Iowa Private College Week

Coe, along with 27 other colleges across the state, welcomes prospective students to campus this week for Iowa Private College Week. The event is in its 14th year having begun in 1999. That makes it a relatively recent annual event in the college's 130+ years of existence.  The idea of visiting Coe campus is not so recent, as is shown by this invitation from 1906.  I welcome all prospective students and their families to Coe this week as you partake in the long held tradition of campus visits.



~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant

Acorn Jokes, page 235

The early Acorns (Coe yearbooks) had more than student pictures and lists of class officers.  They gave bits of information about each class, sometimes in the form of a class history:

"Four years ago, in a mild September, about seventy youths and maidens from scattered parts of our lovely state and from its adjoining neighbors, met for the first time within our college halls as the class of 1909.  It was their common purpose to pledge allegiance to the Saint of Knowledge, to be lead, not all knew wither..." (the senior class history from the 1910 acorn goes on for a full page and a half recording the triumphs, losses and anecdotes from their time at Coe College.)

Sometimes they included class colors, yells, or mascots.  You can read a few of these yells in the on-line exhibit of class mascots from the 1910 Acorn.  You may note that the Freshman class of 1912 is depicted as a child being protected by an owl, the junior class mascot (the junior classes put together the yearbooks).  A few years later the 1912 yearbook was titled the "Tiger" after their class mascot.

To conclude, another page from the 1938 Acorns advertisement section:


~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant

Acorn Jokes, page 229

"The Acorn" (that is Coe's yearbook if you haven't read the last two Thursday posts) wasn't always called "The Acorn".  It was first titled "Ziz Boom Gee" after the yell for the "class of nineteen O'three".  It then had a long stint as "The Rabbit" after the city Coe calls home, Cedar Rabbits (for those who don't know Coe resides in Cedar Rapids, named after the rapids in the river it sits along, but students thought themselves quite clever in 1904).  If you are confused as to why the name kept changing it should be noted that the yearbook was originally a Junior Annual.  It was created and published by the Junior class who was featured in the annual.  Because of this the junior class sometimes named the book after themselves which is what happened in 1913 when the year book was titled "The Goat" after the class mascot.  In 1914 the administration requested that the yearbook maintain a single name and "The Acorn" was chosen and used until its last issue in 2007.

Below is another page of old advertisements and jokes from the 1938 Acorn.



 

~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant

Acorn Jokes, page 217

"The Acorn", Coe's former yearbook (the last issue was published in 2007), was named after the acorn on the school's crest.  An acorn grows to become a large sturdy oak tree, which was seen as an analogy of the student entering college and growing to become a pillar of society.  Around the acorn are the words "Sig. Coll. Coensis Veritas Virtusque" roughly translated "The Seal of Coe College, Truth and Virtue".   The seal was modified in the late 1930s to incorporate the family shield of Daniel Coe, the college's first benefactor and its namesake.  The acorn now lies above the Coe crest in the seal, with the the original Latin surrounding both.

As a continuation from last week, here is page 217 of the advertisement section of the 1938 yearbook.


~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant

Where's Meebo?

If you pay a visit to the library website in coming weeks, you're going to notice one major change.  Our friendly little Meebo chat box is gone.  As a library, we really like being able to offer a chat feature to our users, so why would we get rid of such a useful tool?  Short answer: because we had to .

At the beginning of June, word hit the web that Google was buying Meebo.  Here's an article on the purchase if you're interested.  Google more likely than not purchased Meebo to use a chat feature within their social network, Google Plus.  This means that they decided to shut down Meebo as a free web application that could be embedded in a variety of websites.  So, over the last month and a half, the library staff has been evaluating a variety of replacement options.  There are quite a few things to consider, including the ability to remain anonymous while asking a question, so don't be surprised if you see us try out one or two different chat features as we figure out what works best for the patrons here at Stewart Memorial Library.  If you run into any problems using web chat, please let us know, and please also feel free to email myself, or other members of the library staff if you have a question that needs addressing.  Or, you can always drop by the reference department to get your questions answered in person as well.  Thanks for your patience as we make this transition, and I hope that you are having a great summer!

-Katelyn, Head of Reference

Acorn Jokes, page 212

Once upon a time Coe College published a year book.  It was called (for most of its existence) "The Acorn" after the acorn on the school crest (which isn't the school crest anymore).  Many of the Acorns were funded by advertisers which had their adds printed at the end of the book.  In the 1938 Acorn the ads took up 35 pages.  To encourage students to look at these pages the Acorn staff placed jokes and anecdotes between the advertisements.

The 1938 Acorn page 212

 

~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant

How times have changed

I had a professor doing research in the Faculty Minutes this week.  I would like to share an excerpt she found from April 20th, 1927.

As to conduct in the library there is distracting sociability and students do not hesitate to interrupt one another.  Much working in groups where poor students get help from the good student.  Theft and mutilation of books particularly troublesome this year.

For those who do not visit the Stewart Memorial Library often, we now encourage "sociability", group work, and for "good students" to help "poor students".  Though the library continues to discourage theft or mutilation of books (which we have little to report on) we highly encourage you to partake in these other "distracting sociabilitys".

~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant