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As September draws closer many families will be preparing to send their children back to one of the over 120 schools in the Newry & Mourne area. This week, the Museum will be exploring the items in our collection connected to education.
The Gilchrist Educational Trust was set up in 1865 to provide education for people with little or no access to opportunities for learning and to make financial help available for new educational projects. In 1867 the Trust established the Gilchrist Lectures which ran until 1939. Given by prominent academics and scholars and attracting large audiences, the lectures were held in many towns and cities in Britain and Ireland. The Gilchrist Lectures that were held in Newry in 1894 were to encourage “a taste for reading and study” along with the aim of establishing a Free Library in the town. A surplus of £48 from the entrance fees to the lectures went towards the opening of Newry Free Library in 1897 to further enhance education in the area.
Newry and Mourne Museum Collection
The museum holds several schoolbooks in its collection including a grammar book sold by James Stevenson, a stationer in North Street in Newry. One of the most famous individuals when it came to exercise books was Vere Foster (1819 – 1900). He was a Belfast philanthropist who developed the Vere Foster Copy Books and Exercise Books to improve the teaching of handwriting. He was also the first president of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, which was founded in 1868 and is the oldest and largest teachers' trade union in Ireland.
Another item in the collection is a recipe book from the early 1910s, compiled by a student at Newry Municipal Technical School. Even though rationing was not introduced until 1918, there were fears of food shortages in the early years of the First World War. The book contains a recipe for a “War Cake” using “war flour”, which was composed of wheat and a percentage of other grains.
Perhaps the most prominent element for returning to school is the uniform and we have several examples in the collection. Typically designed by the school and its governing bodies, the standard uniform for those in secondary education consists of shirt, jumper, blazer (complete with school crest), trousers or skirt.
wells, nib pen, slates, lead pencil and a replica of the Vere Foster Copy Book. Newry
and Mourne Museum Collection
In terms of school material, stationery is a staple for the school year. The museum holds several examples of writing material, from the slate (writing slates were used in schools by young children until the 1930s) to the inkpots and pens which were used by older school children up until the 1960s when ball point pens became more popular. Other school supplies in our collection include a Casio Personal-I calculator from the 1970s. In September 1965, Casio released the 001, the world's first electronic calculator with a memory function and by December 2006, Casio had sold one billion calculators. These items all appear in the museum’s reminiscence boxes which are available for free to the public.
The Museum is currently offering free tours of the main exhibition galleries on Wednesdays at 2.00 pm. These must be booked in advance by calling their Education Officer at 0330 137 4422.
Newry and Mourne Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday 10.00 am – 4.30 pm. Please call 0330 137 4422 or email museums@nmandd.org for further information.
Visit their website at www.visitmournemountains.co.uk
