High School Yearbooks

High School Yearbooks

The social history of high school life is found in yearbooks and it is said that no matter what you do to escape your past or your identity, someone can find you in your yearbook. Even though information in some yearbooks is sketchy, we all return to the publication, seeking clues to what we think we remember, because information about what we were like back then helps make us understandable to each other now.

Yearbooks are important in that they are both the symbol and the evidence that we participated in something unique to ourselves. What is intriguing is that what is said about a person in the yearbook very likely will hold true throughout the person’s life and, other than scrapbooks and diaries, which are individually personal, yearbooks remain the best “snapshot” of a particular school year. These documents are a keen measure of who we are and who we were, where and when we were, and with whom we were. They are also very important in a sense larger than ourselves. They situate us in time and place in both mind and heart. 

Yearbooks are singular in that they are the record of a particular collection of young people who by happenstance are placed together. They tell the story of times spent in a hundred different ways in classes, clubs, music, sports, and simply common interests. They showcase clusters of people as well as individuals in their activities, recollecting the wins of a team or a band competition, as well as single accomplishments, such as breaking a record or being honored for a special milestone. Groups of friends are shown in poses with captions that suggest they will never, ever forget this particular moment with this particular set of friends.

The yearbook also serves as a larger social history. Nowhere else can one learn about traditions of a school community throughout the years, such as Class Day or Shelf Day, Senior Class Gifts to the school, or yearbook dedications, and sometimes class officers, team captains and the like. It also is often the best answer to questions such as one that recently was raised at Lower Dauphin High School, “Where did the Habbyshaw Award originate?” The answer partially was found in the 1937 Tatler which identified the Honorable Mr. William E. Habbyshaw as a member of the school board; further research revealed that in the 1930s he served as a Representative in the State General Assembly and that he had a nephew, his namesake, who also had been graduated from the school that pre-dated the newer Lower Dauphin.

The publication given recognition as the first high school yearbook, called “The Evergreen,” appeared in 1845 in Waterford, NY. However, it was not until the 1920s that yearbooks began to include school activities and teachers, covering more than just the graduating seniors. Sales campaigns began in 1925 both in selling the yearbooks as well as the advertising found therein. Fifty years later, in the 1970s, yearbooks began to break tradition, using more creativity in layout, text, coverage, and themes. Video yearbooks made their appearance in 1980, the 1990s began displaying a stronger journalistic style, and by the new century CDs began to make inroads.

Usually each new yearbook staff spends a lot of time deciding on a theme which should direct the style and content of the book. Sometimes a historical event suggests—or commands—a compelling theme, other times a universally popular song or a movie or a television program suggests the zeitgeist of a class, and occasionally the personality of a particular class is so evident that it becomes the yearbook theme.

For example, “Passing the Torch,” as a tribute to John F. Kennedy, was the favorite theme for 1964 yearbooks throughout the nation, much as yearbooks in 1928 honored Charles A. Lindbergh. Yearbooks during World War II featured patriotism, classes of 1949 felt compelled to be “The 49ers,” in honor of the original gold rush of 1849; those in 1960 welcomed Alaska and Hawaii to statehood, yearbooks during the Bicentennial were destined to commemorate 1776, while the LD Class of 1987 believed “It’s a Jungle Out There, and Lower Dauphin Class of 2010 was expected to make note of the high school’s Golden Anniversary.

A newer type of yearbook, called Lifepages is an online version of a print yearbook, and accompanies it rather than replaces it. It offers alumni the ability to do searches and communicate with one another. It also allows information to be updated as events occur. Its designer says his Lifepages is “a social network built around the present and the past, so memories are (online) for the rest of your life. …students can upload content, so the yearbook is something that grows and lives throughout the school year.” (http://blog.pennlive.com/midstate_impact/print.html?entry=/201. 4/15/2011.)

While yearbooks appear to be all the same, no two are alike. Styles of covers, layouts, and even what content is included changes from year to year, as there is no standard manual for producing a yearbook. It often comes as an unpleasant surprise to find that the yearbooks are not consistent in what is included, as any particular yearbook features what was important to its own class or its editorial staff. Most staffs don’t see the importance of being historians as well as artists, causing difficulty to later readers.  This, however, is not a new lack. The Clarionette (Clarion, PA) of 1925 did not identify by name anyone in their yearbook, not even the graduating seniors.

Whether they admit it or not, people remember with uncanny accuracy how many times their picture appeared in the yearbook and exactly what was written under their senior picture. Years after graduation, chances are that what is said about a person in the yearbook still holds true. The book helps us remember both the best and the worse—or even the vicissitudes and ironies—of life in high school.