When your history.. goes history.
Six years after the "merger" of Wheelock College and Boston University, we have come to realize the neglect and disposal of our historic archives.
Lucy Wheelock is a person of National History, She is the Pioneering Founder of Kindergarten in America, also opening a school and then forming a college, creating over 130 years of historic alumni and progress in Childhood Life, Education and Social work, through the teachings of Froebel. Sadly, as told to us in meetings, much of the archives were disposed, as to be useless to the new BU way of using Wheelock as a namesake. These items included a massive 2000 piece historical collection of literature, gifts from Froebel, Lucy's personal belongings, 16,000 photos, recordings with Lucy speaking, her unpublished autobiography (saved by us in 2023, asking BU over and over, till they found it). BU has stated over and over, they did not know what they had, that BU does not do archives and that they collect art and collections. So for 6 years, our archives sat at our historic Library, uncared for, unpreserved, rotting away, until 2023 when we began to ask about them. The entire archive was a surprise to the archivists, who said that they had been held in our library as "Cold Storage".... our time capsule and yearbooks were told to be lost, so alumni created a collection of buying any yearbooks we could find online and scanning our own, only to have BU tell us they found them in the closet in which they were told to be left by BU, for Wheelock. They have 2-4 of every yearbook, filled with Lucy Wheelock autographs and memorabilia, stacked and unkept. WE asked if they would be put with the rest of the BU collection, no, they will not. We have no real access to what is left, we would like to document it and we have printed the entire catalog inventory from our original database, which we think stunned BU, as we have a full description of what we had and can now see what is lost. WE also have requested a full set of yearbooks be donated to the alumni so that we can maintain a record and preservation of our alumni, facutly, campus and stories, that have been kept from us and changed before our eyes as the years pass. WE are here to reclaim our Archives for proper care and preservation and take back our Alumni association and Identity. WE are Wheelock. You cannot erase our historic history. Full catalog on this page! |
Historic Archives Of Lucy Wheelock and her college - Found Neglected and unpreserved In Broom closet of BU Alumni Castle after 6 years OF BEING MISSING.
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