Objects of Substance- 1957 Athletics Program

What does this program reveal about Elaine and the Grammar girl in 1957?

The first interesting detail noted was that the competition was held on Saturday 3 rd August, unlike the 2023 version, on Thursday 14 September. As it was a Saturday, the 1957 boarders attended, with little choice, although no doubt happy to have an outing. Day girls were given the option to attend to support their fellow students. A committed and supportive Grammar girl, Elaine Harris, was not a boarder and so elected, with over half of her IIID class, to attend the athletics to support the Grammar athletes. We know that IIID were great supporters as Elaine managed to get 28 autographs from her class of 40. Three of whom were in the athletics squad: Janela Miller (1960), Sandra Astill (1960), and Sue Smith (1960). As the youngest age group in the school at the time – what modern Grammar girls would know as Year 9 – this would have been the first athletics carnival the third formers would have had the opportunity to attend, and their enthusiasm was evident in the strength of their numbers.

1957 Athletics Team – Captain Madeleine Hamon holding the Stephens Cup. Eight athletes signed Elaine Harris’s sports program.

The concept of collecting autographs from your friends and fellow students is an interesting phenomenon and closely linked to autograph books, a concept not as popular in 2023 but actually an activity that has its historical roots in the Renaissance. “The keeping of autograph books stems directly from the peripatetic Renaissance scholar’s practice of carrying about on his travels an album amicorum, a book suitably inscribed by his friends and patrons for his introduction and recommendations to others.” (Zola 1980) This habit morphed into the Victorian age fashion for “memory albums” and, finally, into the autograph books predominantly kept by adolescent girls,