By Shanee Frazier, Staff Writer
MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE — South Orange and Maplewood residents will soon be able to take a stroll down memory lane simply by walking down the halls of Columbia High School, courtesy of an ongoing “digital humanities” project that includes the archival of thousands of historical artifacts.
The project is a collaboration between the Achieve Foundation and the South Orange-Maplewood School District in an effort to preserve the priceless pieces of local history that have either been stored in the high school over the years or donated through the generosity of the community.
The project began in the early 2000s when Carol Petrallia, a Maplewood resident and now retired SOMA teacher, was an adviser to the CHS Student Council and was assisting students with putting together their yearly list of names of candidates for the high school’s Hall of Fame.
Petrallia said that it was during this time that they discovered a small room in the high school that held countless historical photos of CHS students dating back several decades.
“When I saw all of these photos and other pieces, I knew it needed to be organized,” Petrallia told the News-Record.
A friend who was the high school librarian at the time enlisted Petrallia’s help to organize the materials, and the project was born.
Petrallia quickly realized that she needed some background knowledge to properly execute an undertaking of this magnitude, so she attended local seminars on the proper preservation of historical pieces.
“I went to a seminar in Morristown hosted by the Morris County Historical Society,” Petrallia said. “They gave advice on everything from what needed to be in an open sleeve for air and what pieces were okay to temporarily store in plastic cartons.”
Over the years, Petrallia was able to enlist the help of three other retired school district employees who were willing to help her sort through the many documents, yearbooks, pamphlets and other paraphernalia that make up the history of Columbia High School.
Former Latin teacher Roseann Sharo, former teacher’s aide Mary Bissinger and former librarian Carol Collins, all of the SOMSD, pitched in to further Petrallia’s cause of properly archiving the pieces found.
The Achieve Foundation and the SOMSD’s Terry Woolard have also been key players in ensuring that this project receives the attention and funding necessary to see it come to fruition.
In an interview with the News-Record, executive director of the Achieve Foundation Deborah Prinz spoke fervently about the need to preserve the historical pieces for posterity and how the foundation would like to be involved in making that happen.
“The mission of our organization is to raise funds for projects that the school district would like to pursue, but doesn’t necessarily have the resources to complete,” Prinz said. “We come in and channel our efforts to see how we can raise extra money for them.”
Prinz said that the official kickoff for the Achieve Foundation’s involvement was April 9, at the celebration of the newly renovated auditorium in the high school, a project for which the organization helped raise approximately $450,000.
“We wanted to continue our involvement with the school district’s goal of offering more resources in the STEM fields of science, technology and mathematics, and we knew that this archival project would be a good fit,” Prinz said.
The many artifacts that Petrallia and her fellow volunteers have worked to organize and store have now reached a point where they need to be digitally preserved in order for posterity to enjoy them, and this is where the Achieve Foundation and the school district will play an active role in making this a reality.
“This project is the perfect example of how technology can be used to study history,” Prinz said. “These pieces need to be digitized and properly archived so that they will be available to others.”
Achieve will assist in this endeavor by raising funds for the computer, high-resolution scanners and special software that will be needed to properly record the treasures found, some of which date back to the turn of the century.
Woolard, supervisor of educational media and technology for the school district, is also enthusiastic about what preserving these pieces of history will mean for the students and for the community as a whole.
Once Woolard became involved with the project, he reached out to the archival departments at both the State Department of New Jersey and Rutgers University.
“They came in and showed us what was junk and what we should keep,” Woolard said. “They also showed us how to properly preserve the items that we did keep.”
Woolard said that he wants to show the students their school’s history and how that history reflected past global events.
“The artifacts that we’ve uncovered are invaluable primary sources for the classroom,” Woolard said. “Social science classes can read newspaper articles to see how stories were covered, business students can look at old advertisements and see how products were promoted to the public, and the possibilities are endless.”
Woolard hopes that not only the current students, but also alumni and the entire community will get involved with this endeavor to preserve history for future generations.
“We want the entire community to be involved so that they can see the rich history of South Orange and Maplewood,” Woolard said.
Anyone wishing to learn more about the efforts of this project can contact the Achieve Foundation at 973-378-2055 or visit their website at www.achievefoundation.org.