As part of the 100-year anniversary celebration of the CU Boulder Archives in 2018, we completed a project to bring you 100 Stories for 100 Years from the Archives. The year-long celebration emphasized increased community inclusion, process transparency and accessibility.  We want to emphasize that we have only touched the surface of the treasures found in the CU Boulder Archives and we hope you enjoy the stories.

Students sitting at a table studying during finals week from 1933 at Norlin Library

From the Archives: Finals circa 1933, 1954 and 2018

May 6, 2018

Are you ready to finish strong? The above image of students studying during finals week is from 1933 at Norlin Library. This image can be found in the A.A. and Laurence Paddock Photo/Negative Collection . While looking for the "reading machines” for our post last Friday, we also found some...

the 25th anniversary of the ATO's in Boulder on May 5th, 1926

From the Archives: Alpha Tau Omega

May 5, 2018

Alpha Tau Omega, ATO, is a fraternity that was founded in Richmond, Virginia on September 11, 1865 by Otis Allan Glazebrook. Many famous people have belonged to this fraternity including some notables like Teamster's President, Jimmy Hoffa; NFL Head Coach, Jim Mora; Wyoming Senator, Alan Simpson; director, Garry Marshall and...

Two women reading using a metronoscope to help focus their reading in the 1950s.

From the Archives: Reading Accelerators

May 4, 2018

Happy Reading Day! Need help studying? Maybe try one of these “reading accelerators” like a metronoscope (in use in the above photo), controlled reader, or tachitoscope, which were used to increase reading retention rates. Officially, the reading accelerator was not invented until 1957, but these 1954 Reading Class students seem...

Walter Orr Roberts as a young man, seen looking through a telescope

From the Archives: Walter Orr Roberts

May 3, 2018

Walter Orr Roberts (1915-1990) was a renowned astrophysicist whose pioneering work on the sun's corona produced data on the sun's temperature, brightness and atomic makeup, and demonstrated the link between solar flares and weather patterns on Earth. In 1940, as a graduate student at Harvard University, Roberts moved to Colorado's...

Photograph of the Alps by Harry F. Reid, 1892

From the Archives: the Glacier Collection

May 2, 2018

The Roger G. Barry Archive at National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has over 50,000 photographs of glaciers. From glass plate negatives taken in 1890 to chromogenic prints taken in 2017. These documents allow for landscape and glacier observations giving scientists opportunities for discovery and analysis. It’s also a...

May Day Fete 1919 cropped

From the Archives: May Day

May 1, 2018

In 1911, the women of the University of Colorado had decided the time was right for a major campus building of their own, one with parlors, bedrooms, a dining room and a gymnasium. To raise money, the CU Women’s League planned a spring festival called the May Day Fete. A...

"Are Parents People" from Paramount Pictures, old sheet music

Silent Film at CU

April 30, 2018

Silent Film is more popular now than it has been since before the invention of talkies, and the Front Range is one of the hottest parts of the country for celebrating the tremendous art and music of these treasured parts of cinematic history. We hope you had a chance to...

The 1914 Pi Beta Phi Chapter at CU Boulder.

From the Archives: Pi Beta Phi

April 29, 2018

Yesterday was the anniversary of the national Pi Beta Phi Fraternity for Women. Pi Beta Phi was founded on April 28, 1867, at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. The 12 founders had the vision to form the first secret society for women patterned after men’s groups at a time when...

A train on Georgetown Loop trestle near the turn of the century, photo taken on a large glass plate.

From the Archives: Glass Plate Photography

April 28, 2018

Over the years since photography was invented in 1839, the generally accepted date of "practical photography, photographer have used any number of materials to fix an image from salt paper printing to modern day pixels. Many of these experiments have proven to be exceptionally challenging to preserve. Lachlan McLean, for...

Handwritten Italian in the days before the printing press

Il Decamerone: an Italian classic in Special Collections

April 26, 2018

Printed in 1555, this book was brought to the Preservation unit for a new enclosure, but, while here, we discovered a beautiful handwritten page in the middle of the binding. Talk about penmanship goals! It’s even more impressive when you consider that the book is only around 5” tall! Want...

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