Have you ever wondered what Hope was like one hundred years ago? Have you said to yourself, “Self, you should use more primary sources about the history of Hope College”? Or, perhaps you imagined perusing the olden times of the college on those days when you have ample amounts of time, sitting in front of the fireplace in your smoking jacket, with the dog at your feet. Now it’s easier than ever to get your Hope history fix! The Anchor has been digitized and made publically available, free for download, on Digital Commons, Hope College’s institutional repository.
The Anchor began in 1887 and continues to this day. At first distributed monthly, it is now a weekly paper issued during the school year, with few interruptions. Students have worked diligently in the past to make sure the Hope community is up-to-date on the major happenings around campus. Here are some highlights from The Anchor-of-yore:
- In January 1913, one writer asked, “Fellow student, are you doing right in wasting a whole evening in card playing to the utter neglect of your class work? What right have you to spend your college hours in such frivolous play?”
- The first issue of The Ranchor began in 1965, where students howled over the implementation of the new IBM computers on campus.
- The Hope College Pull, a long-standing tradition, can be traced throughout the history of the Anchor. In 1910, for instance, it was written about the “Tug-of-War” that “The Sophs got the ducking and professed that the waters of Black River were not so uncongenial as they had imagined”.
An index to the full collection can be found at the Joint Archives of Holland. For the most current issue, please visit The Anchor online.
– Brianne Hagen, Metadata Librarian