PHILADELPHIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BACHE-MARTIN 1975-2000 PHOTO ALBUM
Item #988
10 3/4” x 12” album of 48 leaves/ 86 pages, mostly double-sided though a few pages are blank. 156 photographs, 35 newspaper clippings, an invitation to wedding anniversary, etc. The cover is a dark blue fabric with lace doily around the edge. An insert in the center of the front cover houses the letters “BM” for “Bache-Martin”.
According to invitations near the end of the album, it is likely that this album with the property of Mrs. Gennie Aldridge.
Bache-Martin School is a pre-kindergarten to eighth grade elementary school that is still in operation in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia. This school is a combination of two school districts. Bache School was built in the early 1920s and Martin School was built in the 1930s and was the first school in the Philadelphia school system built for disabled students.
The Principal at the time, was a Mr. Cedric Carter. He is pictured throughout this album.
To begin this album are color photographs of students, teachers, and faculty on an outing, walking the urban neighborhood. Followed by photos of staff during the privacy of their lunch hour, year book photos from the late 70’s, children in music class (in which some students hold violins), “students and staff 1991-1992”, an “Apple computer workshop for parents (1992)”, etc.
The majority of photographs measure 6” x 4” and could have been taken on a disposable camera. Three large (9 3/4” x 7 3/4”) black and white photographs signify a ceremonial signatory of adoption (of a school district[?]).
Obvious throughout the photographs, and written plainly throughout the news clippings, these teachers were invested in the wellness of these children far beyond the confines of the classroom. The teachers made themselves available by phone for after school homework help most weekdays from 5-8pm. Most other newspaper clippings had to do with open houses for parents and prospective students. One newspaper clipping form January 14, 1993, highlights fifth grade student, Melanie Anne Macelko’s poem entitled “A Tribute to Martin Luther King”, which starts:
Happy birthday we shall sing
To a man named Martin Luther King,
A man whose heart was kind and true,
A man who cared about me and you.
He wanted the world to be a better place
For men and women of every race,
A place where people black and white
Would live to together and would not fight.
He knew his dream would be a struggle,
But Mr. King wasn’t afraid of trouble.
He wanted to fulfill his dream,
No matter how hard it may seem…..
Aside from formal education, an article provides details of students learning the “ABC’s of parenting”. Specifically, students - as young as eight-years-old - were taught to be lenient and forgiving in childrearing, perhaps to recognize patterns of abuse. Stated clearly in this article, misbehaviors in the classroom were oft to do with abuse and neglect at home.
In overall good condition.
Price: $400.00