Research Catalog

Title

Wadleigh High School collection, 1938-2007, (bulk 1960s-1999).

Author

Wadleigh High School (New York, N.Y.)

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

3.2 lin. ft. (7 archival boxes and 1 printbox)

Summary

• The Wadleigh High School Collection provides some documentation about Wadleigh High School, and the two schools (Wadleigh Junior High School 88 and Wadleigh Secondary School) later housed in the same building. The bulk of the documents deal with the time period when students and staff are predominately black.
• The Wadleigh High School series includes information about the history of the school and building, a literary journal from the French Department (1939), a yearbook (1942), programs, biographical information and obituaries about the alumni and staff, and documentation regarding the building's designation as a landmark site by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1994.
• The Wadleigh Junior High School 88 series includes information about the Wadleigh Scholarship Program, an organization established in 1964 which identified and provided assistance to minority students (then the majority of the student body) pursuing scholarships to preparatory schools throughout the country. One can find printed material about its alumni and staff, programs and skits of the Faculty Follies (1967-1969), the yearbook, Wadleigh Way (1967-1990), literary journals and a memoir written by an alumnus. Most of the series consists of lesson plans, tests and grade books (1959-1987) generated by Doris Brunson, long-time English teacher at Wadleigh.
• Wadleigh High School Alumni Association series incorporates material from three of the incarnations that the school has taken on in its more than one hundred-year history and is primarily concerned with the planning of the 100th anniversary luncheon in 1999. There are also minutes from 1987, programs from other reunions (1980-2005), and a scrapbook containing news clippings, programs and related printed material for the Alumni Association's annual luncheons and other events (1980-1984), and related documents.
• The series Wadleigh Secondary School discusses the establishment and renovation of the school, including information from the New York City School Construction Authority, graduation programs and a yearbook (1996).

Subjects

• Scrapbooks
• Scholarships > New York (State) > New York
• African American students > New York (State) > New York
• African American teachers > New York (State) > New York
• Wadleigh High School Alumni Association
• Wadleigh Secondary School (New York, N.Y.)
• Brunson, Doris
• High schools > New York (State) > New York
• African American high school students > New York (State) > New York
• Teachers > Training of > New York (State) > New York
• Junior high school teachers > New York (State) > New York
• Educators > New York (State) > New York
• African Americans > Education (Secondary) > New York (State) > New York
• Wadleigh High School (New York, N.Y.)
• Junior high school students > New York (State) > New York
• High school teachers > New York (State) > New York

Genre/Form

Scrapbooks.

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
• Books and magazines transferred to General Research and Reference Division.

Biography (note)

• Wadleigh High School, located in Harlem, was founded as a high school for girls and moved to its current landmark site in 1902. Beginning in the 1920's Wadleigh High School began to accept black students and hire black faculty. By 1945 the student body was predominately black and by 1948 all the students were black. Reflecting the general shift towards co-education, Wadleigh was converted to a co-educational junior high school in 1954. The school underwent some renovation and alteration and reopened in 1956 as Wadleigh Junior High School 88. By 1995 the school was transformed to include grades six through twelve. The new entity incorporated three separate and specialized schools as the High School of Communications, Media and Technology with separate vice principals for its schools of writing and publishing, the arts, and science and technology. Later Wadleigh focused only on the performing and visual arts.
• An African American, Doris Brunson taught English at Wadleigh Junior High School 88 from 1957 to 1990. She also served as chair of the 100th Anniversary Steering Committee, which planned and celebrated the school's anniversary in 1999.

Call Number

Sc MG 746

OCLC

277632478

Author

Wadleigh High School (New York, N.Y.)

Title

Wadleigh High School collection, 1938-2007, (bulk 1960s-1999).

Biography

Wadleigh High School, located in Harlem, was founded as a high school for girls and moved to its current landmark site in 1902. Beginning in the 1920's Wadleigh High School began to accept black students and hire black faculty. By 1945 the student body was predominately black and by 1948 all the students were black. Reflecting the general shift towards co-education, Wadleigh was converted to a co-educational junior high school in 1954. The school underwent some renovation and alteration and reopened in 1956 as Wadleigh Junior High School 88. By 1995 the school was transformed to include grades six through twelve. The new entity incorporated three separate and specialized schools as the High School of Communications, Media and Technology with separate vice principals for its schools of writing and publishing, the arts, and science and technology. Later Wadleigh focused only on the performing and visual arts.

An African American, Doris Brunson taught English at Wadleigh Junior High School 88 from 1957 to 1990. She also served as chair of the 100th Anniversary Steering Committee, which planned and celebrated the school's anniversary in 1999.

Connect to:

NYPL Digital Collections

Finding aid

Research Call Number

Sc MG 746