Objects of Substance - Giddy and Guileless Grammar Girls Acr

Giddy and Guileless Grammar Girls across the years.

Do we always see school life and our students through the lens of our structured intent, rich life and public profile as a school? We recognise the high aims and achievements of our students across the years, with great store invested in the studies and activities of our broader curriculum. Recording school life through photography has always been important to our history and the Archives hold many such records of our students, collectively and individually going about their school life across the years. However, beyond the serious nature of such record keeping, there is the underlayer of students portraying themselves in their daily student lives. Serious dedication to academic, sporting and artistic achievements forms the backbone of our school and its ongoing history. But when school life is placed in the hands of students themselves, seen through the prism of young women inside the picket fence, we see the humour and the perceptive satire that is also seeded in our students, their ability to uncover and undo any pretence and hubris and bring school life into a realm of fun that indeed nourishes the application of students to the standards they and the school have set. Evidence of this sense of playfulness in cartoon sketches appears in magazines and on occasions of various events. Cartoon has its origins in Latin. The word “cartone” was about paper and design on paper. In the 1700s, cartoons came into their own as social and political commentary, in an amusing and often unflattering and subversive manner. Furthermore, cartoon art is a particular form of art drawing. The cartoon form does not aim to replicate reality except as a means of flipping that reality to show an underside of truth that could be unsettling to the viewer, but also offset by humour. What does this show of the Grammar Girl character and her zest for school life? That the school encourages this portrayal of school life is testament to the ethos of the school to validate the freedom and independent thinking of our students. They also speak to the importance in our liberal education of nourishing artistic practice and remind us of the centrality of the arts in our curriculum and in life. These cartoon sketches also give us insight into school activities, uniform styles, mores of the day and are a history within themselves of what was worth noting and commenting on in different periods of school life and evolution. They form a broad picture of life inside and outside the classroom that did not escape the satirical impulse of our student artists.

1964 June BGGS Magazine, artist Isabella Richard p23.

It is fitting to begin with art in the classroom. There are obviously a range of emotions depicted in students in this classroom with art teacher Mr Timmermans (“Timmy”) : concentration, boredom, puzzlement, all perhaps to counter the teacher’s apparent enthusiasm. In his time of teaching at BGGS from 1956 until is death in 1974, students were usually taught sitting at specially-designed art desks to accomplish their art practice, not always the best physical approach to draw or paint. Drawing and painting were then the mainstays of the art classroom rather than the wide ranging and eclectic artwork in current curriculum and times, although former student and artist Isabella Richard (1966) remembers being offered challenging art projects in this classroom.

Compare this image of the Art Studio in the 1960s in W14.

Year 10 student Isabella Richard (1966) contributed a number of sketches in response to a call out for illustrations to grace school magazine publications. In her depiction of the art class with Mr Timmermans, we have insights into not only the mood of students but also the dress of the time. Some students can be seen wearing the square neck sports uniform (gym tunic) of the day, while others in full school uniform are in black stockings, part of the uniform no matter what season. Hair, if long, is carefull y tied in “pigtails” with ribbons. No hair was to touch the collar of the school blouse.

1964 December BGGS Magazine, artist Isabella Richard p34.

In the science class sketch, Isabella comments: “ It was generally understood that chemistry was about making stinks - maybe an apocryphal kind of terminology - anyway that's the point of this slightly amusing sketch. A student with a peg on the nose and an apprehensive teacher. I don't remember if she is supposed to be Mrs Castledine [our Science teacher] or just a generic mistress.” We even see two of the students wearing lab coats, as was the requirement of the time. (Power 2024)

While on the surface, the classroom might have been an orderly space, the sketches reveal the dynamics and personalities that are allowed to flourish in these contexts.

1984 Unknown artist, BGGS Magazine, Latin p53.

1931 June BGGS Magazine np.

Music in all its forms have long been a ubiquitous component of school life. Who hasn’t been enthralled and inspired by concerts and performances featuring the many choral and orchestral

groups in the curricular and co-curricular programs? Here we have confirmation that organised concerts involving choral groups were a fixture of school life by 1931, attended by friends and family. Of interest also is the dress code for these events: white dress. This code persisted into the 1960s with Speech Night attended by students in white. For boarders this was also Sunday dress for church.

Creina O’Dwyer’s (1965)

The 1960s usher in clever depictions of Grammar life. One artist, Creina O’Dwyer (1965) was prolific in her renditions of Grammar girls and her sketches feature in many School magazine entries for her time, 1962-1965. Creina is also rememberd for the gifted photograph album her VID Form class presented to their Form Mistress, Miss Doreen Thomas. For Creina, drawing was a way to record the funny and quirky stories of friends at BGGS in the 60’s. Creina gave them away and now when she meets fellow old girls, she finds they have kept them, which is a delight for her.

1964 Unidentified artist July BGGS Magazine p27.

The sometime crowded life in the day of a Grammar Girl is captured in the chaos of the changing room and the homeward bound journey by bus from the old infamous number 23 bus stop which took students into the city to connect with further transport home.

