This was originally published in November 2010 as part of our Item of the Month series.
A unique and vibrant autograph album is our featured item of the month for November (ref: GB 249 FCTC/8/9). With contributions from sixty-seven students of the Glasgow United Free Church Training College between 1906 and 1909, this wonderful item provides a flavour of student life in the college. It gives a fascinating insight into the interests and preoccupations of trainee teachers at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The Glasgow Free Church [Teacher] Training College was founded in 1845. Following the amalgamation of the Free Church with the United Presbyterians, the college was known as the Glasgow United Free Church Training College from 1900. Owing to the increasing secularisation of both education and society, it transferred to the control of the Glasgow Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers in 1907. Consequently, the album was created at an important juncture in the development of teacher training provision in Scotland.
Comprising a double page of student autographs, the volume contains a further twenty-four rich and diverse items. Gradually added to over a three-year period, with two later additions in 1918, the entries range from watercolours and ink-drawings to poems and cartoons. The subject matter is equally varied, representing: the natural world, including both plant and birdlife; land and seascapes; child figures and female portraits; and images from home and abroad, including Norwegian and Dutch scenes. It also contains illustrations such as ‘Winged Wisdom’ and a ‘Map of Matrimony’, whilst a graphically illustrated social commentary on the Great War is provided through a 1918 depiction of a cat as a bruised and bloodied war veteran.
Pages of autographs of contributors to the albumGraphically illustrated, this visually appealing source will not only be of interest to former staff and students of the college and its successor, Jordanhill College of Education (now part of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Strathclyde), but equally to anyone interested in student life immediately prior to the outbreak of the Great War. If you recognise any of the images from the album, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Kirsteen Croll, Archives Assistant