The Lost Triangles Now in the BJA Archives

The Triangle, BJA’s high school’s student newspaper, was first published in 1950.  Its issues present a student-eye views of each other, faculty, classes, parties, outings, sports, campus events, and on occasion, world news.  It contains admonitions to school spirit, courtesy, studying, being on time, patriotism, as well as spiritual challenges.  It is a rich source of Academy history not seen in any other source.
 
As a new faculty member in 1970 my office was next to Edith Markham’s office.  I recall a cardboard box containing back issues of the Triangle.  In 1999 principal Dave Fisher asked me to research and produce the BJA Heritage Display for the lobby of the Academy Auditorium.  One of my first thoughts: locate that box of Triangles.
 
By that time, several faculty members had served as Triangle sponsor, but no one knew the location of that box.  I searched Quadrangle nooks and crannies to no avail. 
 
I knew a copy of each issue went to the Mack Library.  They had Triangle issues on their records, but the Library had just been remodeled, and no one could put their finger on the back issues of the Triangle.  Assuming they would eventually turn up, I was told to check back.  I did.  Repeatedly.  In 2020 they had still not found their Triangle collection. 
 
As I became BJA’s historian I sent out a plea to Academy grads and faculty to donate issues they may have kept.  Through the generosity of several BJA packrats the Academy Archives amassed a complete collection of issues from the late 1960s through 1992, the year the Triangle went digital.
 
No one returned Triangles from the first 20 years of the newspaper.  The Academy’s files and a couple of retired teacher’s records held a few random issues.  For some years we had nothing.
 
Then we found them—sort of.  In 1996 someone had microfilmed back issues of the Triangle.  Could that be what happened to the box?  Or did the Mack Library have their collection microfilmed?  No one knew.  In fact, no one knew these microfilms existed.  They turned up in a box on a high shelf in the back of a rarely used cabinet.  We were not sure that the microfilms contained Triangles.  The labels on the boxes could be wrong.  Finding a working microfilm reader in 2020 was difficult, but after confirming the microfilms were Triangles (I used a microscope) we had them digitized. 
 
Thirty-five years of Triangles is over 4000 pages.  The microfilm was black and white, so the colorful Triangle covers were not included.  When microfilmed, a frame with the volume, issue number, and date was inserted between issues.  Both the Triangle staff and the microfilmer, however, made errors.  Some issues are out-of-order and others are missing.  Organizing the digitized materials into a database took weeks. 
 
Making mimeograph stencils using a manual typewriter does not always make for clear copy, especially if it must be corrected.  The microfilming process often distorts images.  Digitizing a microfilm is not always precise.  Many of the Triangle articles seen in sections of Refined With Time dealing with this period of Academy history may appear a bit unclear.  Please excuse.  They have been through a lot to get here.  We are glad to have them at all. 
 
W. Pinkston
Supervisor of Bob Jones Academy Archives