Ohrstrom Blog » St. Paul’s School

In Celebration of Cricket eBook Now Available

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:00:48 +0000

A new eBook is available from the St. Paul’s School Archives eBook collection:

In Celebration of Cricket: From School Sport to Celebrated Tradition is available in ePub format for download and viewing on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices with iBooks installed. It has been designed specifically for viewing in iBooks, but can also be read with a more basic layout on any eBook reader that supports the ePub file format.

You can download this new eBook by clicking HERE.

This eBook presentation is a companion to the archives online exhibit of the same name viewable HERE. It contains photographs from the St. Paul’s School archives collection and includes descriptions and information related to the history of the game of cricket at SPS and the enduring popularity of the Cricket Holiday tradition.

Visit the Ohrstrom Library Digital Archives eBook page to see other available titles by clicking HERE.

Ave, avis obscura! – A Horae Halloween

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:00:39 +0000

In the spirit of All Hallows’ Evening, the following excerpt from the October 31, 1925 edition of the Horae Scholasticae, called The Horae Owl, is reprinted below :

Ave, avis obscura! Hail, bird of darkness! Once more, high upon the cabinet, perches an owl and looks down at us with unblinking stare. By day he gleans the pages of past and future Horae and is acquainted far in advance with the guarded secrets of each issue. And when all the editors are deep in slumber he shrugs his shoulders, stiff from holding the same position all day, and coming into life and motion flies with powerful beats through the window, to float about on noiseless wings until morning, when he returns to his perch and folds his pinions about him and settles into his pose. Then to some editor seeking inspiration he whispers the tale of mystery he gathered in the night.

But fortunate bird, never hungry, never the “mousing owl,” for under thy feathers are no vitals, but merely stuffings. It was fated that the taxidermist should leave the brain, and under its guidance may the wisest path be chosen, and under the baleful glare of thy yellow eyes may the foolish one be avoided.

The Horae Owl refers to the taxidermy owl that appeared for many years in School pictures of the Horae board. The board from the 1925 Horae, when this anonymous selection of prose was published, is shown below with their mascot. The owl is the bird of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, and serves as a symbol for the literary pursuits of the Horae as well as the general spookiness associated with Halloween.

First row: Clarence Burley Boutell ’26, John Clarkson Potter ’26, Kenneth Whittemore Pendar ’26, Grayson Mallet-Prevost Murphy ’26, Robert Gwynne Stout ’26.

Second row: Francis Augustus Drake ’25, Horae Owl, Calvin Pardee Foulke ’25.

Third row: William Wayne Neff ’25, Nelson Wright MacKie ’25, Rodney Stewart Young ’25, Winthrop Gilman Brown ’25, Howard Radclyffe Roberts Jr. ’25, Thomas David Mumford ’25, Lawrence Heyworth Mills II ’25.

New Archives Exhibit: In Celebration of Cricket

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:00:05 +0000

A new archives exhibit is in place in Ohrstrom Library and a new online exhibit is now available through the Ohrstrom Library Digital Archives. A selection of photographs are on display in the library on the upper level display cases located in the lobby. These photos from the archives collection outline the history of the sport of cricket at St. Paul’s School, and the continuing tradition of Cricket Holiday.

Last Thursday saw the announcement of the fall term’s best known and most anticipated surprise, Cricket Holiday, but it is possible that only a few students are aware of the history of the sport that brought it into being. The archives photo display, accompanied by excerpts from Arthur Stanwood Pier’s book, St. Paul’s School 1855-1934, helps to illustrate the strong tradition of cricket at St. Paul’s School.

Additionally, an online exhibit, called In Celebration of Cricket, provides further information gathered from researching the details of specific photographs using the resources in the St. Paul’s School archives. Fourteen images have been selected for the exhibit from the thirty-two photographs that have recently been digitized and added to the archives online database from the archives collection.

Next time you are in the library take a few minutes to view the physical exhibit, and click through the link below to view the online exhibit as well.

In Celebration of Cricket

Nugalia: Introduction

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:00:09 +0000

St. Paul’s School’s Horae Scholasticae is the oldest school or college literary magazines in continuous publication in the United States, the first issue having appeared on June 1, 1860. Prior to the publication of the Alumni Horae in 1921 and The Pelican in 1945, the Horae Scholasticae also served to chronicle the School’s history and news of school life, as well as publishing the early literary efforts of many noted 19th-century authors such as Francis Marion Crawford and Owen Wister.

Many of the earlier editions of the Horae Scholasticae contained a column of newsy tidbits called “Nugalia” that encapsulated the day-to-day experience of student life at St. Paul’s School. The June 1st, 1935 edition of the Horae Scholasticae – a celebration of the first 75 years of publication – included this description of the Nugalia column:

The Nugalia (Lat., “stuffs,” “triffles,” “nonsense”) is one of the aboriginal columns of the Horae. In the early issues “The Rural Record”, the School log or diary, supplied a large part of the news.

