Preserving the Past

Forgive me, folks, if that sounds like some lame dad joke, but it’s the honest-to-gosh truth and comes with a caution.

 

If we as an institution don’t know and understand our history, we’re living in a vacuum and doing a disservice to future generations.

 

Fear not, though.

 

Over the past few years, the School has taken steps to ensure that its institutional memory doesn’t fade.

 

Meet Ben Lamb.

 

Hired in 2013, the Crozet native serves as Collegiate’s archivist and is entrusted with the responsibility of collecting, cataloguing, and preserving the documents, papers, memorabilia, and artifacts that paint an accurate picture of Collegiate’s past. An Upper School librarian as well, Lamb operates from an office adjacent to a climate-controlled archives room in the Saunders Family Library in the Sharp Academic Commons.

 

His work, he says, is not so much a job but a labor of love and a calling.

 

After graduating from Temple University with an A.B. in American Studies, he served as an archivist and librarian in several locations around Philadelphia, including the Please Touch Museum and the Rosenbach Museum & Library.

 

Soon after he and his wife Jenny moved back to Virginia, he saw an ad for a part-time librarian and archivist at Collegiate, applied, and earned an interview.

 

“They took a chance,” he said in a tone that reflects his gracious, humble nature. “Here I am, 12 years later.”

 

For several years after settling in Richmond, he also worked at the American Civil War Museum assisting with the transition of its library and archives from the White House of the Confederacy to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.

 

In 2018, his Collegiate role became full time.

 

“I’m still learning, but what attracted me to [archives work] is that I simply love old stuff,” he said. “I love the stories you can tell and the little bits of history in people’s lives that are forgotten or seem relatively insignificant.

 

“I’m drawn to the organization of it, taking these pieces, putting them in order, and digging the story out of it. I love looking at something from the past and trying to understand or imagine what people were thinking or how they lived or the things they saw and touched and what their daily lives were like. I’m curious about the past and really enjoy exploring it through objects, ephemera, and photographs.”

 

Lamb’s early efforts at Collegiate involved consolidating archival materials from various offices, cabinets, and closets around campus.

 

“Since then,” he said, “I’ve been trying to organize it in an appropriate way so that it will be accessible to the people who need it. It’s forever a work in progress.”

 

Yes, and vital work.

 

“We have to know where we came from to become who we want to be,” he said. “I’m connecting people with objects that tell the story of Collegiate.”

 

Who uses the archives? The Development and Alumni Offices, for example, as they prepare for special events and celebrations or request information about those who served and/or attended Collegiate as far back as its founding in 1915, faculty members who include school history in their lessons and projects, and those charged with chronicling the life of the institution.

 

“I love helping people,” Lamb said. “I love a mystery. I love answering people’s questions, knowing where I can find the information they need, and then using it to dig a little bit deeper and help them dig deeper.

 

“What’s most interesting to me is the early history of the School, the Town School era, from 1915-1959. It intersects with a lot of different things: the New South Movement, the Women’s Movement, all the political and social [changes].”

 

In its early years, the School, at times, struggled to survive.

 

“You can see that reflected in the various materials that were produced at the time, especially during the Depression and World War II, even World War I,” Lamb said. “[Archival materials] talk about teachers deferring pay or not having enough paper. It was very much hand-to-mouth for a long time. What comes through the most, and maybe this is cliché, is that teachers and administrators and the people surrounding the School very much worked together to keep it going and eventually helped it thrive and continue to thrive.”

 

Whether as an archivist, librarian, or advisor, Lamb finds his work energizing and meaningful.

 

“I love on-site research,” he said. “Being able to search [digitized] newspapers from the early 20th century has been so much fun [as I] explore the early history of the School through those documents. I learn something new every day, I get to interact with students in a variety of ways that I find gratifying. Every day’s very much a new day.”

~Weldon Bradshaw