Ever since Highland Park High School opened in 1926, The Highland Fling has been an active and important fixture of student life.
During its prodigious 89 years, The Fling has published almost 1,000 print issues that have chronicled everything from the “Hallowe’en Staff Party” of 1926 to the death of beloved principal William Donahue. It consistently won top marks from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association throughout the late 20s and 30s; it has trained hundreds of students in the art of journalism, design, and photography. Some former staff members, including Soterios Johnson, host of NPR’s Morning Edition, have gone on to noteworthy careers in journalism.
Luckily, many of these old issues have been saved by librarians, local historians, and students. Today, we have a collection of about 700 of these print issues. Though the issues themselves are undeniably interesting, part of the allure of the archive lies in its mystery–for the project was started many years ago by an unknown student or staff member. Most of the issues were sorted and roughly inventory by this person, and then left in the back room of the library, waiting to be preserved.
In 2012, two students, Mande Younge ’12 and Charlotte Finegold ’13, did just that, resorting the papers and then passing down information about their status and whereabouts to the next generation of ardent archivers–Jana Choi ’15 and Shana Oshinskie ’16. Together, Jana and Shana began the very extensive process of scanning and inventorying all of the issues.
During this process, Jana stumbled across a wonderful resource–Jean Kolva, a leader of the Highland Park Historical Society. Miss Kolva not only helped answer many questions about the town, but generously donated over 100 issues to our collection.
Currently, the archivers work on both scanning and physically preserving the papers. After receiving a grant from Student Congress, they were able to purchase 6 archival portfolios to physically store the earliest papers. Ultimately, they hope to purchase enough portfolios to house all of the issues, so that this important part of Highland Park will live on both electronically and physically.
During its prodigious 89 years, The Fling has published almost 1,000 print issues that have chronicled everything from the “Hallowe’en Staff Party” of 1926 to the death of beloved principal William Donahue. It consistently won top marks from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association throughout the late 20s and 30s; it has trained hundreds of students in the art of journalism, design, and photography. Some former staff members, including Soterios Johnson, host of NPR’s Morning Edition, have gone on to noteworthy careers in journalism.
Luckily, many of these old issues have been saved by librarians, local historians, and students. Today, we have a collection of about 700 of these print issues. Though the issues themselves are undeniably interesting, part of the allure of the archive lies in its mystery–for the project was started many years ago by an unknown student or staff member. Most of the issues were sorted and roughly inventory by this person, and then left in the back room of the library, waiting to be preserved.
In 2012, two students, Mande Younge ’12 and Charlotte Finegold ’13, did just that, resorting the papers and then passing down information about their status and whereabouts to the next generation of ardent archivers–Jana Choi ’15 and Shana Oshinskie ’16. Together, Jana and Shana began the very extensive process of scanning and inventorying all of the issues.
During this process, Jana stumbled across a wonderful resource–Jean Kolva, a leader of the Highland Park Historical Society. Miss Kolva not only helped answer many questions about the town, but generously donated over 100 issues to our collection.
Currently, the archivers work on both scanning and physically preserving the papers. After receiving a grant from Student Congress, they were able to purchase 6 archival portfolios to physically store the earliest papers. Ultimately, they hope to purchase enough portfolios to house all of the issues, so that this important part of Highland Park will live on both electronically and physically.