The Headlams and their young men: questions I plan to ask and materials I hope to consult

I ended the previous posting by saying that I would report on my first day in Durham. To give further context though, I've decided first to say something about my project as a Barker Fellow, building on the brief comments I made in my first posting on this blog (on 12th February). 

When I was applying to be a Barker Fellow at Durham last April, I said that part of my dissemination plan was to create a blog - for immediate sharing of my findings. 

I decided to call it 'Adventures in the Palace Green' after the library I would be based in and because I wanted to share what I thought would be an exciting journey - or might not be... That's the thing, surely, with archive work: you don't know where the investigations will take you.

For the application, I presented a plan of what I would investigate, or, better, what I hoped to investigate and here is the jist of it - 'translated' from application-speak into another academic voice, my blogging voice, and moving where appropriate into the present tense, because the application was successful and I actually AM a Barker Fellow!

During my month's stay, I will work on a project called "Elite schooling and young men's enculturation in the Long Nineteenth Century: a case study of the Headlam family'.

Durham in the period I'll be investigating:
mid-nineteenth century image sourced via the National Library of Wales from here.

I'll be spending the month investigating the collections of family papers in the Palace Green Library's Special Collections, particularly those of the Headlam and Headlam-Morley families of County Durham. 

I'll do this with a goal of realising the potential of the collections as evidence for the place of Classics in the lived experience of privileged young men. 

More specifically, I shall seek - via my case study of the Headlam family - to investigate the role of Classics in three key areas: 

• Underpinning elite schooling and the enculturation of young men. 
• Bolstering the British class system. 
• Moulding a curriculum which continues to shape debates into the twenty-first century. 

So it's a project about the Long Nineteenth Century - and it's a project, too, about NOW.

Based on my initial investigations last March and April when I was preparing the application, I am hopeful that the Headlam Collection will be a useful resource for undertaking an examination of the enculturation of young men. This is because the papers include correspondence from successive generations of sons of the family, spanning the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. 

More specifically, from what I have been able to glean so far, the correspondence includes comments from the young men about their experiences with Classics.

In my application, I proposed to ask several research questions. Here they are, with some reflections now that I've got started. It's useful for me to be revisiting these including to help ensure that I do ask them.

• One question is: which aspects of studying Classics were found especially enjoyable (or not I should also be asking) or difficult (or easy I guess) by the Headlam young men?
• Another is: what views are expressed about the value of studying Greek and Latin? - if any I now add.
• I also intend to ask what evidence is provided (if any) about the teaching methods experienced by the boys.
• I won't be limiting what I look for to Classics. I will ask, too, how the young men's experiences of Classics compare with those of other subjects.
• I also plan to ask whether any changes can be detected during specific boys' school careers.
• Moreover, I will be looking for any evidence for how the boys saw Classical learning as a preparation for future studies, such as in Divinity (this was a family of clergymen...), or for their future occupations.

I have some quite ambitious questions to ask as well:

• One is to explore whether any changes can be detected over time in experiences or perceptions of Classics between the 18th and early 20th centuries.
• Another is to look for what responses are given - or what advice is offered - by family members, including the sisters (and maybe aunts?) they corresponded with and, perhaps, fathers recalling their own school experiences.
• Finally, again thinking big, I intend to ask how the experiences of the Headlam young men compare with those expressed or conveyed in the papers of other families in the Collection.

I've talked about 'The Collection' - here is some information about the materials I plan to consult.

The key materials I would consult would be the Headlam and Headlam-Morley papers (GB 033 HHM in the library's catalogue) including the papers of the following family members:

• Arthur William Headlam - notably with his sons Arthur and Lionel and also the school records of Arthur and Lionel, his wife's diaries (interesting that they're among HIS papers) and correspondence between Arthur and Lionel and their sister Roses and their aunts Isabella and Margaret.
• Arthur Cayley Headlam, the son of Arthur William, notably his diaries and travel journals

Arthur Cayley Headlam 1862–1947. Image sourced from here

I also hope to consult the Duff Papers (GB 033 HHM), especially those of James Duff Duff, a Cambridge Classicist and James Fitzjames Duff who was a Professor of Education as well as a Government Commissioner and a Vice Chancellor (the first? I must check) of the University of Durham.

To do all this, I have already begun working in collaboration with relevant colleagues at Durham. These include the Palace Green Special Collection librarians, who have been super so far and academics above all Professor Edith Hall, whose Classics and Class project is inspirational.

As I found that I have quite a bit to say - more than I anticipated when I began this blog posting - about the project at this early stage, I have decided to break now and make this alone the subject this posting. In any case, very long blog posts are NOT a good thing! 

But the next posting will, I anticipate, be about my first day with the Headlams...