We return for a few weeks to the Glomerata section, where I share the covers of all of the yearbooks from Auburn, my undergraduate alma mater. The one I’m showing you here is the 1921 edition, which has been in my collection for a while. But if you click this book’s cover you can see the new one, the 1922 Glom.

Warren G. Harding was the president. Radios were becoming the rage. This was still very much a rural, country town, so there was no Great Gatsby, though Zelda Fitzgerald, from just down the road in Montgomery, had recently married F. Scott. And, naturally Zelda and Tallulah were childhood friends. So that image of a conservative, staid society had some undercurrents to it. Some of those kids could be wild. The twenties were just starting to roar.

Anyway, you can walk through all the covers if you start here. For a detailed look at selected volumes, you might enjoy this link. Here is the university’s official collection.

Back to the yearbooks. This one comes in two-tone and two-texture. There’s the solid leather feel, with a sensitive plush section along the bottom. This was how they hedged their bets: Just what will this new decade be? How will it look back upon us?

You really shouldn’t judge books by a cover, but sometimes you must. Why did they need to say First in Ten? Isn’t that obvious? And how did they resist the temptation to make the first 21st century reference?

It was the age of George Bush, the elder. Computers were being talked about everywhere, and only sometimes resisted. Students were painting tiger paws onto roads — and being taken to the police station for it. (These days that prank has become formalized as tradition.) The hair was big, with only a few hints of being brought under control. No one wore flannel. Yet. It was a special time at Auburn University.

Check out the 1990 Glomerata here. To see the rest of the covers in my personal collection you can start here. For a detailed look at selected volumes, you might enjoy this link. Here is the university’s official collection.

This spring we reached the end of my not-complete collection of Auburn University yearbooks. Since then I’ve picked up a few new additions, so we can add a few updates in the coming days.

Above is the most recently acquired book, checking in at 62 years young. The 1950 edition is the 53rd volume in the series. You can click through all of the covers in my collection. See the inside details of a select few volumes, here. Also, you can check out the university’s official collection.

I’ll have another update next week.