In my last post on Research History Using School Annuals, regarding yearbooks for family history, I mentioned using old school yearbooks as a resource for character and setting development for writing fiction.
Why?
If you’re planning a book, set in Michigan, for example, in 1945, old school annuals provide a wealth of information about Michigan, or whichever
state, and about the local town or city, in that specific year.
Character Development:
First of course, are the snapshots and portraits included in any annual, showing the hairstyles and clothing. Snapshots also show what activities students participated in and the role of the administration and district board, which is very different than today’s version.
The popularaity of first names changes with the times and locations. The students of 1945 were probably born in about 1927. A name used frequently in 1927 Texas may be very different than names used in Michigan during the same period.
Even more important are autographs. If you’re lucky enough to purchase an old yearbook filled with signed messages, anecdotes and autographs, you now have an unedited window into the life of someone of that age, in that place, at that time.
Were accents used in the writing? Were specific locations mentioned? Things they did together? Was dating mentioned?
In the case of 1945, the war played a prominent part in everyone’s life and affected even messages left at the time. Look for other outside events, mentioned in the book, that would shape your character’s life.
Setting Development:
Many annuals include photographs of the school campus, surrounding area and even local hangouts.
What were the buildings constructed from? Timber or brick? Was there any landscaping at all? Sidewalks?
Back to those snapshots – where were they taken? At the local diner? On the city sidewalk? You’d be surprised at the information you can glean about a town from just a few photographs.
Also, look in the back of the book for the advertisements. These tell the story of what local businesses existed and were frequented, complete with details such as prices, address, photographs and other information which can be a research boon when you’re trying to get the feel of a specific town at that time.
Don’t forget that colleges and universities have annuals with even more detailed information than high schools since their students were older and their interests and studies more specific.
Yearbooks during WWII may include information about alumni or students who left school to join the war effort.
Where can you obtain old yearbooks?
They’re readily available online. If you know a specific town and year, search for yearbooks using those terms and see what comes up.
Frequenly, high school or college alumni organizations have web pages with old yearbooks for sale, the proceeds of which go directly to help the alumni organization.
Free transcriptions or school lists may be found at more localized research web sites such as historical societies or through the specific county page at USGENWEB (which can be very helpful as county pages can include old newspaper archives, biographies and other great resources for research.
Online sellers also offer yearbooks. Prices can vary widely.
Some state libraries and large university libraries have free online scans of yearbooks.
The University of North Texas Library hosts the excellent Texas Portal Archive that hosts online scans of yearbooks, photographs, maps and newspapers. Google a bit and see what comes up. Search for the state you are interested in and try state library or the city library for a specific area. It’s surprising what you can find online for free.
Online genealogy subscription sites like Ancestry.com also have online transcriptions of yearbooks, if you’re looking for a specific one, but unless you already have a subscription this can be expensive.
That’s an interesting take.
I’ve had a lot of luck with finding little research gems in them, and, well, they’re fun to go through.