CALDWELL HIGH SCHOOL - YEARBOOKS

Tuesday

February 28, 2012

1:30 - 6:00 p.m.

Week 3 Day 3

 Caldwell High School Yearbooks

Previously, research of newspaper clippings revealed that Caldwell High School began in the 1970-1971 school year, in Columbus, Mississippi. The Robert S. Caldwell school had been an all-white junior high school since 1963, and changed to an integrated high school after court ordered desegregation in 1970. At this time there was currently an all-white high school in Columbus, which had been in existence since 1918, called the Stephen D. Lee High School. Articles indicated that Caldwell became the Columbus West Campus high school, with grades 11 and 12 and the Stephen D. Lee became the integrated Columbus East Campus High School, with grades 9 and 10.

A search of Caldwell High School yearbooks in the collection of the Billups-Garth Archives, in the Local History department of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, told a slightly different story than the newspaper articles.

  "Brothers are we all
—the black and white—
together."

The 1971 Excalibur yearbook began with a poem on page 4, of which the author was not given. A class poet was named on page 150, who was Cheryl Rappe. There was no indication found  verifying who wrote the following, which was on a page with a photograph of two arms reaching to touch in a peak over a church steeple in the background. The words were indicative of the circumstances of desegregation of the public schools in Columbus, Mississippi during this time.

  “Yesterday we said it wouldn’t happen.

Today it’s here.

  Brothers are we all—the black and white—together.

  We strive for the future, our future, a better future.

  Here we are, facing each other, opposing each other, working with each other.

The future…What does it hold?” (1971 Excalibur, p. 4)

The Homecoming festivities showed an all-white homecoming court, which was described as the first homecoming court for the new Caldwell High School, held on October 30. In fact, it was a double homecoming for both Caldwell and Stephen D. Lee High Schools. This year, the two schools combined football players and the “Generals” defeated the Tuscaloosa Black Bears 20 to 7. The 1970 football season had ended with a winning record of 9 and 0 (p. 25).

The examination of the remainder of the 1971 Excalibur Yearbook for the Caldwell High School specified that the mascots of the Caldwell basketball and baseball teams were the "Bobcats". The previous paragraph noted that the combined football team was called the “Generals”, which was the Stephen D. Lee High School mascot.

The 1972 Robert S. Caldwell High School yearbook (Volume II), noted that this was “Caldwell’s first Homecoming”, on October 22, 1971. The 1970 football season was featured in the 1971 Caldwell yearbook and the 1971 football season was in the 1972 yearbook. Although Caldwell’s first “combined” homecoming was in 1970, the next year was also considered a first homecoming, because it was not combined with Lee High School.

Eugene Bailey is on the left

Each consecutive yearbook was looked at for additional clues about Caldwell High School. The 1976 Excalibur featured an outdoor brick sign, with the name of R.S. Caldwell Senior High. Yearbooks continued to feature high school teams for football, basketball, baseball, etc. The 1977 Volume VII of Excalibur was dedicated to Mr. Eugene Bailey (p.3), who was described as a counselor, National Honor Society sponsor, and the Annual and Newspaper Staff photographer. Since the slides that are being accessioned into the Archives, are dated from 1975 – 1981, it is possible that Mr. Bailey could be the photographer responsible for the slides. Another probability is that some of the students on the slides could be from the Honor Society. So far, there has not been a connection made between the people in the slides and those in the yearbooks, but all of the slides have not been processed at this point.

1978 Excalibur yearbook
inside front and back cover

The 1978 Caldwell yearbook indicated that the name Excalibur described the Arthurian Legend, where the sword, Excalibur, was created to serve. The yearbook was created for “preserving memories of this past year”. This text was found inside the front and back covers of the 1978 yearbook. The R.S. Caldwell Gymnasium was also noted as being erected during this same year.

The Caldwell High School newspaper staff had an unusual group photo in the 1979 yearbook. It was a “Bonnie and Clyde” styled two-page photograph, with costumes, an old car, and guns (p. 120). Each yearbook featured some unique themes of photography for the staff of the newspaper, which was known as the      Kaleidoscope.

