The Literary Life of BFS, Part Two

Delighted to follow up last week's post about the BFS Literary Magazine Collection by adding the years 1961 to 1974. Literary magazines of this period evidence an enormous change in BFS history: the late 1960s to early 1970s, when BFS shifted from a traditional college preparatory model to an incredibly progressive school. While many things led to this institutional shift at BFS, a few of the most pertinent were direction from the New York Monthly Meeting Schools Committee, Middle States Association's accreditations of BFS and general interest in cutting-edge progressive education.

This collection also contains a lesser-known student publication. Surviving in the BFS Archives are four editions of the 1974 BFS Upper School underground publication Friends Anonymous and its successor Friends Uncensored in which contributors revealed their identities. The Life (newspaper) was being published in 1974 and some might say it had a counter-culture feel, but Friends Anonymous/Uncensored took things to a very different level. Print has faded in sections, but issues remain readable overall. One Lower School Junior Level Magazine from 1973-1974 also survives in the Literary Magazine Collection in the BFS Archives.

BFS literary magazines have gone through many titles since at least 1971. Today our literary magazines are annual publications which include Wordflirt for the Upper School, Scribe for the Middle School, and Write Now for the Lower School and Preschool. Hopefully looking forward to publishing the rest of the BFS literary magazine collection next year. 

Please remember that the BFS Archives are incomplete: if you have copies of any BFS publications or class photos, please share them with the school here or by directly contacting me, Susan Price '86, BFS historian. 

The Literary Life of BFS, Part One (1926-1960)

All good things are worth waiting for, and our literary magazines are no exception. At this time, the surviving BFS literary magazines from 1926 to 1960 are available in the Literary Magazine Collection of the BFS Digital Archives, along with the 2003 edition of Wordflirt, the present Upper School literary magazine. 1961 to 1974 literary magazines will be added next week, but still later BFS literary magazines will become available as they are digitized. Quite a few BFS alumni have gone on to notable careers in the arts and publishing, worlds they often first entered at BFS, as shown in many BFS alumni profiles.

The literary magazines in this earliest part of the collection are titled Friends School Life. Originally published from 1919 to 1931, Friends School Life contained school news and literary submissions and was published quarterly in magazine format, with the final edition for Commencement (the BFS yearbook of the time). In October, 1931, Friends School Life became a traditional newspaper titled The Life, published 10 times per year and included occasional literary submissions. There was no dedicated literary magazine until the Fall of 1935 when student interest resulted in the biannual literary publication also titled The Life, a magazine similar to the earlier one, yet devoted to entirely to literary endeavors, and it replaced two editions of its newspaper sibling. 

A lesser known student publication, Junior Life, is also part of our literary magazine collection. Only the second edition of the Junior Life, from May, 1930 is known to survive: published biannually from 1930 to at least 1942, Junior Life gives insight into Lower School curriculum and activities of the time and was published by our our oldest Lower Schoolers, the 6th grade (the BFS Middle School was born with the 1968-1969 school year). The Class of 1936, as 6th graders, saw the possibility of a publication for the younger students of BFS and made it happen and they are the very same class that wanted and published our first true literary magazine as mentioned above, The Life in 1935 - only the second edition from its first year of publication survives.

Please remember that the BFS Archives are incomplete: if you have copies of any BFS publications or class photos, please share them with the school here or by directly contacting Susan Price '86, BFS historian. 

Compassion, a BFS and Quaker tradition

The program of our first
commencement, from 1910

BFS has always strived to be compassionate for its community, particularly for its students, both while enrolled at our school and forever after. Compassion is often found at the core of the Quaker Testimonies. One of the nicest BFS archival finds remains the "BFS chapter" from the personal memoir of Dorothea Gillette Murray, our first woman graduate, a member of our first graduating class of 1910. Originally written for her grandchildren, Mrs. Murray kindly gave BFS a copy of the BFS chapter of her memoir in the 1970s with permission to reprint. Mrs. Murray's words give great insight into our school's tradition of academic excellence and also to the tradition of compassionate caring BFS has striven to give its students since 1867.

