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School media center is looking for old Caledonia yearbooks |
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
They were simply called the “Class Book” prior to World War One. In the 1920, ‘30s and ‘40s, they were called the “Caledonian.” In the 1950’s they were called the “Cyclone.” During the 1960’s through 1993, they were known as the “Tomahawk,” a direct reference to the schools nickname, “Warriors.” In 1994, in an effort to be more politically correct, the name was changed to “Journeys,” which is still being used today.
Caledonia Public High School was established 114 years ago in 1894. Some time after that, school officials decided some type of book or journal was needed to help chronicle the major events at the school, and the Caledonia yearbook was born.
According to Joanne Zard, who works at the Caledonia Area Middle School/High School media center, the earliest yearbook the school has is from 1912, called the Class Book. The next oldest yearbook is from 1924 and is called the Caledonian.
The third-oldest book is from 1935, then 1936, 1938, 1940, 1941. Starting with 1945, the school district’s library is complete, with at least one copy of each year. Many of the copies prior to 1960 aren’t in the best of shape, however.
“We’d like to fill in the holes if we could,” Zard said. “So we’re putting out a request to the Caledonia area asking persons who have old yearbooks that they really don’t know what to do with, we’d love to have them to fill out our library as much as possible.”
Zard explained that she and the other persons who staff the media center receive numerous requests to view old yearbooks each year from Caledonia alumni wanting to put on class reunions.
“Because we have so many holes in our yearbook library, especially in the early part of the past century, we haven’t been able to be a lot of help,” Zard continued. “And many of the books we do have aren’t in very good shape.
“We’ve had some of the old yearbooks rebound, but it costs about $35 per book, so if we could replace some of those books with ones in better shape, donated from the public, that would be very helpful as well,” Zard added.
The yearbook collection is stored in a room off the media center in several book shelves. Zard figures they could use any yearbooks prior to 1970. Although they do have one book for many years prior to 1960, they would like to have more than one copy, and/or the single copy they have is not in good shape. She provided a list of missing years. They include: 1966, 1963, 1961, 1946, and any copies prior to 1945.
“We feel our yearbook collection is a valuable community resource, and we do receive many requests from people. We’d just like to encourage anyone who might have old yearbooks they really don’t want anymore to bring them to us. It’s just one more way we can be a service to the community,” she concluded.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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