CBC Archives Museum

As part of the Stage 3 redevelopment plan called “Preserving Our Heritage” Christian Brothers College decided to implement a “collecting archive” and create an accompanying Museum, to celebrate 128 years of educating Catholic boys in South Australia.  The Museum is located in the old Chapel, part of the Brothers’ house and is the oldest surviving building on the campus, which faces Wakefield Street.

The Museum serves a range of educational purposes:

• Recording and exhibiting the history of the school,  
• Highlighting the generational changes in education and school life over 128 years and
• Acknowledging the contributions of the Brothers and lay teachers to Catholic education in South Australia.

The Museum together with the associated archives is able to present the schools’ records to the public, in an accessible and controlled manner.  Usage to date has included university academics conducting research and family historians tracing genealogy.

Locating the Museum in the former Chapel has allowed a disused building with strong historical and cultural connections to the CBC community, but with limited functionality in a modern school, to once again fulfil a meaningful purpose.

The museum is dedicated to Brother Thomas O’Brien and Brother Gilbert Hughes, the first two headmasters of the College, and the Brothers who worked with them to establish the school: Brs Andrew McEvilly, Sebastian O’Hagan, Joseph Byrne and Francis de Sales Moran.

The Museum opens with a beautiful memorial board dedicated to Br. Francis Thomas O’Brien, the co-founding headmaster from 1879 to 1890.  It is magnificently illustrated in the manner of a fine manuscript with a beautiful calligraphy testimonial to the role that he played in the education of Catholic boys of South Australia.  The more than fifty old scholars who paid for the memorial are listed down the sides of the board.  The memorial board is a reminder to us all of the positive influences teachers can have on their students and so, fittingly, it has pride of place in our museum. We are indebted to the Nudgee College and the Archivist in Queensland for preserving this memorial for almost one hundred years.

The academic portion of the exhibition outlines how the curriculum of the College evolved to suit the needs of the society at different times.  During the Depression, wood working classes were introduced because it was thought advantageous for all boys to have some practical skills to fall back on.  In the 1940’s, evening Commercial classes were popular because it was a period of rapidly expanding clerical opportunity.  In one hundred years our museum will no doubt chronicle the expansion of Vocational Education Training which sees our current students able to undertake studies that relate directly to chosen career paths. 

As expected at a boys’ school, sport plays a strong role in our exhibition. It is the changing fashions in sport that provide an interesting insight into the lives of young men of yesteryear.  In the early years, football and handball were the major sports, with cricket played by smaller numbers of students. Handball and gymnastics are also showcased in the museum.

Rowing has been part of school sports since a Head of the River win in1912 and is represented in the collection together with the sports that proved popular in later decades such as hockey, soccer and basketball.

In addition to charting the changes in academic learning and sport, the museum profiles the roles played by the Old Collegians Association and the various parent groups that have been involved in the school, together with the staff.

The purpose of our museum is to educate our current students about the Christian Brothers and lay people who made our school what it is today.  It seeks to show us how schooling has changed so that we can appreciate the sacrifices of those who have gone before and the unique challenges faced by each generation, hopefully inspiring a problem solving approach to our modern day dilemmas.

The Museum is also a resource for those interested in the history of education in South Australia and that of their families. Our school registers contain information on the addresses and occupations of students’ parents and date back to the 1880’s.  The very early photos in our collection are often the only photo families can access of their relatives as young men, because at that time, photography was expensive and beyond the reach of many families. 

We hope that by establishing a modern and visually exciting museum we have created a school and community resource that is inspiring, educational and will foster lasting generational links.

Our Archives-Museum was blessed and opened by Monsignor Robert Aitken on 11th August 2006. Monsignor Aitken celebrated the last Mass in the old Chapel on 27th June 2001. This new opening is a fitting conclusion to the “Preserving Our Heritage” project. The College wishes to acknowledge the work of creating and maintaining the Archives-Museum by Ms Jacinta Weiss, CBC Archivist.

The College would like to thank the following inaugural donors to the Heritage Fund:

J.Fanning
P.J.Beerworth
R.Leydon
J.Leydon
B.Leydon
R.Czechowicz
J.Coady
G.Maguire
T.Nichols
L.Lippis

If you would like to donate an artefact to the Archives, or make a donation to the Heritage Fund, please contact.

Jacinta Weiss
CBC Archivist
08 8400 4297

Donations of $250 or more will be acknowledged on the Honour Board located in the Museum.

Visitors interested in viewing our collection or researching the College records for family members are welcome to contact the archives during school hours.