A slice of our history
Today, when Jon was in the Traveler office scanning past yearbook covers for the archive section of the site, he found a gem: a VERY well preserved edition of the 1907 Cardinal. From the founding of the yearbook in 1897 until it became the Razorback in 1916, the Arkansas book was called the Cardinal. (The Arkansas mascot was, in fact, the Cardinal until 1910.) Our oldest copy of any book is from 1911, and we have to keep it in an envelope to preserve the pages that aren't connected to one another anymore. Therefore, this was an amazing find.
It's so interesting to look back over our history as a publication and see how we've evolved. There are some past books we adore above others, and the 1907 book is now one of my favorites.
The "History of the Class of 1907," near the beginning of the book, starts with this paragraph:
The class of 1907, which is the largest in the history of the University, has had a very unique history. We have watched with pride the splendid growth of the University since we entered as Freshman in 1907. We have seen the student-body grow from 600 to 1,200. We have seen the campus filled with new buildings; and we hope yet to see greater things for our dear old 'Varsity.
It boggles my mind to read that. When I came to the UA as a freshman in the fall of 2006, the enrollment was nearly 18,000, and it continued to grow since then.
I've looked through this book with a sort of reverence, more than anything else. It's fascinating to be able to see a piece of our history that not many students ever do.
Jon is working on uploading scans of the covers of all the yearbooks we have from the past 101 years. Check it out in our archive section!
Labels: 1907 Cardinal, history, past yearbooks
posted by Helen Chase at
4:19 PM
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