Alumni Association Home > Past Issues > 2007 > March-April 2007	Print View

Last fall, Don Ward (B.A. ’61) dropped by the alumni association offices with an old University of Minnesota yearbook in hand. Many alumni have donated yearbooks to the alumni association over the years, but the volume Ward brought was the first University annual ever published, the 1888 Gopher.

The years had not been kind to this historic book. Both the front and back covers were loose and some of the gold lettering had worn off. But I was grateful to accept it; we have one other from that year in our library, but it is equally fragile.

Together with University Archives and the McNamara Alumni Center’s Heritage Gallery, the alumni association library—with its collections of yearbooks and volumes of the alumni magazine—plays an important role in preserving and honoring the University’s history. These pieces of our collective history not only give us perspective on the past, they instill in us a sense of pride in everything that this University and its alumni have accomplished.

Don’s visit inspired us to take inventory of our library. I discovered that we are missing only the 1967 yearbook, which is actually the last official yearbook published by the University. As to why the yearbooks ceased production, I’m told that they became too expensive to produce given the University’s enormous, and growing, student population. About a decade later, an attempt to resume the yearbook tradition resulted in a slim green volume titled The 1976-1977 Gopher. And in 1979, the All-Campus Council produced a 39-page yearbook of sorts. The alumni association collection is missing both of these books, as well as a 48-page yearbook-type publication that Institutional Relations produced to document the years 1982 and 1983. We would love to add these to our collection as well.

I also discovered that a good many of the yearbooks in our collection are damaged. The 1888, 1889, 1895, 1899, 1901 through 1913, 1930, 1940, 1953 through 1956, and 1961 volumes are in very poor condition, many with missing covers, torn spines, and marked-up pages.

I found that all is not well with our alumni magazines either. This publication —the official magazine of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association—has gone by different names over the past 105 years, including the Minnesota Alumni Weekly, the Minnesota Alumnus, Minnesota Alumni Voice, Gopher Grad, and Minnesota Alumni News, becoming Minnesota in 1978. I was certain that our library housed a complete collection, but I was surprised and dismayed to find that we are missing quite a few issues published in 1927–28, 1935–37, 1941–43, and 1975–78. And many earlier editions are damaged, especially those from 1901 through 1932.

So I ask for your help in preserving our past. At an alumni event not too long ago, I overhead someone mention that she had 40 years of alumni magazines stored in her basement. At the time, I missed the opportunity to connect with her, but perhaps by a stroke of incredible luck she will happen to read this column and be inspired to donate some of those magazines. And if you have and are willing to donate any of the above-mentioned yearbooks or magazines, please contact Christine Howard at 612-625-9427 or howard@umn.edu. I thank you in advance for helping us preserve our shared history.