1979 Caldwell H.S. newspaper staff

There were twenty-one years that Robert S. Caldwell High School existed. The Billups-Garth Archives have all of their yearbooks from 1971 through 1992, with the exception of four years. The missing four years of Caldwell High School yearbooks are 1984, 1985, 1990, and 1991.

The 1992 Caldwell yearbook was the last yearbook of Caldwell High School, in Columbus Mississippi. Some additional notes were: their school colors were red and white, they were referred to as “Big Red” and “Topcats”. All of the other Caldwell High School yearbooks were prominently named Excalibur, but the last one was titled, “The Final Chapter.1992”. Excalibur was featured below that.

Student Journal Reflections

Researching the Archives’ collection of Caldwell High School yearbooks was a continuation in seeking information to complete the “Historical Note” section of the inventory for the Caldwell High School Slides. Previous information from newspaper articles was contradictory and confusing. The yearbooks were an excellent source for more specific and credible information about the history of the school. The next area of research will be the yearbooks for the Stephen D. Lee High School, which should verify the findings from the Caldwell High School yearbooks.

CLPL-COLUMBUS - LOCAL HISTORY - ARCHIVES PRACTICUM

The University of Southern Mississippi

School of Library and Information Science

Student:  Donna S. Ballard

Instructor:  Dr. Teresa S. Welsh, Associate Professor

Course:  LIS 648 Archival Practicum, Spring 2012

Site Supervisor:  Mona K. Vance, Archivist                                      

Location:  Columbus-Lowndes Public Library (CLPL) 

                  Local History Archives

                  314 North Seventh Street

                  Columbus, Ms 39701     
      

  Mona K. Vance, Archivist

 CLPL-COLUMBUS - LOCAL HISTORY - ARCHIVES PRACTICUM

Day 1

Saturday, February 18, 2012

10:00 a.m. –  4:00 p.m.

CONTROL FILES

The Folder is named by year, consecutive number of item, and a descriptive title which represents the vast majority of the collection. The order of accession is determined by situation.

Example: 2008-77: Caldwell High School Slides

Insert originals only, if possible, such as Deed of Gift, Accession Record, Publicity and Copies of Letters.

Control file numbers on the file tab will change when the item is completely processed (Example: 2008-77 will become MS-401), where MS indicates Manuscripts, and the next available consecutive number. The location of the Control File will change from Accessions to Processed.

Control File in Accessions

2008-77: Caldwell High School Slides, 1975-1981

Control File in Processed

	MS-451       Caldwell High School Slides, 1975-1981

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PROCESSING

Processing procedures were discussed and demonstrated in a Control File, such as: Deed of Gift, Accession Record, De-accession, Arrangement, Description, Estimated Processing Time, and a Descriptive Summary for Finding Aids.

The machine for encapsulation used by the CLPL Archives was invented by Bill Minter, a book conservator from Pennsylvania. CLPL-Columbus is the only site in Mississippi with the system. An ultrasonic generator and motor control seals polyester (mylar), instead of using archival tape. Tape will eventually lose its hold and allow air into the item and cause brittle, torn pieces to shift into the tape. POLYESTER ENCAPSULATION SYSTEM

The Minter Encapsulation System in the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library-Local History Archives is shown in the photo on the left. 

At the top-center of the photograph on the right, a piece of paper has moved into the area that was encapsulated with archival tape. This would not have occurred in a properly-sealed document with a Minter weld around the edges. The Minter method would also prevent moisture from entering.

Minter encapsulation is used for items that are deteriorating, that you do not want people to touch, and when other archival storage is not practical.

EXAMPLES OF UNUSUAL ITEMS WITHIN THE COLLECITON

Two unusual items (See photos below)  were seen that did not fit within the regular scope of the mission of the CLPL-Columbus Local History Archives, which is to collect local history of Lowndes County, Mississippi. 


One item was an 1892 map of Cuba and the West Indies on one side and a world map, on the other. The second item was an August 4, 1887 copy of the National Tribune, a Washington D.C. newspaper.