In 1872 the name of the department was changed from “School Items” to “Items,” and in 1877 it took its present title “Nugalia.” The editors of those good old times embellished the scanty School notes with doggerel, puzzles, and current jokes.

In the spirit of the early editors of the Horae Scholasticae we have created a new feature located in the sidebar of Ohrstrom Blog. Throughout the year we will be publishing small but interesting excerpts gathered from past Nugalia columns and featuring them in the sidebar. Check back weekly for a regular bit of insight into the history of student life at SPS – and the occasional dose of doggerel!

Welcome ASP: It’s Summertime!

Lisa Laughy — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:07:43 +0000

Welcome to the 54th Session of ASP!

St. Paul’s School founded the Advanced Studies Program in 1958 to provide talented New Hampshire public and parochial high school juniors with challenging educational opportunities, and use of the Ohrstrom Library is integral to this enriching experience. The staff of Ohrstrom Library welcomes ASP faculty and students and hope that you enjoy and take advantage of its collections and services this summer.

Did you know?

The ASP went co-ed in 1961 (10 years before SPS).
The ice-cream machine in the Upper is provided by the ASP.
In its early years, the ASP was primarily focused on math and science, offering such courses as: biology, calculus, chemistry and physics.
The evening door count at the library is at its highest during the ASP.
Man and Media, a pre-cursor to today’s Mass Media course, was taught by author, and former SPS and ASP faculty member, Richard Lederer.
College Counseling services were added to the ASP in 1979.
In a green effort, the school dining hall went trayless in 2006 – beginning with that year’s ASP class.
The former Rector, William R. Matthews, Jr., SPS ’61, is also a former ASP faculty member.
Despite the flood of May 2006, the ASP still ran, but without access to Hargate or Ohrstrom Library.
There are currently over 10,000 ASP alumni!

What else was going on in 1958? The American singing group, The Jamies, the doo-wop duo of Tom and Serena Jameson, released the single “Summertime, Summertime” for Epic Records, which reached #26 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

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Happy Anniversary Ohrstrom!

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:23:23 +0000

Leather bookmark created for the dedication of Ohrstrom Library

It was twenty years ago this week that Ohrstrom Library was officially dedicated and welcomed into the St. Paul’s School community. The Spring 1991 Alumni Horae article described the dedication ceremony this way:

With moments of high ceremony, with inspiring speeches, and with good fellowship Ohrstrom Library was dedicated over the weekend of April 20-21, 1991. Open to students at the start of the winter term, the Library represents the “love and labor of many” who contributed imagination, thought, time, effort, and financial support during some six years to make this remarkable building possible.

Fittingly, all constituencies were represented in the Chapel of SS. Peter and Paul on Sunday, April 21, during the blessing of the Library by the Right Reverend Douglas Theuner, Bishop of New Hampshire. Holding symbols of their activities —blueprints, plans, minutes of meetings, hard hats, and a full range of Dewey Decimal system volumes —were representatives of the architects and builders, the Library Review Committee, the library staff, and the Library Association.

The February 1992 issue of School Library Journal featured an article about the process of bringing the dream of Ohrstrom Library to reality. Ohrstrom’s head librarian at the time, Rosemarie Cassel-Brown, described her experiences this way:

Looking back over the years of planning and our first year in the new building, I can think of many special moments: the trustees’ meeting at which the decision to build a new library was made; the unveiling of Robert Stern’s design; the ground-breaking ceremony in the spring of 1988: the thrill of seeing the new building take shape across the pond from the old library; and, the inauguration ceremonies and celebrations in the spring of 1991.

If I were to single out one experience I would not have missed for anything, it would be the challenge and the joy of being part of a team of people dedicated to the common goal of creating this uniquely beautiful new library for a great school. The level of mutual trust and regard and the growing appreciation of one another’s perspectives, talents, and responsibilities was remarkable and, I would venture to say, quite unusual.

I think it is fair to say that the collaborative spirit that was instrumental in bringing Ohrstrom Library to St. Paul’s School continues to be part of the daily experience in the operation of the library.

Read the full Alumni Horae article HERE.

Read the full School Library Journal article HERE.

New Archives Exhibit: The Early Libraries of SPS

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:33:03 +0000

Ohrstrom Library Digital Archives is featuring a new online exhibit: The Early Libraries of St. Paul’s School. The exhibit features thirteen photos from the archives collection of the different locations that have served as libraries over the years, leading up to the construction of Ohrstrom Library.

