Snapshots from the Past: School Images on the Web and the Construction of the Collective Memory of Schools

Abstract

The aim of this work is to provide an initial qualitative analysis of the role that historical school photographs play on the Web 2.0. In addition to its role as a historical source the historic school photograph is also a powerful visual mnemonic stimulus referring to what, in advanced societies, is a universally shared life experience: the schooling experience, in which people from different social, cultural and generational provenance can recognize themselves. School photography thus represents a ``social object'' par excellence, i.e. it is able to attract the attention of people and encourage them to talk to each other in order to recall and share common memories. Through social media, in fact, it is exactly this intrinsic social-relational function of school photographs which seems to amplify by catalysing the web-users' interests, evoking shared memories, building connections between people. Through significant examples and case-studies, the author offers an initial review of the social practices to which school photographs are subjected today on the Web and social media, which show how new life can be breathed into the photographic heritage of schools---too often forgotten in our archives, libraries, museums, schools and houses.