Background to the Herschel Heritage Centre Collection and Digital Archive

Over 50 years ago in the build up to Herschel's Golden Jubilee in 1972, Marian Robertson (Spilhaus), an Old Herschelian, was asked by the then headmistress Dr Barbara Silberbauer to write the script for the pageant The Stars Looked Down, the focal point of the celebrations. While undertaking the research she discovered that there was very little material available other than the diaries of the first headmistress, Miss Ralph, minutes of Council meetings, copies of the Herschelian, and two scrapbooks. There were also photographs but few of these had been dated and the people in them were not identified. In spite of an extensive search of the school and reassurances by two retired headmistresses, Miss McLean and Mrs Kittow, that more archival material did exist, it was nowhere to be found. It was not until six months after the pageant that the missing material was found on the top of the stationery cupboard!

In order to prevent similar problems when planning for future anniversaries it was decided at the 1972 annual general meeting of the Old Herschelians Association that a school archives should be established so that all the material could be kept in one place and be curated. Since then the collection has been cared for by teachers Elizabeth Stockwell, June Kurtz and Annamieke Golding. In 2019, thanks to the foresight of the Old Herschelians' Association (now the Herschel Alumni Union), chaired by Kristina Miller, the archives are housed in a multi-purpose room containing both the office of the association and the archives. The archive was then renamed the Herschel Heritage Centre.

Why it is important preserve the documents and photographs housed in the Herschel Heritage Centre? These primary sources were produced as a result of the activities that took place over the lifetime of the school. Examples, such as Elizabeth Appleyard's letters to her parents and Norma Bettison's diary, are fascinating because they were created by girls who lived in and were a part of the history of the school. They are personal and real accounts which provide insight into the values and attitudes of the past, thereby bringing the history of Herschel to life and giving it a human face.

The collections concern the history of Herschel, and the many achievements of its past pupils and staff. The long-term goal is to become a living archive in line with international archive and museum practice, which is to make collections accessible, to those who are interested in or wish to research the history of Herschel. The digital archive contains a selection of this material and will be added to in the future as more information becomes available.