An important part of my project is scanning. I need to scan the images and documents from my collection into the computer for a couple different reason. First, I took the photos on display off the walls and scanned them in order to print a copy to hang back up, and to keep the original safe in folders and archival boxes. After that was complete, and I had my entire collection all in one place, I began to scan the rest of my collection. This is a process that I'm still working on.
Unfortunately, the scanner in the Collections Room at the Public History Center has been giving us a lot of problems. It's really temperamental, and for a few weeks I had to go back and forth between the library and the collections room to scan photos. Fortunately, UCF's tech support guy has been helping us with the scanner, and for the past two weeks it has been cooperating.
Now, I can get my work done. The reason why I am scanning my entire collection into the computer is so the PHC has the archival items stored digitally as well as physically. Also, I will be posting each item's scan on Riches M.I. as I make contributions to the site. The digital copyrights of all the items that I scan belong to the Public History Center.
How to Scan: for each item that I scan, I set it to TIFF with 800dpi. I click Preview, and adjust the selection to only scan the document (or else it would scan the blank spaces as well, and it would take more time for me to crop each item in Photoshop). I then click scan, and make sure that the item is going into the appropriate folder with the appropriate name. Then I wait for the scanning to be complete, which takes approximately 2-3 minutes. During this time, I multitask by preparing the next item to be scanned, submitting items to Riches, or working on my blog.
This size image takes up a lot of room, so to be able to post it on Riches, I transfer the items by folder into JPEGs, through Photoshop. This format is much more space and internet friendly.
Coming into this internship, I already knew a lot about scanning and JPEGs from my high school days. During my sophomore, junior, and senior years I took Photography as a class. This also equipped me with Photoshop knowledge, which has come in handy many times during my internship.
The Salmagundis are going to take a long time to scan into the computer, because of their size. I have to scan each individual page. I have already completed scanning the 1919 Salmagundi, with the help of Professor Sample here at the PHC. She was asked by the UCF tech support guy to try to scan things into the computer, so he could diagnose the problem with the scanner. Of course, since someone was there to fix it, the scanner was working just fine, and she ended up scanning around half of the 1919 Salmagundi for me. Thanks Professor Sample! With that one done, I have 14 more to scan. Each one will take approximately a full day to scan. With the Spring semester already half over, I hope I have time to finish them. Right now, I'm getting the other parts of my project scanned, and if time permits I will scan the Salmagundis.
Until next time, Samantha
Thursday, February 27, 2014
The Salmagundis
The Sanford High School
Collection has the school yearbooks from 1910, 1912, and 1914-1926. All of
these yearbooks, with the exception of the 1918 yearbook, were named and
referred to as "Salmagundis." The word Salmagundi is an old Indian
word meaning, "a general mixture," and since the yearbooks were a
general mixture of things pertaining to the school and the student's lives, the
name stuck and the tradition began.
As the years went on, the Salmagundis became larger, as did each class. The first Salmagundi (1910) is 42 pages long, and cost only 15 cents. They are similar to yearbooks that we have in modern times. They have a senior section in the front of the yearbook, picturing each senior individually and listing their names. Next, they have a section about the juniors, sophomores, then freshman, and each class shows a picture of all the students together. They also include sports, superlatives, and writings from the students.
And then there are things that we don’t see in our yearbooks. The 1919 Salmagundi features a tribute to a student, Arthur Lossing, who died in battle in France, during World War I. It talks about a memorial service that the school held in his honor. The next page is a drawing of a flag with 24 stars (representing the classmates who are in active service or training), and a 25th gold star on the border of the flag, representing Arthur Lossing. A third page features a poem dedicated to their “gold star,” Arthur Lossing.
Another sign of the war is the entire 1918 Sanford High School yearbook. That year, the yearbook committee broke tradition and named the yearbook “Pandora,” for only one year. The historical significance of this yearbook is that it was shortened into a pamphlet, in order to save materials for the war effort. It is so interesting to see evidence of such a big, international, historical event in the yearbooks of a school in the middle of Florida.
