About the Yearbooks

This collection features yearbooks published by students at The University of Scranton (and its predecessor, St. Thomas College). While the first yearbook was published in 1916, publication was not consistent prior to 1948. During this early period, the name of the yearbook changed several times, from the Aquinas (1916-1925) to Vision (1927-1928) to Purple (1936) to Labarum (1939-1940). In 1948, the name Windhover was chosen, in reference to “The Windhover,” a 1918 poem by Gerald Manley Hopkins, S.J.

As the 1948 yearbook staff wrote, “We feel that the word, Windhover, is symbolic because of the habits of this bird. More commonly known is the falcon, it is famous for loyalty to the master who trained it. We believe that, like the falcon, we have been trained and as we fare forth, it is with the hope that we may return to our trainer, Alma Mater, at least in spirit, through the pages of this Year Book.”

The print yearbooks are preserved in the University of Scranton Weinberg Memorial Library’s Special Collections and University Archives and may be viewed by appointment.

Digitization

The University of Scranton yearbook collection was digitized in 2008 by the OCLC Preservation Service Center in Bethlehem, PA.   Pages were scanned at 300 dpi in TIFF format.  Yearbooks dated before 1988 were scanned entirely in grayscale, while color pages in yearbooks dated 1988 and after were scanned in full color.  The collection was converted to JPEG2000 format for loading into CONTENTdm software.

For information about the digitization of the yearbooks, contact the Digital Services department of the University of Scranton Weinberg Memorial Library at (570) 941-7003.

Student Privacy and Removed Pages

At the request of the University's Alumni Relations office, directory pages containing student addresses and phone numbers were removed from the digital versions of the 1988 through 2003 yearbooks (starting in 2004, published yearbooks no longer included directories).   These pages may be viewed in the print yearbooks, available in the Weinberg Memorial Library’s Special Collections and University Archives.

An additional single page was removed from the 2007 yearbook at the request of the University’s Office of General Counsel.