The School Journal in Renwick
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Every child educated in New Zealand will have more than a passing acquaintance with our national treasure: school journals. A creative incubator for the likes of Rita Angus, Margaret Mahy and James K. Baxter, their pages have filled young minds for more than a century.
The Alexander Turnbull Library has a complete set of School Journals dating back to 1907 and various university libraries and the Auckland Public Libraries hold issues. But a little Marlborough library has one of the most comprehensive public collections dating from 1907 to the 1980s.
In 1930, a teacher, Herbert Watson, built a small library next to his Renwick home. The book collection, which included school journals dating back to 1907, was later rescued, with another teacher, Marjorie Pattie, cataloguing and adding to it. This significant collection is now housed in the small volunteer-run Renwick Museum and Watson Memorial Library, near Blenheim.
Climate control comes by way of interior block walls - chilly in the winter, but a welcome refuge in summer. It's easy to get lost in a time warp in the windowless room, as the musty smell of old paper escapes from boxes of slim, black and white journals which contain stories of nationhood and ‘home' (England). Books such as The Home Educator (1896), The Complete Grazier and cloth-bound volumes of childhood favourites also line the shelves of the tiny library.
You can dip into nostalgia at an exhibition of School Journals at the Renwick Library and Watson Museum. 1 And at your fingertips, the National Library has an online exhibition celebrating 100 years of school journals at http://www.natlib.govt.nz/collections/online-exhibitions/school-journal
Written by Joy Stephens and published in North & South, 2012
Edited February 2021
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- For information see https://www.renwickmuseum.nz/about-1/ To examine the historic collection by appointment, contact Gwenda Hodson, phone 03 5784927. [The Renwick Museum & Watson Memorial Library is located next to the Postshop on High Street and is open daily from 9am - 5pm. Staff are on hand Mondays from 10am - 4pm or by arrangement. Admission is by donation.]
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Further sources - The School Journal in Renwick
Books
- Davis, A. et al (1991) Old Renwicktown : the Olga Watson Memorial Library and the Renwick Museum. Friends of the Renwick Museum,p 5.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/154561889 - O'Brien, G. (2007) A nest of singing birds: one hundred years of the New Zealand School Journal. Wellington, N.Z. : Learning Media
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/174070966
Articles
- Adams, L. (1993) Renwicktown. Journal of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies, 2(5)
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-NHSJ05_05-t1-body1-d10.html
Web Resources
- 100 years of the School Journal. National Library catalogue record:retrieved 17/2/2021
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/21366309?search%5Bpath%5D=items&search%5Btext%5D=100+years+of+school+journals - McKinnon, M. (2011) Marlborough places - Upper Wairau. In Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/marlborough-places/8 - Renwick. Retrieved from Marborough online, 8/9/2011:
http://www.marlboroughonline.co.nz/index.mvc?ArticleID=246 - Renwick Museum & Watson Memorial Library. Retrieved 17/2/2021:
https://www.renwickmuseum.nz/about-1/ - School Journals. Retrieved 17 February 2021
https://gazette.education.govt.nz/articles/1H9ctB-a-grand-tradition-continues/l
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Comments
Is it possible please to locate and photocopy and send to me a school journal play called “White Men Aren’t for Eating”. It was written by me under the name D R Campbell and published in a Part 3 School Journal about 50 years ago...Ed. we have sent this request to the Museum
Posted by Don Campbell, ()
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