Mrs. Murray indicated in her memoir that her family consisted of only her and her mother, a working woman - an unusual family for BFS at that time. It seems there was deep compassion for this family from our school and New York Monthly Meeting. Mrs. Murray attended BFS with some financial aid, but her memoir shows it seems to have been more of a work-study program in her final student years. Financial aid for a non-Quaker like Mrs. Murray was unusual at the time: for many years, the children of members of New York Monthly Meeting were educated free-of-charge at Brooklyn Friends School and Friends Seminary, a practice made possible by the interest from certain monies of New York Monthly Meeting that were used to fund their unpaid tuition. Mrs. Murray indicated further, "[Principal] Mr. Rawson got me a partial scholarship to Swarthmore College and later in my freshman year got hold of the rest of the tuition money for that same year." Not only did Mrs. Murray graduate Swarthmore, but she received her Masters from Columbia. A public school educator, Mrs. Murray was also an active retiree who sought to help her community by giving back to BFS, by working for peace, and by teaching English as a Second Language from 1960 to at least 1975, when, at 83 years old, she decided to share a chapter of her memoir with BFS.

A little over a year ago, while researching in Proceedings of New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends for 1910, Mrs. Murray's experience at BFS sprang to mind since she entered BFS in 1899, plus there was only one other non-Quaker in her 1910 graduating class of five and he seems to have gone to Harvard. From the Education Committee's Report to NYYM, delivered by the Schools Board Chairman, Will Walter Jackson in May, 1910: "The case has arisen of a pupil who has been in one of our schools for eleven years and is now ready for Swarthmore, but who is not a member of this society. The committee asks, if there should be an unexpended balance this year, the Meeting would be willing for a portion of it to be used in this or similar cases." It seems more than probably that this request was for Mrs. Murray and that it was granted

Such a request by the Schools Board Chair may have more typically occurred for Quaker children attending Quaker colleges. Additionally, many of those institutions regularly received financial contributions from Friends Meetings and were helped by broad solicitations by many Friends Meetings to their members, work which helped build those college's endowments. Dorothea Gillette Murray, BFS Class of 1910, seems to show our school's earliest known effort in assisting a non-Quaker student in need. She may have been grateful to BFS, but our school is probably even more grateful to her.

Facing Truth in BFS History

1928-1936 BFS Lower School Scrapbook,
news clipping of the first May Day, 1928
"Emulating the May Day Celebration of the Early Settlers..."

Sometimes history reveals a past that is not always what we want it to be, even at BFS. A few months back, I wrote about our school's path to enrolling students of color, particularly to enrolling African American students. Honesty in researching, interpreting and presenting history frees us from the fallacy of unintentional reinvention while it gives us greater understanding of ourselves. My historical work at BFS often reminds me of the West African Akan word "Sankofa" which means, "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today." I first came to know and appreciate the concept behind Sankofa when I worked as a historical researcher for the African Burial Ground Office of Public Information and Interpretation many years ago.

1947-48, the year BFS was nearly lost, Part II

Celebrating our school having been saved,
The Friends School Life, February 16, 1948

This week, I'm following up on last week's post concerning the discovery of the 1947-1948 Fight to Save BFS Scrapbook which allowed us to finally remember an incredibly important moment in our school's history. I'd like to share a few items since historical events are deeply nuanced and people's actions even more so.

1947-48, the year BFS was nearly lost, Part I

A jaw-dropping BFS moment of my last ten years working at my alma mater occurred in 2006, during preparations to renovate the MS/US Library on the 3rd floor of 375 Pearl Street. I came to work one day to find a large and worn scrapbook on my desk chair, accompanied by a tiny note from MS/US librarian Angela Ungaro which read, "You are going to love me." She was right.

From the kitchens of BFS

Teachers' Treats Cookbook, published 1984-85

Some of us will remember the BFS cookbooks produced by members of our community, most often our teachers and parents of the PAT.

All About Norregaard

BFS celebrated Martin Norregaard's 50 years with BFS with much fanfare at Reunion 2011. To jog your memories, Martin taught Middle School English and Social Studies from 1961 to 1991, then retired although he taught part-time for the next two years. After 1993, he remained in close contact with BFS and soon became a Trustee. Mr. N. is doing just fine as I write these words and collect Norregaardiana for the school's digital archives. Please feel free to suggest words that might be better than "Norregaardiana."

Lovely Surprises

I typically hate surprises, but some are always appreciated: there is nothing quite like finding a BFS historic treasure in either a traditional or electronic mailbox. Every once in a while, kind people find BFS-related items among their personal collections and choose to share them with BFS, thinking (correctly) that BFS might wish to have them or that I, Susan Price '86, am so interested in BFS history that I'll definitely want them (people have come to know me pretty well).