Digital yearbooks
All UD yearbooks available online
5:17 p.m., Aug. 15, 2014--The University of Delaware Library has digitized all UD yearbooks, which are available on the web. Many library users have shared their pleasure in being able to globally access this searchable resource.
The yearbooks of the University of Delaware, in their various iterations, are accessible online at "Blue Hen Yearbooks by Issue Date" and "Blue & Gold Yearbooks by Issue Date."
Campus Stories
From graduates, faculty
Doctoral hooding
Yearbooks of the University of Delaware, which were published under varied names, were scanned at a high resolution and are full-text searchable. A user can search online for a specific name, word or topic in each section of the yearbook.
Yearbook history
During the years of 1834-1859 and 1870-1921, the institution was named Delaware College. In 1921, it became the University of Delaware. It was an all-male institution through 1945. A separate Women’s College was founded in 1914. The two merged to become a co-educational institution in 1947.
The two digital collections of the Blue Hen Yearbook and the Blue and Gold Yearbook contain an electronic reproduction of every yearbook published for both Delaware College and the Women’s College, as well as the University of Delaware.
The oldest yearbook is dated 1899 and is titled Aurora, which was first produced by the all-male Delaware College. The second yearbook was published four years later in 1903 with the title The Derelict. The University of Delaware yearbook was named the Blue Hen with its 1912 publication, and the Blue Hen title of the yearbook was adopted and retained until 1999 when it ceased publication.
The yearbook of the Women’s College had the title Blue & Gold, with the exception of the first yearbook in 1918, which was published under the title The Chronicle. The Women’s College yearbooks were produced annually from 1918-21, then biennially through 1945, ceasing when the two colleges merged in 1947 to become co-educational. The 1924 yearbook is titled Cheemaun, which means “Birch Canoe.”
“The digital collection of all Yearbooks of the University of Delaware contains 75 yearbooks and the Blue & Gold contains 17 yearbooks. I think that alumni of the University of Delaware will greatly appreciate the ability to view the online version of the yearbooks to identify wonderful memories and warm reflections of their time at the University,” said Susan Brynteson, vice provost and May Morris University Librarian.
The digitization project of the yearbooks of the University of Delaware was coordinated by Mary Durio, head of the Library Center for Digital Collections, under the leadership of Gregg Silvis, associate University librarian for information technology and digital initiatives. Some yearbooks not in the University of Delaware Library collection were borrowed from both the University Archives and Alumni Relations for the digitization project.