Raised in Fonda, New York, Arner Howard Burtch graduated from Phillips Academy in 1903.

Although some of the clippings of his scrapbook are ripped, it is still clear on which page each of them belongs, and the condition of the pages is good. The items preserved date mostly from 1903. The clippings are not organized in any specific manner, but as the pages pass, there is a noticeable shift in the type of information Burtch chose to preserve.

Burtch started the scrapbook when he was a senior at Phillips Academy and focused on athletics. He preserved schedules and scores of games and documented names of captains and photos of the teams as well as newspaper articles. There is information about football, baseball, hockey, and basketball. Exeter teams often appear in these documents; the competition between the two schools was clearly present. Burtch himself was a football player at Andover and continued after school as a part of North team.

The scrapbook includes the Prescription of Exercise book at Andover; it has information about Burtch’s health such as spine condition, habitual posture, circulation, and other features. Along with attendance reports, the scrapbook includes a few of Burtch’s transcripts from Phillips Academy. The grades indicate that Burtch was definitely good at Math and Geometry, which is also supported by the E. B. Convers Prizes he was awarded for “Excellence in Mathematics”.

Burtch has kept a number of items that document his social activities: tickets to the theatre, programs of concerts, invitation to his brother’s wedding, and even several
restaurant menus. His possible participation in Philomathean Debate Society and Chess and Glee clubs is documented in a few cards with information about these clubs. There is also a Commencement invitation, a list of Senior Superlatives for Burtch’s class, and a few Phillipian issues. Burtch continued his studies at Harvard and put his Harvard acceptance letter into the scrapbook.

Toward the last pages of the scrapbook, Burtch concentrated less on athletics, and newspaper articles about Andover Alumni, reunions, anniversaries, and news took over the schedules and results of games. Burtch also noted an article in the Phillipian about Phillips Academy alumnus Sir Chentung Liang Cheng, Chinese ambassador to the United States. Besides news from Andover, Burtch preserved a number of pictures of Andover and Exeter campuses.

by Gabija Saginaite, class of 2018

Scrapbook Box 78