School archives on display in Heritage Month

Megan Wallbutton sips from a Whanganui Girls' College teacup in the archives. Photo / Paul Brooks

To view the Girls' College archives is to wander through the result of a huge amount of hard work: a huge historical document of school life.
Started a few years ago by Megan Wallbutton and fellow archivist, the late Glenda Smithies, the archives have been carried on and built up by Megan to be a living monument to the memory of all who have graced the halls and classrooms of Whanganui Girls College.

This month, being Heritage Month, the archives are open to view this Saturday (October 8) and October 15 from 2 to 4pm.

Filling the entire Wickham Room at Ad Astra hostel, the archives need more space, because Megan — with help from husband Wally — is not finished yet.
There are photos galore, many from the very beginnings of the school and a lot of prints taken from the original glass plate negatives. Every era, probably every year is represented in glorious monochrome and occasional colour, with individual portraits of women who taught at the school or achieved distinction later in life.

"If it's a nice day, I'll put some chairs outside with a cooler of water and have photos on stands, so if people want to congregate outside, they can," says Megan.

Megan was a student at the school in the 1950s.
The original school and Wickham House are well represented in photographs and architects' plans, with some interesting surprises. Marked on a set of plans are the whereabouts of World War 2 bunkers, built ... just in case. While the school buildings no longer exist on the original site, the bunkers just might.

Whanganui Girls College was one of the first secondary schools to get a dark room, so Megan has set up a photography display, complete with vintage cameras. Even Te Papa has taken an interest.
The school was the first in New Zealand to play 9-a-side basketball (1899), and that has piqued the interest of a historian at Auckland University. The sport only lasted a year because it was thought unladylike, but it resumed in the school in 1918. There is a display, of course.

There are photos of girls diving off the high diving board at Wickham House, plunging into the deep, unfiltered pool, and another of girls during fire drill, descending from the first floor by rope ladder.

One of the first things you notice is that it's about people. There are faces everywhere, many identified, looking out from the walls into the room.
There's a sports corner with photos, sports uniforms, and so much more. The old upright piano has sheet music from another era, and there's a boarder's bedroom with garments so old they had to be framed to keep them intact. On the old bed is a chamber pot — the original ensuite — and the boarder's formal uniform hangs on the wall. The school Prospectus is an important document and archives has examples going back to 1910.

Megan says the hostel did not get electricity until 1924, so there were lots of cold showers until then.
Rules and regulations abound in original printed form, marking the huge difference between now and then.

A lot is covered in the archive room, from wartime activities to more mundane things. Original crockery abounds in a mock-up of the school dining room, and a wall is lined with beautifully bound books given as prizes to students.
"People are sending things all the time, now," says Megan. A hat badge arrived in the mail the other day, but people are sending books, photographs, hatbands, and a wicker pram landed on her doorstep one day.
"In the 1930s they introduced mothercraft." She says while a lot of girls were academics, others attended the school for a short time then returned to the farm to help with the family or get married and start families of their own. Mothercraft, in which they learned domestic skills, was for them.

The work continues for Megan, but it's something she is passionate about.
Whether you attended the school or not, Whanganui Girls' College archives are a must-see during Heritage Month.