these resources at any time. We will be adding additional titles such as the General Catalogue, 1810-1910 and Roland Mulford’s History of the Lawrenceville School in the near future.
Recent additions to the Hamill Family Papers are now open for research use. This new accession includes correspondence, sermon notes, receipts, and printed ephemera collected by Headmaster Dr. Samuel M. Hamill. A significant amount of correspondence between Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. and other members of the Hamill family and several photos are also included. This material provides a wealth of information about the day-to-day operations of school in the 19th century. In addition to documents pertaining to school business, the papers also contain correspondence with notable people such as Chief of the Cherokee Nation William P. Ross, United States Secretary of War William W. Belknap, Princeton University President James McCosh, and Horace Porter, personal secretary to Ulysses S. Grant. This material has already been used by students studying the late-Antebellum Era and the Civil War in Anne Louise Smit’s honors U.S. history course.
The above photo from 1890 in which Hamill House is visible on the right was included in the accession.Are you having trouble finding the perfect holiday gift? Consider purchasing a photograph from Edward Arthur Robbins’ H’68 ’69 ’71 ’11 portfolio! Only 78 images from Robbins’ travels were used for Through the Lens and thousands more exist. Go to http://photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=477892 to search through Robbins’ work. Once you have made your selection, please contact Robbins at earobbi@hotmail.com for pricing and printing details. Images cannot be reproduced smaller than 11 inches x 14 inches. A portion of the proceeds will help to fund future exhibits by The Stephan Archives.
We at the Stephan Archives are excited to announce that all student records now reside in one place. With 718 boxes, the student records are by far our largest collection. This is the culmination of a multi-year project made possible by a generous donation from Dr. John Stephan L. ’59.
The project began in 2008 with the relocation of the records from the basement of McPherson. The goal of the project was to house all student records in one climate-controlled and secure area, but the Archives’ storage space as of 2009 proved inadequate. The records were temporarily split into two groups: one housed at Bunn Library and the other in the attic of one of the student houses. After another generous donation from Dr. Stephan, the Archives’ storage space in Bunn Library was renovated, and compact shelving, a dedicated HVAC system, and multiple security measures were installed. With a suitable environment and shelf space to house all records in one place, the process of physically combining all the records could begin. Records that were subjected to the less than ideal conditions of the house attic were combined with records from the basement of the Mackenzie Administration Building damaged during Hurricane Irene and were sent offsite for cleaning and rehousing to prepare them for cohabitation with clean records already held in compact storage. The final batch of records underwent cleaning in the summer of 2013. They were returned safely in September, marking a successful end to the quest to bring all of the student records together in one accessible place.
The next step of the student records project has already begun. We have enlisted parent volunteers and students to help with entering important data such as alumni names and record/folder numbers, which currently can only be found in a card catalog, into the Archives’ digital catalog. Moving this data from analog to digital will great improve the staff’s ability to retrieve records and track records that have been pulled for use.
The student records are open for research use but restrictions apply. Student records are restricted to administrative users for 80 years following the student’s class date and with the death of the student, except by permission of the Registrar. Under FERPA, students are permitted access to their own records. If you are an alumnus and would like to see your student record, please contact the Archivist.
The Lawrenceville School Stephan Archives 