The University of Iowa Libraries has recently completed a project to digitize the entire run of Hawkeye yearbooks, comprising more than 38,000 pages documenting UI history from 1892 to 1992. The digital collection, with its vast assortment of yearbook photographs and illustrations enhanced by full-text search functionality, is available at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/yearbooks.

“We, as students, are aware that the … University of Iowa possesses many and rare advantages,” explained the student editors in the preface to the very first Hawkeye published in 1892. The stated goal of the student body was “to aid its alma mater by giving to the world an estimation of its real worth.”

“The Hawkeye is our go-to source for many, if not most, of our reference questions concerning twentieth century campus life,” says University Archivist David McCartney. “The yearbook collection is indispensable, and with online access now available it will become an even richer resource for our alumni and the general public.”