Booth Library Exhibit On

School Days In Newtown

By Jan Howard

A new exhibit at the C.H. Booth Library recognizes National Education Month through a display of Newtown education memorabilia and work by students.

Collections Curator Caroline Stokes, a former teacher, has brought together items from the library’s collection and representative work of today’s Newtown students to reflect the history of education in Newtown, from the time of one-room schoolhouses to today.

The centerpiece of the exhibit, located near the circulation desk on the second floor, is a costume worn by drum majorettes of the Newtown High marching band when the school was known as the Newtown Indians.

The costume is one of three made by Gert Ballard 30 years ago for her daughter, Laura, Judy Goodwin, and Lee Roberts, drum majorettes with the band. Among the display items is a photograph of Linda Walker, a former drum majorette, wearing one of the costumes.

Mrs Ballard also created copies of the costume for dolls that she presented to the majorettes as gifts.

The exhibit is the first mounted in recognition of Education Month, Mrs Stokes said, although, she noted, “There have been exhibits by students from different schools” in the past.

Mrs Stokes spent about two weeks gathering items for the display from the library’s large collection of photographs, yearbooks, newspaper stories, and other school memorabilia.

 “The library is rich in its collections,” she said.

Display cases located near the circulation desk hold penmanship books used in Newtown’s early one-room schoolhouses, an inkwell and pens, an autograph book of Arthur Treat Nettleton (later an advisor to the town’s benefactress, Mary E. Hawley), and early songbooks. Some of the books belonged to members of the Hawley family, Mrs Stokes said.

 The exhibit also features many yearbooks, some opened to pages featuring students and teachers who still live in Newtown.

The only item not from the library collection is a school bell loaned by Aloise (Heller) Mulvihill, who used the bell when she taught at Huntingtown School for four years, beginning in 1945.

There are also photographs of some of the early schoolhouses. The exhibit also includes a photograph of Castle Ronald on Castle Hill Road, which Mrs Stokes said was rented by the Newtown Academy after there was a fire at its school building. Photographs of the town’s current schools are also on exhibit.

One of the display cases, labeled “Some Newtown High School Grads Making a Difference in Newtown,” features photographs of Herbert Rosenthal, Carol Mahoney, Connie Roberts, Charles Newman, and Deborah Richardson, among others.

A display in the front entryway features some yearbooks opened randomly, including the earliest copy of The Bugle in 1914, honoring administrators, teachers, and students through the years.

The exhibit also highlights former Newtown teachers and students who have written books, such as teacher Jessica Davidson, and former students Lisa Phillips, J.W. Swanberg, George Geckle, Larry Newquist, Jr, and Jeffrey S. Poulin.

 Mrs Stokes requested and received work representative of current students at each of the town’s public schools. These papers and art works are arranged in and near the display case on the first floor near the children’s library.

“Each school sent representative pieces of original work,” Mrs Stokes said. “There are some interesting things.”

The oldest item in the exhibit is an account book for one of the original one-room schoolhouses.

“In one-room school days, each district owned its own building,” Mrs Stoke explained. “Accounts were kept for parents who sent their children to the school. They paid for their children per week.”

Mrs Stokes noted that each school district was responsible for its own school. “Somebody had to build the school, employ the teacher, and buy the books,” she said.

The teacher generally lived in the home of a family of one of his or her students.

There was no uniformity in what was taught, Mrs Stokes said. Each teacher developed his or her own curriculum.

In the late 1800s, the one-room schools came under town supervision and the first superintendent was appointed to oversee them, she said. The superintendent was also responsible for schools in other towns.

 “He made a yearly visit to each school in each town,” Mrs Stokes said.

The exhibit featuring education in Newtown will be on display throughout November.