There are things that I wish were not a part of history that can be seen in these yearbooks. There is some unfortunate evidence of racist attitudes to be found in the 1934 Salmagundi. In the Salmagundi, there is a pullout map of Sanford that was hand-drawn (most likely by a student). Toward the bottom of the map is an arrow pointing in the direction of Goldsborough, a historically black neighborhood. A comment written by the arrow reads, “Blacksborough, better known as Goldsborough, they mixed their colors up.” This may be an example of the attitude of white people toward black people during this time period. It’s a shame that this was the way of thinking for many people. I don’t understand how some communities could co-exist with ease, while others could not. 1934 was in the middle of the Great Depression, and tensions could have risen between the groups due to competition for the same jobs. It also occurred to me that Sanford High School was an all-white school. It’s not something that we think about now, since we have been desegregated for over 50 years.
It does, however, show how far we have come. Until next time,
Samantha
As the years went on, the Salmagundis became larger, as did each class. The first Salmagundi (1910) is 42 pages long, and cost only 15 cents. They are similar to yearbooks that we have in modern times. They have a senior section in the front of the yearbook, picturing each senior individually and listing their names. Next, they have a section about the juniors, sophomores, then freshman, and each class shows a picture of all the students together. They also include sports, superlatives, and writings from the students.
And then there are things that we don’t see in our yearbooks. The 1919 Salmagundi features a tribute to a student, Arthur Lossing, who died in battle in France, during World War I. It talks about a memorial service that the school held in his honor. The next page is a drawing of a flag with 24 stars (representing the classmates who are in active service or training), and a 25th gold star on the border of the flag, representing Arthur Lossing. A third page features a poem dedicated to their “gold star,” Arthur Lossing.
Another sign of the war is the entire 1918 Sanford High School yearbook. That year, the yearbook committee broke tradition and named the yearbook “Pandora,” for only one year. The historical significance of this yearbook is that it was shortened into a pamphlet, in order to save materials for the war effort. It is so interesting to see evidence of such a big, international, historical event in the yearbooks of a school in the middle of Florida.
There are things that I wish were not a part of history that can be seen in these yearbooks. There is some unfortunate evidence of racist attitudes to be found in the 1934 Salmagundi. In the Salmagundi, there is a pullout map of Sanford that was hand-drawn (most likely by a student). Toward the bottom of the map is an arrow pointing in the direction of Goldsborough, a historically black neighborhood. A comment written by the arrow reads, “Blacksborough, better known as Goldsborough, they mixed their colors up.” This may be an example of the attitude of white people toward black people during this time period. It’s a shame that this was the way of thinking for many people. I don’t understand how some communities could co-exist with ease, while others could not. 1934 was in the middle of the Great Depression, and tensions could have risen between the groups due to competition for the same jobs. It also occurred to me that Sanford High School was an all-white school. It’s not something that we think about now, since we have been desegregated for over 50 years.
It does, however, show how far we have come. Until next time,
Samantha
Friday, February 21, 2014
The Sanford High School Collection
The collection that I have been assigned to is the Sanford High School Collection. Sanford High School was built in 1902, at 301 W. 7th St., and is currently the Public History Center. The name of the first Sanford High School changed to Sanford Grammar School when the new high school was built in 1911 at 9th St. & Palmetto. This new building served as the high school until 1926 when a third high school was built and renamed Seminole High School. My project covers Sanford High School from 1902-1926.
When I began my internship, the collection was already compiled and organized in a couple boxes. This is the first part of archiving a collection. Before the internet age, putting together and organizing the collection would have been the end of the project, aside from creating a register/inventory. Now with the internet age, historians have the ability to make collections more accessible to the public. This is done through entering the collections into PastPerfect and Riches M.I. This is a time consuming task, because of the amount of detail that has to be entered for each item in the collection. I will explain more about these two programs in future entries.