1965 Creina O’Dwyer from the Doreen Yeates Album Collection.

In her sketch, Creina has cleverly conveyed the students in winter uniform with the blazers, black stocking and felt hat, some active in the chaos, some merely looking on, unperturbed by the unconscious duty teacher, perhaps trampled by the enthusiasm of after school students. At the front of the bus, we see what could be the face of the hapless driver, tasked with accommodating so many students in his bus and delivering them safely home.

1965 Miss Thomas separates Christine Steindl and David Purvis by Creina O’Dwyer. Doreen Yeates Album Collection.

Creina ’s cartoon in this instance features the esteemed yet formidable Miss Thomas (later to become Mrs Yeates), a teacher of Modern History and a senior Form Teacher, in a career that spanned 21 years between 1951 and 1971. O’Dwyer tells us a lot about those times in the ‘60s and long before, where fraternising with a boy, and – gasp – a Brisbane Grammar student was strictly off limits.

Rules are rules. The lines were then clearly drawn for separation in the laneway of Kalinga Ave as the two schools’ border zone.

But the sketch again says so much about how our students dressed: short skirts with black stockings and gloves, topped off by a straw Panama. The Brisbane Grammar student could pass for today but what also gives away a different time are the school bags, the old fashioned “ports”. Miss Thomas also wears a hat, customary outdoor wear for women of that time. So here she is wielding her umbrella to chase away the unseemly behaviour of boy meets girl in school uniform within the precincts of both schools. Miss Thomas enjoyed being included in the jokes.

On a more personal note, Creina has drawn this message of friendship to her friend Caroline, brought down by a broken leg.

1965 BGGS July Magazine by Helen Barker p62 .

Artist Helen Barker may be seeking in this sketch to give us an insight into how the first year student feels about her status and uniform, everything too big and a bit overwhelming, even school life, that she has yet to grow into. The mirror she is holding might be her way of looking into her future as the big Grammar girl or aspiring to be like her big Grammar sister.

1966 Artist Mary-Jane Hickey from the Doreen Thomas Album Collection.

Mary- Jane Hickey’s 1966 sketch shows the overburdened Grammar Girl: academic demands in the maths book, encyclopedia, sporting commitments with tennis racquet, balls and golf clubs, not to mention personal needs as seen in the hairbrush, hand lotion and an apple to keep hunger at bay. Other students and bits of uniform appear to spill out of oversize ports and perhaps for the first time we come across the new style of bag for sports regalia, a precursor of current general school bags, with the school logo clearly visible. In her 1972 sketch, Mary Williams’ (1974) 1972 again speaks to the hard study habits of the Grammar Girl: concentration over the desk, notes discarded around her, and even the cat is tired out and now sleeping on a pile of books.

1972 Artist Mary Williams, BGGS School Magazine p11.

1965 Artist Creina O’Dwyer from the Doreen Thomas Album Collection

Back in the day, Health and Physical Education took on many tasks, including attention to posture (yes that was rated in earlier report cards), and vital swimming and lifesaving skills, practiced in the

newly opened pool on site at BGGS in 1960. These students may not look enthusiastic about dipping their toes into icy water, but this part of school life has served students well.

House Athletic carnivals have long been a feature of school life, whether as inter form or inter house competitions.

1964 Artist Isabella Richard, BGGS December Magazine p37.

Artist Isabella Richard comments “ I was keen to experiment with all sorts of art styles. I was riveted by graphic designers including the Bauhaus school of design where form and function support the main dynamics of design.” During her time in Year 10 the class was studying block print making and this shows in her use of positive and negative space to create the background crowd cheering on the competitors. According to Isabella “ sports tunics and legs flying, magazine rep ready with the camera for a photo finish ” all produce a vibrant sense of movement and in the moment.

1966 Artist Mary-Jane Hickey from the Doreen Yeates Album Collection.

In history telling again we have this sketch referencing the introduction of the new sixth form badge, a proud addition to the uniform and giving recognition and status to the senior students. This was the era of short skirts, sometimes exposing ungainly knees.

1964 Artist Jill Lang, December BGGS Magazine p18.

Finally, and not least, we have this vibrant 1964 cartoon of a projected 1965 Boarders’ life of leisure in the confines of their sitting room. The artist, Jill Lang, explained that the sitting room was something new to the boarding house and it was senior students who lobbied hard for this space and its design, a small concession in the confines of boarding life as it was then. Dressed in uniform, both day school and sporting, the depiction of music, dancing, sewing, indoor sport and spilt coffee gives us an inside view of boarding life, with the day girl peeking through the window, perhaps wondering what was happening on the other side of school life. Works like this are essential clues to the changing life of the school which for so long, until 2001, provided residence for students from outside of Brisbane to have the advantage of a Grammar education. The treasure trove of cartoon sketches from students across the history of the school provides us with insights into student life in all its dynamics. These clever sketches transport us into the living moments and memories of the school across the years.

Lorraine Thornquist (Williams, 1967)

Manager, Fine Arts Collection

References

BGGS School Magazines 1964

Doreen Yeates Album Collection 1965 and 1966

Power, I. (nee Richard) Email correspondence 27/05/2024

Moore, C. (nee O’dwyer) Email correspondence 29/05/2024