Welcome to the first edition of the College Archives' newsletter, Discover Archives! Through this platform, we hope to connect with St. Johnians and beyond, and to keep you up to date on the works of the Archives. For those less familiar, the College Archives has been up and running for nearly 3 years. We seek to record and preserve the College's history and heritage, and faciliate access to the same.
2019 is another exciting year for the College Archives. For a start, we will soon relocate to a new archives repository, located at the former SA Room on G/F, Marden Wing. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of February. We are also working on a number of digital initiatives, including an online catalogue, which we expect to launch this semester. But first, let's recap our work in the past semester!
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Administrative
First Meeting of the College Archives Subcommittee
Previously, the College Archives had been running under the student-led Retracing St. John's Project. On 10th Nov 2018, the College Archives Subcommittee was established and held its inaugural meeting. Operating under the College Council, the Subcommittee is charged with governing and advising on the Archives' development. With this, the Archives is now given official mandate as we move towards sustaining the conservation efforts at St. John's.
The Subcommittee received the College Archives' Annual Report and Annual Plan, accessible here. Members are as follows: Mr Paul Lee (Chairperson), Mr Jonathan Chu (Alumni Curator), Ms Doris Tsang (College Curator), Mr Terence Yue (Student Curator), Ms Yvonne Leung, Dr David Macri, Ms Cynthia Mo, Dr Tai Chung Pui, Mr James Wong, Mr Yu Ka Sing.
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Collaboration
Visit to Ricci Hall
The academic year began with a visit to Ricci Hall in Oct 2018. We were invited to attend the high table dinner there, followed by a visit to the Hall Library. Mr Nixon Leung, Co-Convener of RHACAP ('Ricci Hall Archives Conservation and Acquisition Project, HKU'), introduced their archival programme to us. We are grateful to the Riccians for their hospitality.
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Outreach
Archival Display
We organised a history exhibition on the HKU Information Day, 3rd Nov 2018. With textual descriptions and a variety of exhibits, the exhibition centred around 10 distinguished alumni of St. John's Hall who made great contributions to our society and the world. We hope that St. Johnians and visitors were inspired by their lives and dedication to human society.
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Outreach
Lest We Forget
To commemorate St. Johnians who fought and died in the WWII, we organised a poppy appeal during Remembrance Week 2018. May we always remember our predecessors who gave their lives for the peace we enjoy today.
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Outreach
History Trail
In August 2018, we launched the Retracing St. John's History Trail. Comprising 12 checkpoints, the Trail tells the story of St. John's in the past 107 years. We are particularly indebted to Mr Neo Yi Siang (SJC 4F) for website development, as well as the HK Sheng Kung Hui Archives for permission to use many precious photographs in their collections.
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Retracing St. John's
Alumnus Re-Connected
During our preparations for the Information Day exhibition, we connected with the son of Dr Huang Hsing Tsung John (黃興宗, 1922-2012, SJH 1937, BSc 1941). A tennis player of St. John's Hall, Dr Huang escaped to free China during the WWII, where he became acquainted with British sinologist Joseph Needham and served as his travelling secretary. Dr Huang was well-respected for his career in biochemistry in the US, as well as his chapter on the history of food nutrition in China for the book series Science and Civilisation in China.
Mr Terence Huang generously donated to the College Archives a copy of Dr Huang's personal memoir My Life Across Three Continents, as well as 4 digital scans of photos of Dr Huang.
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Retracing St. John's
A Guest of Honour
We were honoured to have connected with Dato Edmond Yung (SJC 6F 1960-63). After graduation, Edmond developed his career in Malaysia. He returned for the Reunion High Table on 5th Nov 2018. Much in the College has changed since Edmond left the College 55 years ago, but not the layout of the Marden Wing and the 6th Floor, which he visited after dinner. We invited Edmond to sign his name in the cupboard of his old room 624, and he retold stories of his life on the 6th Floor!
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Archival Work
Work In Progress!
Preparations for the new online catalogue (which we call 'St. John's Legacy') is steadily advancing. Photographs, publications and documents are being digitised and gradually making their way to the website. Meanwhile, the College Archives is handling more and more previously unprocessed materials, such as flags and floor records. They are being catalogued and organised, preparing for the impending relocation to the new archives repository.
We are indebted to Ms Jody Beenk of the HKU Libraries Preservation Centre, who kindly arranged 13 boxes of our archival materials to be freeze-treated to remove insect contamination in the last semester.
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