Online Archive Plans to Immortalize Past School Newspapers

Paper can be shredded, crumpled up, or thrown on the ground, but the Internet lasts forever.

Surprisingly (and I would also say fortunately), this is not the intro to a story warning teens to be more mindful of the trail they leave on the World Wide Web. In this case, that ominous Internet that everyone always seems to dismiss as “image-destroying” has transformed into a powerful tool, providing a well-rounded image of the past for the benefit of many.

Lion Tales’  history archivist team has started up their work this week for the 2014-2015 school year. The archive section of this website currently contains photographs of multiple stories that were hand-picked out of some of the only existing copies of Lincoln’s print newspaper (which, fun fact, was not always named Lion Tales) from years dating back to 1942. The team aims to expand its coverage of the past even further this year.

That’s right, I am talking about immortalizing history. Not all of Lincoln’s history, of course. Much of that can only exist in the memories of those who lived it. However, the most memorable issues and experiences in the school’s history are documented by a collection of dozens of yearbooks and newspapers, not accessible to the public but, luckily, available to us as Lion Tales staff members.

With this exclusive access comes a responsibility. As the pages of the 1940s wilt and yellow year by year, we realize that they may eventually become so fragile as to be untouchable, or even illegible. That is why this archive project is so important. It would be a shame for the superb journalism that filled the pages of those early Lincoln newspapers to simply, quite literally, fade away, never to be remembered or laughed at or cared about ever again.

Till Kleinert, Lion Tales archivist and a Lincoln junior, commented, “It is interesting work to do. In my opinion, it’s impressive to see these stories written 70, 75 years ago. You can get into the mindset of the people writing, and the issues they are writing about are not the same as what we think about today.”

This endeavor was first spurred by a suggestion Lion Tales’ then days-old online newspaper received in September 2013. An alumna from the Class of 1943, Lucy Griffith-Mueller (née Benitez), wrote to us via a letter submitted to this website, describing her memories of Lincoln students’ strong school unity and hard work during the World War II era.

Griffith-Mueller then posed a question, “Why isn’t there more history on these pages about the those days when students worked so hard to establish the school government and sacrificed so much to help win the war and to make Abraham Lincoln High School the great institution it now is? May today’s students and students be as proud as we were and may they enjoy Abraham Lincoln High School as much as we did.” Her letter was one of several instigators for the addition of a history section.

Many alumni have a nostalgic interest in re-reading newspapers they read for the first time back in high school, as the process sparks their fragmented memories of day-to-day school life. Ms. Todd, a Lincoln teacher and graduate from the Class of 1986, said, “I think the alumni would like it because we don’t remember half of the things that happened back then.” She mentioned that there has been discussion of displaying a Lion Tales board with copies of newspapers from a selected four-year span at each class’s major reunion.

All these articles from “Lion Tales of Yesteryears,” as one historical headline put it, do more than bring back alumni’s memories of their high school experience. They also provide a thought-provoking point of reference for today’s students.

Thomas Poulain, junior, said, “Just to look at things that were published in the past is kind of interesting.” However, he added, “most people [teenagers] won’t go out of their way to look at things online that they don’t have to.”

That may be so, but just think about it. The students of the 1940s, 50s and 60s (“Lincolnites,” as they were known at the time) walked through these same halls, stood on the same ground you may be standing on at this very moment. Yet, they experienced a totally different world. World War II and Vietnam, different clothes and manners of speaking to each other, a U.S. History curriculum that did not yet contain the last 50 to 70 years we learn about in our classes today. Perhaps most jaw-dropping, no computers or cellphones. As I write this, I am still in awe that the first journalism staffs did not have the option to “backspace” on their typewriters.

Mr. Pike, a seasoned U.S. History and AP U.S. Government teacher, shared a history instructor’s perspective on how the Lion Tales archiving project could potentially benefit student awareness of the past. He conceded that not everyone might take advantage of it, saying, “It would depend upon the students. I’m going to be frank; students in an AP class are going to be more likely to be interested in it than the regular students, and have a greater curiosity.”

Pike went on to say, “I think it would be great to use some of these issues in social science classes, like U.S. History or World History. I would be grateful to [have access to] one written during World War II– I think that’s marvelous. It would take some effort on the part of the faculty, the teacher, to find the information, but so what? We’re used to that. I would imagine if you were to publish every issue that was done in World War II, I mean that’s a lot of stuff we have to take a look at. But that’s not surprising; it’s difficult to find ‘gems.'”

Pike mentioned that it would be “great to see” the articles from the 1940s containing interviews and photos of the senior boys who left school to fight in World War II at the rate of about one per week.

If I have learned anything from reading the archives, it is that the student journalists of Lincoln newspapers past came from a dramatically different worldview and school life than do our staff members today. Through a chronological reading of the newspapers, though, it is possible to trace the subtleties of how Lincoln’s student body melded into what it is today. And despite those differences between the first staff (1942) and the current staff (2014), our main goal remains one and the same.

The Lion Tales archive will provide an unprecedented look into what was “current” in time periods we are unaccustomed to viewing as current, written from the unique perspectives of wide-eyed high schoolers. The best part is, this archive will be available to all via that powerful tool called the Internet.