Michigan State University alumni and/or curious individuals, can now access more than a hundred yearbooks from the university's past.
The earliest available edition is from 1877, when MSU was known as the State Agricultural College.
Jennie Rankin, Outreach and Engagement Archivist for MSU’s Archives and Historical Collections department, said in earlier years, yearbooks were called class albums.
"They were just pictures of people and maybe a couple of buildings on campus, and some of them are very hit or miss throughout the years," she said.
Rankin said not every year is available from 1877 onward, but a large number of them are.
With a couple editions still waiting to be uploaded, 128 yearbooks in total will be viewable online. The most recent edition is from 2022.
"[The yearbooks] are a lot of fun to just flip through and you're always going to find something like, oh, did you see this, did know about this? There's always something new to learn," she said.
Having digital copies of the yearbooks available online also makes it easier for families who may be doing research on relatives who attended MSU, Rankin said.
"For us, my office, the most basic reference question we get is, I'm looking for info on my family member., I'm wanting to know about my uncle, [or] my great grandma was a student," she said.
Now, families can find their relatives in yearbooks using the MSU Libraries website without needing to physically be in East Lansing.
The project started in 2022 and was funded by nearly $27,000 in donor contributions thanks to a fundraiser led by MSU's Library Development Office.
In addition to the sentimental value of seeing a loved-ones college experience, the collection also offers a glimpse of MSU's history over the decades.
Since it was founded in 1855, the university has seen a lot changes and that includes the name of its yearbook. At one point, the yearbook went by a name that today is more closely associated to MSU's rival, the University of Michigan.
"It was called The Wolverine, and it was just because it was for the state animal. That's really the only reason why it was called that. And you know, the optics of it seems kind of strange for it to be called The Wolverine," Rankin said.
That's why in 1976, Rankin said the university held a naming contest to change the name of its yearbook to its current name, The Red Cedar Log.
Rankin said her favorite yearbook to flip through is from 1945 when most of the men on campus were away at war, including university mascot Sparty.
That year the yearbook featured letters from his girlfriend Spartina.
“You can see the little letters that she wrote to him and talk about what was happening on campus. You know, the dances she attended, and ‘oh the sporting events weren't that great this year, but it was still fun.’”
Rankin said she hopes the digitized yearbooks can help others explore the past.
As for when more recent yearbooks might be available online, Rankin said that's a decision that's still being worked out.
