The Leyden Archives: Local History for High Schoolers

It is no secret that professional historians struggle to reach those outside of the realm of academia, particularly teenagers. After wrestling with this issue in my own classroom, I found something to invigorate and personalize our field for students: local history. For the past four years, I have been developing a community archive at Leyden High School, as well as multiple local public history initiatives for students and the school community as a way to remedy this lack of engagement with the field of history. This poster will argue that creating opportunities for students and community members to directly engage with their history provides an empowering and educational atmosphere in which they take ownership of their story and use it to fuel other passions and endeavors. What this poster will describe is exactly what I have found as a result of my efforts to bring local history to Leyden High School.

Back in 2021, I was given a small stack of polaroid photos from my principal and a single file cabinet drawer in the social studies department office. I didn’t know it then, but this contribution would eventually grow and expand to what would become the Leyden High School Archives. From here, I slowly began to collect more items and soon enough word began to spread that a new social studies teacher had begun collecting items relating to school history. I also began to develop several local history initiatives using public history method. The first of these initiatives was a Leyden historical bus tour. Every year, the district welcomes a group of new teachers to the school during which they undergo an orientation during the summer. With approval from administration, I created a bus tour of different historical sites in the community designed specifically to introduce teachers from out of town to the community. This bus tour continues today and serves not only as a memorable experience but as a way to contextualize the community in which these new teachers will be serving.

In 2022, the Leyden High School Archives welcomed its first pair of student archival interns. I had been working to develop the archives over the years and it happened that two students had expressed interest in majoring in history in college. Together, the three of us embarked on establishing a program in which I would train students as interns on how to work as archivists, as well as how to use the materials in the archives to create museum quality exhibits. The program in its initial year was a success and was formerly established and compensated in 2023.

This poster will argue the importance of establishing community archives and local history initiatives in high schools as well as in wider communities by telling the story of the archives as well as of the success of the various initiatives at school. The poster will feature visual references, facsimiles of archival materials, as well as testimonials to illustrate the importance of this type of work at the secondary level.