Yearbook Weirdness

From Rockford's 1928 yearbook.

You might have assumed that the northern lights were caused by the interaction of charged particles from the sun with atoms in the upper atmosphere.  But auroras were actually the world's first greeting cards.  "Say it with auroras."  From Manchester College's 1920 yearbook.

This detail of a photograph in a Philadelphia yearbook, 1968, has clearly captured a being from the Otherworld.  We've identified this creature as the long-nosed seducer demon Zanni (of Harlequin mask fame).

From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's yearbook of 1977.

From Indiana University's 1905 yearbook.

From Swarthmore's 1934 yearbook.

Parts of an angel.  From the State Normal School for Women's 1917 yearbook.

Science and politics were as inseparable in the 1920s as they are a century later.  From Otterbein's 1923 yearbook.

A jester with a rooster comb, from Duke's 1921 yearbook.

From Lehigh's 1916 yearbook.

You've heard of "first degree burns," but the "degree" apparently refers to an academic rank, and the burns are caused by the light of wisdom being focused through a giant magnifying glass.  From Susquehanna's 1914 yearbook.

"Farther on: the way has harder grown; and, up the steep, the goal more bright appears."  From the Carthage yearbook of 1916.

From Colorado College's 1905 yearbook.  See How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.

From American University's 1953 yearbook.

From William and Mary's 1907 yearbook.

X marks the spot.  "We all know it's more than just a location on the map of Arizona."  From the Phoenix yearbook of 1951.  For over 80 surprising meanings of the letter X, see One-Letter Words: A Dictionary.

"Refusing to have their pictures taken with the rest of the Faculty we have secured them as they really are."  From Susquehanna's 1914 yearbook.

West Chester's 1975 yearbook.   See Of Feeding & Caring For Sheet Ghosts.

From Rockford's 1928 yearbook.

This may be the first bound owl we've encountered.  From Henderson College's 1909 yearbook.