Main content
Malvern Historical Commission collection on Malvern Public School
Notifications
Held at: Malvern Historical Commission [Contact Us]Borough of Malvern, 1 East First Avenue, Suite 3, Malvern, PA, 19355
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Malvern Historical Commission. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
From its building and dedication in 1899 to its closing in 1981, Malvern Public School, located on the southeast corner of 1st and Warren avenues in Malvern, Chester County, Pennsylvania, served the Borough of Malvern as a one room school house, a junior high, and an elementary school. Malvern Elementary School (formerly Malvern Public School) became part of the Great Valley School District (GVSD), after GVSD separated from the Tredyffrin-Easttown district in 1969. GVSD encompasses the Chester County townships of Willistown, East Whiteland, and Charlestown, as well as the Borough of Malvern, providing public education to students in these areas. Malvern Elementary School was closed in 1981, and the building was sold back to the borough and renovated to become the borough's municipal, police, and public library building.
Bibliography:
Highley, George Norman. History Of Malvern. Downingtown, PA: Chester Valley Press Inc., 1964.
Schmitt, Nancy B. A Century In Malvern: 1889-1989. Malvern, PA: Malvern Historical Commission, 1989.
This collection consists primarily of school records from Malvern Public School and includes materials such as excuse notes, guidance records with student permanent record cards, report cards, and individual scholarship records. Also in the collection is a small amount of printed and published materials relating to Chester County and Pennsylvania schools.
The guidance records, 1920s-1950s, include a card for individual students with personal and family data as well as cumulative information such as academic records, achievements, student interests, testing scores, health records, and other significant information. Included with the guidance card is a separate permanent record card that summarizes the information on the guidance record card. About half of the permanent record cards include a photograph of the student. There is one box of permanent record cards that do not have a matching guidance card.
There is very small amount of report cards, 1920s, and excuse notes, 1960s-1970s, for students written by parents.
Also in the collection is small amount of printed and published materials, 1950s-1960s, on Chester County and Pennsylvania schools, including statistical reports on Chester County schools; School Laws of Pennsylvania book; an annual budget of the Paoli Area High School System; a handbook from Malvern Junior High, 1935; and pamphlets and brochures related to schools or school activities.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2014-2016 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Malvern Historical Commission directly for more information.
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Malvern Historical Commission
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Sarah Leu and Anastasia Matijkiw through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
-
Contact Malvern Historical Commission for information about accessing this collection.