A fascinating look at the history of the region's schools is now available at the College of New Caledonia (CNC) library.
A three-volume collection of news articles detailing local public school education from 1910 to 1946 now has a home at CNC thanks to the hard work of the Prince George Retired Teacher’s Association Educational Heritage Committee.
The Archival Newspaper Educational Articles Project started back in the 1990s when volunteers began searching newspapers and microfilm records and back issue collections to compile a picture of what school and education in this region looked like in the past.
They combined the pages of early newspapers like The Fort George Herald, The Leader, The Prince George Herald, The Prince George Post, The Prince George Star and the Prince George Citizen for stories related to education, educators and educational facilities in the region now known as School District 57 (SD57).
“It’s just a neat picture of not only Prince George but all the way to the Alberta border where some of the first schools in the 1910s were in tents and in boxcars.”
She says the project was intended to be a “one-stop-shop” for anyone doing a research project to make it easy to flip through the volumes and find articles.
The committee believes the concentration of information the project provides makes it an essential starting point for anyone researching or writing the history of public education in the region.
“The insight into the way civic politics worked was very interesting and there are many accounts of Christmas concerts and bachelor dances and all the kind of things they used to have,” says Noukas.
All articles used in the Archival Newspaper Education Articles Project, whether sourced from microfilm or online, were retyped, printed and placed into its three volumes.
“All of these articles were retyped newspaper articles and they seemed funny to us a little bit because the language was different then, and the spelling wasn’t as good as you might think, but we kept the spelling mistakes and put (sic) after so people would know it wasn’t our spelling mistake.”
The Archival Newspaper Education Articles Project volumes will be available to the public for reference at the CNC Library.
“Education is a pillar of our community,” adds Kathy Plett, CNC Resource Centres Director in a news release. “The work the Prince George Retired Teachers’ Association Educational Heritage Committee has done paints a fascinating picture of how education in the region developed. We’re pleased to be adding these volumes to our library.”
