Lafayette Magazine Digital Archive Goes Live

The full text of Lafayette’s alumni magazine from 1930 to 2013 can now be searched thanks to the digital collection created by Skillman Library’s Special Collections and Digital Scholarship Services. It includes nearly 800 issues and 20,000 pages spanning more than 85 years.

“The alumni news is a useful tool in researching Lafayette on a local level,” says Diane Shaw, director of special collections. “All of the major campus events are included, and its pages contain high-quality photographs that we do not always hold in our collections. Though we have a paper copy on hand, this online version gives us unprecedented access to this material and the ability to quickly research and share Lafayette’s history with our alumni and our community.”

The project was supported by a generous donation to Friends of Skillman Library from former Lafayette President Arthur J. Rothkopf ’55 and Barbara Rothkopf.

Overseen by Paul Miller, visual resources curator, the collection features newly digitized copies, beginning with the first issue of Lafayette Alumnus from 1930. Over the decades the publication changed its name to Lafayette Alumni Quarterly in 1974 and then Lafayette Magazine in 1988 and spawned a tabloid, Lafayette Alumni News, in 1971. Issues of Football News Letter, later named Leopard Letter, sent during football season from 1939 to 1966, are also included. Periodic updates will be made to add new issues.

To view the collection, visit
digital.lafafyette.edu/collections/magazine.