News

School sharing history from early years

Leather-bound volumes to be restored, included in exhibit at local museum

Published: November 8, 2008   

By Malea Hargett
Editor

Arkansas Catholic file / Malea Hargett

In January, principal Carol Ann Beeman displays artwork done during final exams at the Colored Industrial Institute in 1895-1896.

Arkansas Catholic file / Malea Hargett

In January, principal Carol Ann Beeman displays artwork done during final exams at the Colored Industrial Institute in 1895-1896.

St. Peter School in Pine Bluff received a $4,500 grant from the Pine Bluff Community Foundation to restore six leather-bound volumes of artwork, maps and final exams from students at the former Colored Industrial Institute.

The books date from the 1890s and include the work completed by some of the first high school students at the school. The school for black students was operated by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Ky., and later became St. Peter School.

Principal Carol Ann Beeman said that after the volumes are restored, they will be digitally photographed and a traveling exhibit will be created to tour Arkansas next year during the 120th anniversary celebration of the school's founding.

The volumes to be restored are titled "Free-Hand Drawing, Vol. VII" from 1893-1894; "Maps and Drawings Vol. XXI" from 1895-1896; "Spelling, Definitions, English Grammar, English Composition Vol. XVII" from 1895-1896; "United States History, Popular Science, Grammar Vol. II" from 1892-1893; "Hygiene, Physiology, Popular Science, Natural Philosophy, Botany, Rhetoric, Literature Vol. XVIII" from 1895-1896; and "Algebra, Modern History, Arkansas History, U.S. History, Physics, Physiology, Popular Science, Geography."

The latter includes the following inscription: "This volume was a part of the Exhibit of the Colored Industrial Institute, in the Arkansas Booth, Educational Building, Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, MO., May to November, 1904."

Beeman said some of the volumes were also exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair in the 1893.

Beeman said she discovered the books on a shelf in an old office used by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, in August 2007. These sisters served the school from 1984-2003.

A paper conservator, Bob Devan of Little Rock, will restore the volumes, conserving the paper and then make digital photos of the pages to use in the exhibition. Beeman said Devan trained at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., as a paper conservator and was the museum/archival conservator at the Arkansas History Commission from 1976 to 2006.

Devan determined from the markings he found on the books that there must have been at least 21 volumes in the collection, Beeman said. But she only found the six being restored.

The preserved volumes will be kept under glass to minimize any further deterioration. The photos will be mounted for a traveling exhibit about the history of St. Peter School, then and now.

The school will begin its 120th anniversary celebration on Sept. 9, 2009. There will also be an exhibit at the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Historical Museum during the year. St. Peter students will help build the exhibit, which will contain photos and memorabilia from the past.