Dust drifts through the sunlight streaming into Charles Library, where Ann Mosher and Melissa VandeBurgt have opened the pages of Temple’s past to visitors. Decades of memories captured in yearbooks fill the room, each one offering a glimpse into a different era of campus life.
“The history of Temple and our collections are for students,” said VandeBurgt, director of the Special Collections Research Center. “We do all of it to collect the history and make it accessible. So this is a way of drawing people in where they can touch things and play with things and realize that it’s a safe space for them to come and just have a general curiosity.”
Life at Temple University: In Yearbooks, an exhibition open on the first floor of Charles Library from Sept. 30 to Dec. 6, aims to make Temple’s rich history tangible for students by showcasing a century of yearbooks. Mosher and VandeBurgt hope to highlight the university’s evolving identity while empowering students to consider their own roles in shaping its future.
The exhibition space on the first floor of Charles Library brims with yearbooks spanning generations, dating back to the inaugural edition of the Templar Yearbook in 1923. Some professional schools, like nursing and medicine, had dedicated pages in Templar before starting their own yearbooks. The School of Medicine’s yearbook, The Skull, has editions from every decade of the last century on display at the exhibit.
Mosher sifted through the extensive collection of artifacts to plan the exhibit. Each piece captivated her as it whispered tales of students and faculty from a time past.
“A lot of what we put under the glass was what we thought was really interesting,” said Mosher, a bibliographic assistant for SCRC. “It didn’t show up well in the case, but one of the yearbooks even had Braille in it. So, there’s a lot of things you never would have expected.”
The exhibition goes beyond the pages of Temple’s various yearbooks: Even the desks and chairs scattered across the room are pieces of Temple’s history retrieved from storage, once fixtures of Temple’s classrooms where past generations sat, studied and dreamed of their future.
Student portraits and photographs of campus activities line the walls, creating a tapestry of diverse experiences and milestones within the community.
“If you just look at the change between 1924 and 1954, it’s huge,” VandeBurgt said. “I would love to compare the diversity in this picture to many other institutions in 1954. I think just in those 30 years it tells us how [Temple] has evolved and changed, and then it just keeps going.”
Images from the 20th century convey Temple’s evolution from a small religious-based school to a diverse public institution in the heart of Philadelphia. This shift is further illustrated through video footage from the 1960s and 70s.
John Pettit, the associate archivist for SCRC, assembled the footage to capture campus life during this time. The collection of videos allows students to visualize the beginnings of a vibrant, inclusive campus culture that represents the energy and activism of the time period, Pettit said.
“Books and photos are great,” Pettit said. “Text is great but I feel audiovisual is like time travel, just being able to really feel the campus and the people walking around and the activities in ways that other media can’t. It really compliments the yearbooks and makes it come to life.”
Temple legacy runs deep for Pettit, a 2005 film and media arts and geography and urban studies alumnus. Both of his parents also studied at the university. Life at Temple University: In Yearbooks gave him the chance to share that history with his five-year-old son during a visit to the exhibit.
“Let’s find Nana in the yearbook,” Pettit told his son while pulling out the 1970 edition and pointing to his mother’s photo. “He got to see his Nana.”
Pettit stressed the exhibit’s ability to connect generations through shared experiences, serving as a reminder that Temple’s history is not just archival but woven into the lives of current students and their families. This idea resonates with VandeBurgt, who encourages students to reflect on their own contributions.
“What impact do you want to have?” VandeBurgt said. “You can always ask that question and remind yourself that we’re a part of history and one day, you too will be reflected on. What do you want that to be?”
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