First, I acquainted myself with the collection, to become familiar with what I would be working with. The collection is made up of photos, documents, and yearbooks. The photos are of the students and the two school buildings. There is a photo of the first graduating class of Sanford High School, which was in 1907. There were only four graduates that year, all ladies, Alberta Hill Howard, Peacha Leffler Wiggins, Clara Millen, and Mabel Bowler Bram. There are more photos of graduating classes from later years, and miscellaneous student pictures. The weird thing about looking at these old photos is that, at the time the photo was taken, the people in the picture had no idea what was going to occur in the twentieth century. Some of these photos were taken before the Titanic even sank. Some were taken before Women's Suffrage, World War I & II, and the Civil Rights Movement. We are able to look at the twentieth century in hindsight, but right now, we are practically in the same position that they were. It is currently 2014, and we are oblivious as to what conflicts, advances, and changes this century will bring. Food for thought...
There are many items in my collection that are on display throughout the Public History Center. It was a long process to take them down, scan them, and hang the copies back up on the walls. The process was a lot longer than it should have been due to an uncooperative scanner. There were a lot of original photos on display. I replaced these with copies, so we could keep the originals in a safe, dark and dry archival box. I was disappointed to see that many of the original photos had been "damaged" by poor knowledge on how to treat archival items. Almost every photo on display has a typed caption glued to it. Now, the caption cannot be removed without causing some damage to the photos. If you are ever dealing with important documents or treasured photographs, never tape, staple, or glue anything to them.
The Sanford High School Collection also has some student exams and homework assignments saved from the years 1905-1908. These made me realize that I need to improve my cursive reading skills. They consist of various subjects, like Latin, English, Geography, etc. The collection also has one report card.
The collection has yearbooks from 1910, 1912, and 1914-1926. These books were called Salmagundis, and they are a wealth of information about Sanford High School, and the city in general. I have a lot to get done in order to complete this collection by the end of the semester. Until next time, Samantha
When I began my internship, the collection was already compiled and organized in a couple boxes. This is the first part of archiving a collection. Before the internet age, putting together and organizing the collection would have been the end of the project, aside from creating a register/inventory. Now with the internet age, historians have the ability to make collections more accessible to the public. This is done through entering the collections into PastPerfect and Riches M.I. This is a time consuming task, because of the amount of detail that has to be entered for each item in the collection. I will explain more about these two programs in future entries.
First, I acquainted myself with the collection, to become familiar with what I would be working with. The collection is made up of photos, documents, and yearbooks. The photos are of the students and the two school buildings. There is a photo of the first graduating class of Sanford High School, which was in 1907. There were only four graduates that year, all ladies, Alberta Hill Howard, Peacha Leffler Wiggins, Clara Millen, and Mabel Bowler Bram. There are more photos of graduating classes from later years, and miscellaneous student pictures. The weird thing about looking at these old photos is that, at the time the photo was taken, the people in the picture had no idea what was going to occur in the twentieth century. Some of these photos were taken before the Titanic even sank. Some were taken before Women's Suffrage, World War I & II, and the Civil Rights Movement. We are able to look at the twentieth century in hindsight, but right now, we are practically in the same position that they were. It is currently 2014, and we are oblivious as to what conflicts, advances, and changes this century will bring. Food for thought...
There are many items in my collection that are on display throughout the Public History Center. It was a long process to take them down, scan them, and hang the copies back up on the walls. The process was a lot longer than it should have been due to an uncooperative scanner. There were a lot of original photos on display. I replaced these with copies, so we could keep the originals in a safe, dark and dry archival box. I was disappointed to see that many of the original photos had been "damaged" by poor knowledge on how to treat archival items. Almost every photo on display has a typed caption glued to it. Now, the caption cannot be removed without causing some damage to the photos. If you are ever dealing with important documents or treasured photographs, never tape, staple, or glue anything to them.
The Sanford High School Collection also has some student exams and homework assignments saved from the years 1905-1908. These made me realize that I need to improve my cursive reading skills. They consist of various subjects, like Latin, English, Geography, etc. The collection also has one report card.
The collection has yearbooks from 1910, 1912, and 1914-1926. These books were called Salmagundis, and they are a wealth of information about Sanford High School, and the city in general. I have a lot to get done in order to complete this collection by the end of the semester. Until next time, Samantha
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