Photo Friday: Miss Crew, Master of Her Domain

Beuna Nell Crew, 1964-65 Fairmont H.S. Yearbook, Griffin, GA. Courtesy of Mike Kendall and the Griffin Spalding African American History Project.

Earlier this week I posted about my maternal relative Beuna Nell Crew, who taught at Fairmont High School in Griffin, Georgia for almost twenty years. Thanks to the Griffin-Spalding African American History Project Facebook page, its founder Mike Kendall, and his work digitizing Fairmont’s yearbooks and other school material from 1948-49 through at least 1970, I have access to (and permission to use, within reason) a treasure trove of pictures illustrating Beuna’s time at the school.*

This one is one of my favorites!

Check it out. Here’s Beuna, or Miss Crew, as she was known, sometime during the 1964-1965 school year. She’s standing in from of a chalkboard or display board of some type, likely at the front of a classroom, with a lab table or desk in front of her. She’s holding steady a small stack of papers, or maybe just a larger folded page, in front of her on the table, and balancing a pencil in her hand, like she was maybe just in the middle of some work. I’m not sure what that long rod is that stands above the desk – do any of you know?

But check out what’s in front of all of it – look at that amazing nameplate!!!

What do we think – was it a gift from students? Maybe the senior class chipped in one year to get it for their Advisor. Was it a gift from friends or family? Or maybe she splurged and bought it for herself – certainly, by the 60s, she was an established teacher and had built a positive reputation for herself in the school and community. Maybe she was feeling herself! Or who knows – maybe the school got them for every teacher?

I don’t know, but I think it’s cool and I’m glad the photographer got a photo of it!

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Do you have a memory to share about Miss Crew, or know the story of that nameplate? I'd love to know it - please share below!

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*Many thanks also to Morgan Cantrell, curator of the Our Legacy: The Griffin-Spalding African-American History Museum for putting me in touch with Mike Kendall, and to Drew Todd of the Griffin Spalding Historical Society for putting me in touch with her!