School Memorabilia
01.20.08 By Derek DahlsadThough most people would prefer to forget certain chunks of it, until you’re in your thirties education remains a prominent part of a person’s memory. Few people can remember pre-school events, which leaves everything until 18 — or early twenties, depending on how much college is done — dominated by thoughts of textbooks, friendships, schedules, and never-ending notetaking.
Collecting artifacts of school-years’ past is largely ephemeral, but could be as simple as stopping by your alma mater and dropping $10 for a t-shirt with the school’s mascot on it. Sports have long been a large connection between community and school, with specific events worth remembering. Booster clubs have long sold buttons, caps, shirts, and other school-related items as a way of raising money for uniforms or trips. Huge events, like winning a state or national title or
some other record, comes with newspaper articles or other commemorative trinkets. Then, there’s the items belonging to the students, such as medals won, uniforms, and letters earned. Sports, however, aren’t the only event-related extracurriculars: plays, band concerts, forensics, and chess club all had competitions and performances, complete with posters, announcements, awards, and programs of their own.
If you weren’t the extracurricular type, there’s always grades. Report cards came out several times a year, resulting in a lot of paper that most parents saved and thus preserved. Old reports cards are relatively common, but looking for a particular year or school can take some time. Besides report cards, lots of ephemera — hall passes, teacher notes, lunch cards — are all collectible, and turn up from time to time in the bottom of a drawer or found being used as a bookmark.
Those interested in the history of a school can find loads of information in old school newspapers. Most upper-grade schools, and even some gradeschools, 
publish a newspaper on a regular basis. College newspapers are present on nearly every campus of higher learning, and all focus at least somewhat on school news and items of interest to the students. The grandaddy of school publishing is, of course, the school annual. Most schools — all the way down to Kindergarten these days — put out a bound book of students’ photos, names, and years. In the past, it was usually restricted to high school students, and sometimes in higher learning when the school was smaller or more specialized. These, like newspapers, can be a good source of historical information gleaned from the activities and event pages of the yearbook. When shopping for yearbooks, you do have a bit of competition, though: genealogists are looking for yearbooks for their own purposes of tracking family lineage, so prices are sometimes high.
Whether you’re reliving your glory days, or trying to connect with your grandfather’s youth, school is a good place to start. For more than a century, school has been a part of everyone’s life, and collecting parts of your own past is a rewarding way to hold on to memories of days gone by.
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Article Tags: artifacts, report cards, school================
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November 26th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Not a reply. I have a question. I just need to figure out what to save and what to toss. I am sorting boxes of cards, etc, from my great-grandmother forward. “1893″ Christmas, birthdays, fancy and plain. Lots from the 30’s and 40″s. I am not a collector. I only want to not destroy the treasures of the past in my effort to unclutter. I have found info on how to collect, not what is not collectable. Help would be appreciated.