COLLECTIONS

Collection of Pupil Newspapers and School Magazines

The Collection of Pupil Newspapers and School Magazines has been a separate unit for about thirty years. The materials have been collected mostly from donations by schools (who also publish the papers) or by individuals, and less often through purchasing. These publications are an ideal medium for presenting the activities of a school (or a class) from the pupils’ perspective (under the supervisor’s guidance). They contain pupils’ literary, creative and journalist pieces and present the activities within the school – those the school organises and those in which it participates. They provide an excellent opportunity to find out about pupils’ point of view on certain topical or “micro” issues (what goes on or what is being planned in their school or community).

The Croatian School Museum traditionally hosts an exhibition of school magazines issued by primary and secondary schools in Zagreb, which is organised in the context of LiDraNo manifestation and after which the exhibited papers are stored in the Collection, which provides a way of acquiring new material. In recent years, however, the production of school magazines has noticeably decreased, which is evident precisely from the exhibitions and the material subsequently stored in the Museum). It seems the publishers (that is, the schools) are not managing to produce the materials in time for the LiDraNo manifestation.

The Collection provides a good way of following the development of school or class magazines, both in terms of the techniques of making and in terms of the contents – from those handwritten as a single copy and multiplied on a copying machine, to magazines with a modern typographical layout, printed in colour. Alongside school yearbooks and monographs, school magazines are a source of information about the school’s history, as well a context for the social moment/period in which the school operates.

One of the exhibits in the permanent exhibition of the Croatian School Museum is Pupils’ Progress, issued in 1907, the oldest magazine held in the Collection, whose income from sales is intended for charity purposes. It contains poems, stories, a play, a reading book text for grade 4 set to music and riddles – so, not much has changed in the core contents of a school magazine over the years.

The Collection of Pupil Newspapers and School Magazines has been digitally processed and is available to users and researchers.

 

Branka Manin, MA
Senior Curator