How did '24: Then and Now get its start? Why does it matter?

Have you ever wondered what it was like to be a UVM student 100 years ago? What students were doing? What they liked, what their classes were like, what campus was like? Well, you're in luck. For the next year, we're going to be telling you all about it through this digital project, '24: Then and Now.

We hope you'll discover alongside us that students 100 years ago really aren't that different from students right now. Not in most ways, anyway.

Through this project, we're going to be making some of those connections, tending to materials they left behind for us -- like exams, photos, mementos from the kinds of things they were up to. We'll look at what life as a UVM student was like in order to appreciate what it means to be a UVM student today.

Origin Story 

This project began because one day a staff member at Grasse Mount found a dusty old scrapbook from 100 years ago in the basement. As we grew interested, we found three other ones – all from roughly 1924. 

And we just thought they were so interesting, we wanted to share.

The Memory Keepers

Who were these Memory Keepers? They were Dorothy Mayo Harvey, Prescott R. Lovejoy, Fannie Peirce, and Mollie Newton. 

All Vermonters, all graduating in 1924 (except for Dorothy who was class of 1925). When they passed, they left these scrapbooks, or Memory Books, behind for us to learn from.

Get the highlights via our videos -- or take a deeper dive into their lives and ephemera through this page.

What's Inside

What exactly is inside these scrapbooks? All kinds of things. Well, there’s notes from their friends, invitations to parties, materials from some of their lives in sororities. Little drawings and doodles -- yes, they also had a sense of humor. Programs from plays, the opera, dance cards with people's names, what they danced, and who they danced with.

Box scores from UVM’s football team and baseball team – UVM had both of those a hundred years ago. 

Menus from restaurants and banquets. Exams, receipts -- for classes, for room and board, tuition, and tutoring. 

Letters home to family and friends. Staying in touch was still important to them, and they did it with the tools they had: pen and paper.

There are also some ugly things -- like programs from Kake Walk, a then-popular winter festival that featured harmful racial stereotypes. At the time, eugenics surveys were being conducted, and hazing was also a problem. We'll take a look at those shadows of our history, too. Visit our Difficult Topics page for more resources and context. 

There’s even a rulebook for how to be a good student on campus -- and some of it is completely ridiculous.

Why This Matters

What we find compelling is that through these scrapbooks you can really get to know these four students and see the echoes of their lives in today’s students on campus. And it makes us think: what are some of the things you'd leave behind for the next generation to sift through? What materials and ephemera represent your life as you live it?

Throughout this next year, we’re going to make that direct connection from a hundred years ago to students right now.

In fact, in Episode 2, we filmed some students taking a look at the scrapbooks and got their thoughts about it. We hope this resonates with you, too. 

So — welcome. Join us as we dive deep into UVM in 1924 and back.