PROCESSING SLIDES OF CALDWELL HIGH SCHOOL

Two carousel trays filled with a total of 147 slides from Caldwell High School were donated to the Local History archives of the CLPL. Processing was begun by starting at slide one, then removing and inserting each slide into archival slide notebook sleeves. 


The original order of the slides was kept. An archival pen marker was used to consecutively number each sleeve insert at the bottom-left corner. The carousel slide trays were in small carousel boxes, which were then stored in an archival box, with the following label, placed on the upper-left side of the box:

147 Slides 1975-1981 Billups-Garth Archives 2008-77 Caldwell High School Slides, 1975-1981 Box 1 of 1

The archival box will be reused for something else. The carousel trays and individual boxes will be discarded. Information from research found about Caldwell High School will be applied to building the finding aid. An initial look at the slides had revealed dates from 1975-1981, of Caldwell High School, which included slide photos of sports, band, color guard, flag corps and a helicopter. The slides will be looked at in more detail after researching Caldwell High School.  

The Archives is fortunate to have a large vault area (See photo above) that is temperature-controlled. The Vertical Files, Minter System, Yearbooks, Shelving, etc. is located there.There are some yearbooks from Caldwell High School in the archives, which will be looked at another day. There was a file on Caldwell High School in the archives’ Vertical Files. This was found through an index on the CLPL Local History website. The file contained newspaper clippings about Caldwell High School. Notes from the file are below:

            Morgan, K. (1996, August 18). Columbus schools enter a new era. Columbus Dispatch, pp. 1A, 5A.

The U.S. Justice Department had filed suit against the city of Columbus, MS, in 1968, for the purpose of desegregation.  The city fought this for two years and lost in the 5^th District Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Afterward, they were given one year to get ready to integrate the school system.

“In 1971, Lee High and Caldwell were made the city’s high schools. Caldwell had served as a junior high school since its construction in 1963. ‘After the ruling, Hunt High School became a middle school and Caldwell a high school, because of its location and larger facilities, enabling it to become a high school and accommodate the high school students’, said Shields Sims who served as school board attorney from 1969-1989.”

            Morgan, K. and Imes, B. (1992, July 03). 2 campuses taking on CHS images. Columbus   Dispatch.

Previous history of the schools indicated that blacks and whites had separate and distinct schools.  In the 1970 integration changes, Stephen D. Lee High School became the West Campus of Columbus High School (grades 9-10) and Robert Stewart Caldwell Junior School became the East Campus of Columbus High School (grades 11-12).

Caldwell had opened in 1963 as an all-white junior high school for Columbus MS. Caldwell became an integrated high school in 1970, as a result of desegregation.

S.D. Lee High School began in 1918 on Seventh Street and Third Avenue North (at the present CLPL site) and was moved after a fire, to Military Road, in 1953. It was an all-white high school until 1970, due to desegregation, and became S.D. Lee High School, West Campus (grades 9-10).

The schools took measures to become more unified, leading to new mascots and school colors. The Caldwell, East Campus mascot of the Bobcat, was painted over in 1992. The General, (which looked like the former controversial Ole Miss Rebel mascot) was the S.D. Lee, West Campus mascot, with school colors of maroon and white. The decision was made for both campuses of the Columbus high schools to be changed to the Falcons as a mascot, with the school colors becoming purple and gold.

On July 1, 1996, S.D. Lee, East Campus and R.S. Caldwell, West Campus, combined into one new building, as Columbus High School, housing grades 9-12.

Student Journal Reflections

As a librarian who is near the completion of a graduate certificate in Archives and Special Collections, I was familiar with much of the terminology discussed on the first day of the Practicum. The Minter machine was not something I had learned about before, although I have been taught the encapsulating method of using archival tape to seal polyester film.

The specific methods involved in creating and maintaining a Control File were very helpful and something I will implement in building an EMCC Libraries Archives, Digital and Special Collection at my current place of employment. In addition, Ms. Vance has given me a Processing Manual she has developed from her experience, which will be valuable in standardizing East Mississippi Community College Libraries (EMCC) archival records.

During the initial accession and processing of the Caldwell High School Slides, I have seen why previous course studies indicated the importance of provenance and original order, as well as the importance of forms for Deed of Gift, Accessions, and De-Accessions.