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Brainerd Public Schools Archives

The Brainerd Public Schools Archives (BPSA) preserves and shares the 150-year history of Brainerd Public Schools. We collect, protect, and showcase artifacts and stories from students, staff, alumni, and the community to support BPS’s educational mission.

BPSA curates exhibitions, presentations, and digital content that highlight the district’s legacy and inspire appreciation for the ongoing creation of history within our schools.

We welcome donations of photographs, trophies, programs, uniforms, and other memorabilia—no item is too small to help tell the story of BPS. Special collections also celebrate BPS graduates who have made an impact in the arts, education, public service, and beyond.

Visit us at the Washington Educational Services Building, 804 Oak Street, Brainerd, MN 56401.

Contact us at 218-330-1780 or by email at bps.history@isd181.org to donate, volunteer, or learn more.

  • Mission

    The mission of BPSA is to protect, preserve and communicate the history of BPS, its students, graduates, teachers and staff, and to provide public access to the BPSA collection consistent with law and the archival safekeeping of the BPSA collection.

    Vision

    The vision of Brainerd Public Schools Archives is to deliver, on a sustained basis, tangible programming, acts and planning in execution of BPSA's mission, ultimately to enhance the educational experiences of students, to build meaningful rapport with Brainerd Public Schools graduates, to enrich the lives of BPS past and present faculty and staff and to inspire critical and creative thinking within BPS communities, wherever found.

    Values

    • BPSA will responsibly care for and utilize materials donated to BPSA so as to assure their presence both today and into the indefinite future.
       
    • As a calling, BPSA is intensively concerned with the development of critical thinking through an understanding of BPS history, with the movement of time through the people of BPS, its communities and the BPS institution itself, the interrelationships of time, place and people and the instructiveness of their lives and behaviors, with the collection, presentation, preservation, protection and accessibility of the evidence of all of those histories.
       
    • BPSA supports engagements in responsible conversations about history, its meaning and applications, in the development and fostering of critical thinking skills and insights into life, and in support of keeping history alive, relevant, compelling, informative and instructive to and for BPS constituencies.

  • History, it has been said, is in part about making connections, between past and present, present and future, people here and people there, stimulating thought which crosses boundaries real and artificial, to the betterment of all. Digital “links” are another form of connection which, when used thoughtfully, will increase knowledge and, more critically, understanding.

    Links

  • Brainerd Public Schools Archives welcomes volunteers. Volunteers can significantly enhance the effectiveness of any institution or department within it.  In some instances, it is rightly said that volunteers are the lifeblood of non - profit entities, such as BPS and BPSA. 

    Those with an interest in history, in the values it teaches and in the critical thinking it promotes, who wish to assure that history is preserved and protected, but also that it be made accessible to the public and supportive of the missions of BPS and BPSA, are encouraged to contact BPSA to learn more about BPSA volunteering.
     

    Examples of possible BPSA volunteer opportunities include assistance with:

     

    • Securing oral histories
       
    • Curating exhibition space
       
    • Development of the BPSA Collection
       
    • Creating BPSA story lines to support the website and other electronic media
       
    • Organizing and maintaining the collection
       
    • Collaborating with BPS faculty
       
    • Other BPSA activities, and the imaginative creation and delivery of BPS archival services to BPS and its communities in support and furtherance of the fundamental missions of BPS and BPSA.

    In the interest of creating and maintaining a safe environment for BPS students, staff, and other volunteers, all volunteers must annually complete the Volunteer Application Form.  The BPS Application Form and additional volunteer guidelines can be found here.

  • Brainerd Public Schools Archives is located in the former Washington High School, Room 203B.

    Mailing Address:
    Washington Education Services Building
    804 Oak Street 
    Brainerd, MN 56401

    218-330-1780
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    Brainerd Public Schools Archives