Hawken School Photo Archives

Welcome to the Hawken School Photo Archives!
Here are some introductory notes to get you started.

1. The collection is organized around loose groups, including trustees, administration, faculty, staff, campus [buildings and grounds], theater, music, sports [organized individually], technology, transport, and students. There are sub-categories such as grounds crew, cook, guitar, flora, fauna, garden, tree, creek, sign, science, lab, winter, snow and a hundred others.

2. Should you be looking for a teacher whose name you cannot remember you can try to find him or her by typing in the discipline, or the word ‘teacher’ and year. For example: teacher 197273, or science 196768, or chem 199394.

3. If you’re looking for every image for a single year then type in the year thus: 195556. If you want to refine your search for a sport or activity then: theater 199899, golf 200203, and so on.

4. If you’re looking for a person it is best to type in the last name only since the first name may be a nickname, or contracted, or missing. The images fall into place chronologically, and you may wish to do this: Snavely 199394. Know, however, that certain surnames given to buildings (Bolton, Ireland, Holtrey, Smith, Walton, and White, for example) make a search troublesome. If you’re looking for an individual White, say, type in the first name, and/or the year(s) you know the White was at Hawken, for example, Walter White 192223. The same caution applies to names that are also occupations such as Cook/cook. If you want kitchen staff then type in: kitchen cook.

5. A number of photos cannot be dated to the year, and this is particularly true of early years. Be aware, therefore, that you may find material under these specific clumps of dates: 191527, 192740, 194050, 195060, and 194060. There may be nothing for a year 194344 that comes up, but material from 1943-44 may well be in 194050 or 194060.

To be useful this archival collection must rely upon the memory and involvement of the community, past and present. You will notice that every image has over on the left a box containing a blue number (ignore it), a catalog number; H1994951765, and an envelope. If you find an error, or can make an identification, hit the envelope, fill in the information, and e-mail it.

When I don’t know a name I usually put in a question mark. If you are interested in helping fill in the gaps type in a year and the question mark into the search engine. For example: 197273 ? This will bring up all the images where identifications are needed. Since the staffs of Onyx have often been casual in making identifications, the searcher anxious to help me will speedily discover just how much work there is to be done.

Thanks in advance for your help, and enjoy the collection!

JT