Remember Newman Club at Western Michigan University in 1956? Or Gertha S. Davis, dean of women students from 1922? The beehives of 1969’s homecoming court?
Memories that were once shoved in a trunk are now available online as part of WMU’s University Archives and University Libraries Digitization Center effort to digitize all of the yearbooks from 1906 to 1975.
The digitizing process began this past summer. The yearbooks were all scanned, checked for quality, and digitally corrected for pencil marks and handwriting.
The process took about 20 hours a week over the course six months.
“We had resources to hire a student to work with us on this. We ended up having four students helping. The Digitization Center had the ability to do this project with the help of students because of the Y.O.U. [Youth Opportunities Unlimited] program,” said Lou Ann Morgan, Digitization Coordinator at WMU.
“They are much more accessible on the Internet for all audiences,” Morgan added. “It’s a source of pride to learn about the history, and what was done – it’s a nice complied history of that year.”
For alumni, the digitalized yearbooks provide a connection between what once was, and what is, WMU.
“I think helping alumni reconnect with WMU is one reason to [digitize] these yearbooks. Unless you live in the city that the university is located it can be hard to stay connected,” Scott Garrison, associate dean for Public Services and Technology at Waldo Library, said.
For some, the online versions of the WMU yearbooks are the only connection they still have to the university.
“These yearbooks allow alumni to reconnect with WMU and remember the good times they had as a Bronco,” Garrison said.
“If you want to see what East Hall looked like closer to the time it was [in use, yearbooks are] the place I would start,” Garrison added. “Because they are online, and because they reflect people and places at Western in a particular moment in time.”
In the Digitization Center, there is an oversized scanner used for maps and artwork up to 42-inches wide, and printers that can print up to 44 inches wide. Additionally, there is a copy stand system with UV filtering to protect manuscripts and other fragile documents.
There is also a light stand for digital photography stands for the original of many three-dimensional objects, such as old necklaces.
The archives collection has telegrams, blueprints, civil war documents, and much more. The machines available in the Digitization Center can be used for a vast variety of things, from old maps to 14th century manuscripts.
Many of the items digitized are available at the Digitization Center’s Web site, wmich.edu/library/digi/. A recent addition includes a 1915 Michigan African American history book from WMU Libraries called “Michigan Manual of Freedmen’s Progress.”
The process of scanning the yearbooks was done in two different ways, depending on how many copies of each yearbook the Archives had and how fragile the copy was. If the Archives have multiple copies of a yearbook, the yearbook was taken apart and the pages were individually scanned.
“The older ones that couldn’t be debound were scanned on a special small book scanner, one page at a time,” Paul Howell, Director of Digitization, said. “Most of those were the really old ones [from] 1906-1920 were not de-bound because they’re scarce and fragile.”
The first yearbooks were individually assembled – even pictures were individually cut out and pasted into the books.
The Digitization Center works closely with the Regional Archives. Often, the archives approach the Digitization Center with projects they want to start, or vice versa.
“Just as the archives contains information that’s relevant to students and faculty, this [digitization] unit helps the archives produce digitized version of the contents,” Garrison said. “The Archives is just one part of the collection that digitization works with. This center is available to help deliver digitization content to students, faculty, and staff at WMU.”
