Martha's Vineyard Museum

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Biography/Historical Note

Scope and Content Note

Administrative Information

Controlled Access Headings

Collection Inventory

Descriptive Summary

Repository	Martha's Vineyard Museum Gale Huntington Research Library 59 School Street P.O. Box 1310 Edgartown, MA 02539 (508) 627-4441
Call Number	RU 502
Creator	Martha's Vineyard Museum
Title	Dukes County Historical Society High School Essay Competition collection
Date	1978, 1987-1994
Extent	2 boxes (1.008 cubic feet)
Language	The materials are in English.
Abstract	The collection consists of materials related to a high school essay competition sponsored by the Martha's Vineyard Museum (then Dukes County Historical Society) from 1987-1994. With the exceptions of 1993 and 1994, each year includes administrative records and other materials, contest entries, and in some cases, prepared packets of photocopied source materials provided to the students.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Access to the 1978 essays is restricted due to FERPA.

Use and Reproduction Restrictions

Requests to reproduce material from this collection should be directed to the library's staff. Reproduction fees may apply.

Acquisition Information

Most of the materials were created or collected by the Martha's Vineyard Museum from 1987 through 1994. The immediate source of acquisition and date of accession of the 1978 essays are unknown.

Publication Information

Martha's Vineyard Museum

Gale Huntington Research Library
59 School Street
P.O. Box 1310
Edgartown, MA 02539
(508) 627-4441

Processing Information

Finding aid prepared and machine-encoded by Nathaniel Janick in January 2015.

 Creation of this finding aid was sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Biography/Historical Note

The Dukes County Historical Society High School Essay Competition was a collaboration between the Martha's Vineyard Museum (then Dukes County Historical Society) and the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School from 1987 until at least 1994. The intention of the contest was to acquaint the students with the idea of the museum as a community resource and "to expose them to the virus of Island history, hoping they catch it." With a few exceptions, most applicants were enrolled in the advanced 11th grade history class at the high school.

The rules evolved over time, but there were two primary requirements: the topic must involve Dukes County history and some of the research needed to be conducted at the Martha's Vineyard Museum Library. In the early years, students were able to select their own topics, but as the competition grew, the Museum would prepare a list of topics and provide photocopies of source materials related to those topics.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of materials related to a high school essay competition sponsored by the Martha's Vineyard Museum (then Dukes County Historical Society) from 1987-1994. With the exceptions of 1993 and 1994, each year includes administrative records and other materials, contest entries, and in some cases, prepared packets of photocopied source materials provided to the students. No materials related to the 1993 competition were found during processing, and from the 1994 competition, only the winning essay was found.

The collection also contains student essays written in 1978. These essays were not part of the competition but were found with the competition materials during processing. There was no documentation explaining why the 1978 essays were arranged with the competition essays, but it is possible that they were either used as examples during the formation of the competition or grouped together because they are similar in nature. Access to the 1978 essays is restricted due to FERPA because the essays were graded.

Arrangement

With the exception of the 1978 student essays, the collection is arranged chronologically and therein according to type of materials. Essays are arranged according to the number assigned by judges and research materials are assigned according to the list of suggested topics for their respective years.