Our Crowdfunding Groups
Thanks to the generosity of alumni, faculty, staff, students and parents, we met the $11,000 goal and will soon begin the process of digitizing all 120 Razorback yearbooks.
While our crowdfunding campaign may have ended, it's never too late to donate. Any additional funds raised will help jump start a new project to digitize the award-winning student newspaper, the Arkansas Traveler. Click here to make a gift to the Arkansas Archives Digitization Fund.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to look up your grandmother’s picture in her 1948 yearbook any time you wanted? Wouldn’t it be great to instantly research the political climate of the 1960s for that class project instantly online? Wouldn’t it be fun to see all the big 80s hairstyles and remember how it was on campus way back when?
University Libraries are working to make it all possible—and so much more—with their next digitization project: Looking Back at The Razorback. Through this project, more than 100 years of University of Arkansas history will be made available. There are two goals: to digitize each and every page of the 120 University of Arkansas yearbooks and then put them online for anyone around the world to access. University Archives and the Digital Services Unit, both within University Libraries, are collaborating to accomplish the task.
The success of the project relies on you. Help us make a positive impact on generations of students, alumni and researchers.
The student-created University of Arkansas yearbook originated as The Cardinal in 1897. This first yearbook, 108 pages altogether, included photos of faculty, students, the few buildings on campus at the time, student clubs, sororities and fraternities, athletic teams, military cadets and the literary societies on the Fayetteville campus, as well as pictures of the law and medical students in Little Rock. Now known as The Razorback, the yearbook is annually created by a staff of dedicated and hardworking students.
“We’ve needed the yearbooks digitized for nearly as long as the internet has been in existence!” said Megan Wilson, editor-in-chief of The Razorback for the 2018-2019 academic year. Student Media, within the School of Journalism and Strategic Media in Fulbright College, is the student organization in charge of the creation and distribution of The Razorback, as well as UATV, KXUA 88.3-FM, The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper, The Hill Magazine and Main Hill Media.
Digitizing The Razorback is important to alumni and their families, too. It will allow anyone to look up their relatives easily; some may see images of ancestors they’ve never even seen before. And, for alumni themselves, digitized yearbooks will provide an unparalleled walk down memory lane.
Yearbooks are one of the most commonly requested resources in the Libraries' Special Collections department. Researchers interested in Arkansas history, American culture, university life and more will have an additional, accessible resource at their fingertips. Scholars currently must visit Special Collections or the Arkansas Alumni Association in person to access these materials—digitizing them will allow access wherever and whenever. It’s history worth sharing!
University Libraries would love to accomplish this monumental project by the University of Arkansas' epic 150th anniversary celebration in 2021. Make your gift today and see U of A history come alive for tomorrow!
You can help us even further by sharing our project with your family and friends via email, social media and word of mouth! Please share this project link: https://fundrazor.uark.edu/yearbook.
Should we exceed the goal for this project, any additional funds received will help jump start a new project to digitize the award-winning student newspaper, the Arkansas Traveler.
Each year the Digital Services team produces five to six online collections that anyone, anywhere can access at any time. Make your gift of $6 to help get this collection online and then go check out their website at digitalcollections.uark.edu.
1897 was the first year of the Razorback yearbook! Honor the inaugural year with a gift of $18.97.
University Libraries' Special Collections department began in 1967 and is home to University Archives, the repository for all things U of A! Your gift of $67 will help bring more university history alive for generations to come.
The student-created Razorback yearbook originated as The Cardinal in 1897. The first yearbook, 108 pages altogether, included photos of faculty, students, the few buildings on campus at the time, student clubs, sororities and fraternities, athletic teams, military cadets and the literary societies on the Fayetteville campus, as well as pictures of the law and medical students in Little Rock. Honor The Cardinal with a gift of $108!
Student Media, an organization within the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, is the group that produces The Razorback, the Arkansas Traveler and several other student news media. Around 200 students participate in Student Media from all over campus each year, with 15 working on the yearbook alone. Your gift of $200 will give the hard-working yearbook staff access to past issues at the click of a mouse!
It takes about $100 to digitize each yearbook--$1,000 will help us get a whole decade of U of A history online for posterity!
