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In Review

ASK THE ARCHIVIST: WHICH CLASS? WHICH YEARBOOK?Need History? You Say ‘Interpreze,’ I Say ‘Interpress,’ or Maybe ‘Interps’ A question for Melissa Mead, the John M. and Barbara Keil University Archivist and Rochester Collections Librarian.
ataCLASS WORK: Linocuts (above) by Ralph Avery, then the president of the Rochester Art Club, were among the illustrations featured in the 1936 edition of the Interpres, the issue that was published when Philip Payne ’36 (below) was a junior. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

Need History?

Do you have a question about University history? Email it to rochrev@rochester.edu. Please put “Ask the Archivist” in the subject line.

You Say ‘Interpreze,’ I Say ‘Interpress,’ or Maybe ‘Interps’

While the name of the yearbook is commonly pronounced “Inter-press,” the pronunciation has varied from “Interpreeze” (Dorothy Dennis, Class of 1908) to “Interps” (Doris Braund Kerber ’49) to its current incarnation.

My father graduated from Rochester in 1936. I have been gathering information about his years there. My resource materials include Interpres issues, YouTube videos, books, vintage postcards, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle online, and family memorabilia.

1) Why was the Interpres presented by the junior class, rather than the senior class, in the 1930s?

2) Is there an explanation why classes didn’t line up with a particular yearbook? For example, in the 1934 Interpres (my father’s sophomore year), his class appears in the “Frosh” section. Also, the 1937 Interpres includes the Class of 1936 after graduation. (Class of 1936 was in the 1936 issue as seniors.)

These old yearbooks are great. The artwork and photography are special. The sponsor sections in the back provide glimpses into the city of Rochester in the ’30s. I would enjoy any interesting tidbits about the Interpres you may have to share.

—Pat Payne, daughter of the late Philip Payne ’36

ata (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

The front page of the April 19, 1935, Campus newspaper announced that 700 copies of the 1936 Interpres are “now being distributed free to members of the student body from the yearbook’s offices in Todd Union.”

It was not just in the 1930s that the yearbook was the work of the junior class; this was the case beginning in 1878; from 1858 to 1877 it was the work of the “Secret Societies” (aka fraternities). Originally entitled Interpres Universitatis, the publication hoped to be “a translator, an interpreter of the movements of college life, and of the students themselves.”

Its pages have highlighted the academic, Hellenic, athletic, and sophomoric; parodied faculty (1876) and been parodied (as “Inturps” in UGH, 1960); logged famous visitors, and marked campus turmoil (1969).

As many modern readers note, the publishing schedule causes all manner of confusion for us today, starting with the fact that the featured student portraits are members of the junior class—identified as juniors as they were at the time of publication. The Class of 1977 was the first to name their photograph section “Seniors”—appropriately so, since the books weren’t ready until September 1976, the fall of their senior year.

As freshmen (aka “Frosh”), your father and his classmates would have arrived too late to be included in the yearbook of 1933. In the 1937 edition, published on the last day of classes in May 1936, his class is listed as “Seniors.”

Occasionally photographic prints were pasted in each copy, but it was not until 1890 that halftone reproductions of photographs appeared; prior to that time, separate photo albums of the students were created. While serving in the Civil War, Samuel Porter, Class of 1864, wrote his father in June 1863, asking him to be sure to purchase the set of photographs of his classmates.

The Class of 1881 failed to publish, perhaps due to lack of resources; according to a 50th anniversary history, the advertising (sponsors) section was expanded the following year.

The advent of “coeds” saw the women students represented, minimally, in the yearbook. In 1910, they began issuing an annual of their own, the Croceus. The Classes of 1942 allied for the Interpres-Croceus, 14 years before the Campus and Tower-Times merged as the Campus-Times.

The 1936 edition is particularly beautiful. Printed with blue accents on each page, four chalk manner lithographs of the River Campus act as a visual preface, and dramatic linocuts divide the sections. The artwork was created by Ralph Avery (1907–76), at the time serving as president of the Rochester Art Club.

Designing the covers and interiors provided an opportunity for professional and amateur artists alike. Julia Robinson contributed drawings for the 1891 yearbook, edited by her brother Charles. The sketches of James Havens were used in his Class of 1922 yearbook. Although illness would prevent Havens from finishing his degree, he would become a professional artist, and his work has been featured in exhibitions at the Memorial Art Gallery and elsewhere.

Not to be outdone, students at the Eastman School of Music and the School of Nursing have also issued yearbooks (Score and Meliora).

The Interpres through 1980 can be found online, along with the Croceus, at rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/yearbooks.