Newman College Archives

In August 2020 Archivist, Curator and Historian Shannon Lovelady and her team, including Archives Assistant Amy Devenish and volunteer Julianne Mackay, began establishing the Archives at Newman College.

While Newman College, Churchlands, has only been Newman College since 1977, there are a number of earlier Western Australian schools which are all now considered antecedent schools. These schools were run by the Marist Brothers, the Brigidine Sisters and the Dominican Sisters, and include:

• St Ildephonsus College, New Norcia (1913-1964)

• St Joseph’s College, Subiaco (1954-1964)

• Marist (Junior and Senior) College, Subiaco and Churchlands (1965-1976)

• St Joseph’s (Brigidine) Primary School, Subiaco (1942-1982)

• Brigidine Secondary School, Subiaco (1942-1961)

• Our Lady of Victories, Wembley (1949-1982)

• Brigidine College, Floreat (1962-1976)

• Siena Girls’ High School, Doubleview (1962-1976)

• Newman Middle School, Floreat (1977-1982)

Our team began by conducting a thorough inventory of the many boxes, trophies and other items which had been brought into the new Archives, and began creating a detailed finding aid. As items were inventoried they were moved into archival files and boxes, and organised into order.

The large Trophy Collection, from many of the above schools, was organised, cleaned where needed, documented, photographed, and awardees for each, transcribed. The Yearbooks for Marist and Newman College (1965-present) were soon digitised, allowing information to be more rapidly accessible. This was used the day it was finished, to assist author and Old Boy Dr Ken Spillman in his writing of The Right Spirit, a history of the ACC sports launched in November 2021, and they have been used every day since. Shannon, who had earlier written an alumni database, populated it further with names of former students gleaned from those Yearbooks, various class lists and other resources.

The team began digitising the enormous number of photographs from across the past century, identifying them where possible through social media or other contacts, and transferring them onto acid free card and into Archival photo albums divided into decades. The Photographic Collection is now established, aided by the large donation from (Brigidine) Sister Dorothea Hickey, a Brigidine Secondary School alumni, of many Brigidine photos. Shannon also wrote a photographic database to hold the digital versions of these photos, complete with metadata for easy searching, click-and-drag retrieval, and ready-to-print captions.

Shannon then began to research and write Newman Nostalgia social media posts every Thursday during term, shining a light on interesting historic highlights in any of the above schools, and sometimes asking for help in identifying where, when and whom, which was hugely successful. The community began to be aware of the new Archives and started making contact. Alumni began bringing in photos, reports, trophies and pennants, and sharing their memories of their time at School.

Julianne, fully employed elsewhere, still comes in when she can. Emma Withers (who now also works with Shannon at the RAC Archives) began volunteering in the Newman College Archives on a weekly basis at the start of 2021, and has been instrumental in engaging with St Ildephonsus College Old Boys who have participated in recording their memories in oral histories.

The team has also made two day trips to the beautiful town of New Norcia - the first with College staff and (Marist) Brother Noel Hickey (a St Ildephonsus Old Boy and former Master there) who took them on a private tour of the School; and the second, recently, for a private tour of the Benedictine Archives with Monastery Archivist Peter Hocking, resulting in another large digital donation of items relating to the Marist Brothers’ time in New Norcia. During the first visit the team photographed every page of the photocopy of the St Ildephonsus College Roll in the Museum, which Museum of Perth volunteers have been diligently transcribing. Peter Hocking scanned his (better) version of the same document, allowing for clarity where some lines were obscured, and a better result in transcription. Once complete, these names will all be uploaded to the alumni database, which currently has just short of 20,000 entries.

Sixteen months after establishment, the Newman College Archives is a busy, working Archives which acts as the conduit to any facet of the Schools’ histories for staff and students at Newman College, their alumni, and the wider community. Shannon is in the Archives Thursdays and Fridays, Emma is there on Thursdays, and Amy Devenish is now full time on College Staff.