It was twenty years ago, on April 21, 1991, that Ohrstrom Library was dedicated, and this exhibit celebrates the strong tradition of enthusiasm and support for libraries at St. Paul’s School that has continued uninterrupted from its beginning in 1873 to the present time. This online exhibit is based on a similar exhibit now on display in the upper level lobby exhibit cases. Browse the online exhibit and take a few minutes the next time you are in the library to see the display.

From the Archives: Clearing the Ice

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:00:55 +0000

This photo was discovered in the St. Paul’s School Archives in a box among some of the older hockey photos. It shows two teams of horses pulling equipment, with workers guiding the process. Someone has penciled in “Planer” and “Scraper” under the teams, and on the back of the photo is written “L S Pond. Clearing the ice.” also in pencil. There is no date on the photo or any identifying details to help date this image, but horses were used to clear and shave the ice at St. Paul’s in this way at least into the 1950s when the first artificial hockey rink was built.

Richard B. McAdoo, SPS Form of 1938, wrote this recollection in his Autumn 1991 Alumni Horae article:

Early on, though, we were taught that the way to cope with a New England winter is to seize hold of the sport it has to offer. Chief among these for us was hockey. Once the roads had been cleared of snow, the teams of horses were guided onto the School Pond, where the ice was two or more feet thick, to plough the drifts off the hockey rinks. A team was then hitched to the ingenious blade —it was first developed here —which shaved a thin layer off the ice and left it smooth as glass for the afternoon’s games. Learning to skate was taken as much for granted as knowing how to multiply and divide.

With all the snow that has fallen so far this winter it is difficult to imagine having to clear all the roads around SPS and enough of Lower School Pond to hold at least six rinks using teams of horses instead of snow plows and snow blowers. Think about those horses and the workers next time you are skimming across the ice, and all the hard work that has gone into maintaining this long-standing tradition at St. Paul’s School.

From the Archives: The Cradle of American Hockey

David Levesque — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:10:16 +0000

In celebration of Matthews Family Hockey Day on Saturday, January 8th, as well as the arrival of black ice and a beautiful outdoor hockey rink on Lower School Pond, Ohrstrom Library has on display in the Upper Level display cases an exhibit of historic photographs and materials from the SPS Archives entitled “St. Paul’s School : the Cradle of American Hockey.”

In St. Paul’s : the Life of a New England School, August Heckscher writes this of hockey at SPS:

At first it had been an informal scrimmage on the ice, gradually settling into a more organized contest with eleven men to a side, playing with a square piece of wood for a puck. In 1896, the Canadian version of the game, with seven players on each side, was adopted. That same year the School team played for the first time on the fabled St. Nicholas Rink in New York against a group of alumni. The alumni won 3-1. But the encounter was a spectacular event, and the School was off upon a long career of hockey playing, which was to make it known in the sports world and to fill many of the places on the top college teams with skaters trained upon the Millville ice.

You are invited to take a moment upon your next visit to Ohrstrom Library to view this exhibit created with materials from the SPS Archives, in celebration of the long and illustrious history of hockey at SPS.

The Year in Review: 1910

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:05:44 +0000

The Record of 1910 and 1911, School publications covering the 1910-1911 academic year, provide some insight into what student life was like one hundred years ago. The Reverend Dr. Henry Ferguson was Rector, only the third Rector in the School’s then fifty-four year history. Interestingly, Ferguson served as Rector from 1906 to 1911, a one-hundred year parallel to our current – and retiring – Rector, William R. Matthews, Jr.

In 1910, Kimball Studio of Concord took this photograph of the entire School. The Record tells us that there were 328 students, all boys, with 1.5% of them listed as coming from outside the United States. In 2010, the students number 537, with a roughly equal portion of girls to boys, and 18% coming from outside the U.S.

Club sports were a very large part of student life in 1910, and The Record is full of statistics from the various competition results. For example, in addition to the main SPS football team of eleven students (whose average weight, The Record informs us, was 165 lbs.), each of the Clubs – Isthmian, Old Hundred, and Delphian – had three football teams: First, Second and Third Elevens. That must have made for a lot of football games! The Isthmian First Elevens won the championship that year with a 4 – 0 record, scoring a total of 33 points. In 2010, the Club Cup was organized to help renew interest in the long tradition of Club spirit at St. Paul’s School.

One hundred years ago, on December 5th, The Record notes the first skating on School Pond, and two days later the last two hours of classes were given off as a skating holiday. On December 8th, Long Pond was “entirely open for skating.” Although Lower School Pond has only a thin skim of ice today, it won’t be long before the rinks are set up and the sound of freshly sharpened skates scraping against the ice will be heard outside Ohrstrom Library. For all the differences that have emerged over the last one hundred years, there are still some things that would be comfortingly familiar to the students of 1910.