Pauline A. Young Collection and Howard High Archives
One of the responsibilities of the Howard High School Alumni Association is to be a steward of Howard High’s history and its historical possessions. In January 2023, the Alumni Association collaborated with the Museum Studies and Public Engagement Program (MSPE) at the University of Delaware (UD) to preserve history and lay the groundwork for displaying the collection to the public. The collection holds over 3,000 items, which were mostly collected by Pauline A. Young, and they were cataloged, organized and stored in the Memorabilia room of Howard High in a recent project. The collection includes letters, books, magazines, and other items, with some dating back to the early 1900’s.
The project began with Alumni volunteers labeling 143 boxes and placing them into different categories. These categories helped inform the UD staff that would come later to clearly identify each item, place the item on a spreadsheet, and identify its location for future use.
Next, UD students and staff and Alumni volunteers worked on this project at Howard High from 9:00AM to 5:00PM over a ten day period. The special knowledge and training of the UD staff and students made this project possible.
The Alumni Association sends their gratitude to all of the donors, and volunteers for their help with this project and to Dr. Kyle Hill, the principal of Howard High. We especially want to thank Dr. Ken Cohen who was the MSPE Director and Melissa Benbow, doctoral student in the African American Public Humanities Initiative (AAPHI) who kicked off this collaboration. You can read more about UD’s Museum Studies program by clicking this link.
