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Camera Memoria: Photographic Memory from the Margins

“As You Thumb through These Pages, Memories of”National Youth Culture in College Yearbooks: Dominant Narratives Told from the Marginalized Places of Boise, Idaho and Portland, Oregon

Christen Bryson

Abstracts

In the past, American universities and colleges would regularly publish yearbooks put together by the students to document campus life and activities. Frequently, when scholars look at historical archives, ephemeral material such as yearbooks are excluded from analysis, being cast aside as trivial, too personal, or lacking expertise as yearbooks simply document the goings-on of an academic year. Drawing from yearbooks produced at what is now Boise State University in Idaho and Portland State University in Oregon between 1945 and 1975, this article will be presenting their photographic memories, captions, and layouts as local reiterations of national trends, staid representations of the postwar era. Whether these phenomena are social—student housing, for example—, cultural—such as youth courting and dating—, or political—student activism, for instance—, yearbooks document the multitudinous ways young students created and reflected the national culture that have become hallmarks of the postwar American era.

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Yearbooks as memory books of national narratives

  • 1 Excerpted from the foreword of Boise State University’s 1964 yearbook, Les Bois 3.
  • 2 Many American high schools still create these annuals, but universities and colleges have largely c (...)
  • 3 Copy is a word used in journalism to describe the written material that does not explain photograph (...)

1In the past1, American universities and colleges would regularly publish yearbooks put together by the students to document campus life and activities.2 Yearbooks portray the goings-on of an academic year. Within their pages, photographic evidence tells their readers about the student body, the activities of organizations and clubs, as well as school-sponsored events. Captions sometimes narrate these images, situating the series of events for the uninitiated or serving as reminders to those who attended. Copy3 in the form of addresses or essays from students and administrators contextualize the year and bring issues of importance to light.

  • 4 Halftone printing is a printing technique that reduces images to a series of dots, allowing for the (...)

2Initially, a yearbook might be perceived as part of the material culture of local histories. Appearing in the middle of the 19th century, the first printed versions were known as “memory books and school records books”, resembling scrapbooks more than the periodicals of today (Hamilton 91). As the letterpress and halftone printing4 became more widely available at the end of the century, student and faculty names as well as photographs were included. By WWI, features that are now considered part of the traditional format—clubs, sports teams, events, graphic and chronological representations of the academic year, as well as local ads—had been largely integrated (ibid., 91-92). During the interwar years, the contents and range of yearbooks expanded. Editorial teams came to rely increasingly on themes as a means to present and frame a particular year. In 1946, Glenn Hanson, the editor of the Scholastic Editor at the University of Minnesota, argued that locally embedded themes, relying on “community history”, “personality”, “industries”, and “unique characteristics”, allowed yearbooks to cohesively frame the academic calendar, to be distinct from one year to the next, and to avoid superficial trappings (91). While a yearbook’s theme might help distinguish it from previous years, the emphasis laid on local environments, events, and communities can also help fit it into a larger vision of American youth.

  • 5 The postwar era referred to in this paper is thought to encompass the 1950s and the 1960s, from app (...)

3Part of the larger aim of this article is to link local histories to a larger dominant narrative of the postwar era5: youth coming of age and assuming the roles of democratic citizenship as is demonstrated in yearbooks. In using postwar era, rather than the 1950s and 1960s, this article puts forward that there is a certain amount of continuity between these two decades and that they might be looked at together rather than juxtaposed to one another. In the vein of Alan Petigny, then, this paper looks at the 1950s as embodying a “Permissive Turn” in American society and extends it into the 1960s (2-3). Petigny explains the “Permissive Turn” as a moment when social trends contesting the “traditional moral restraints” of “austerity” and “asceticism” accelerated, taking hold of Americans and challenging “inherited values” (ibid., 2, 8-9, 12-13). With such a dramatic shift taking place, it seems important to look to sources where different levels of actors can be identified—those who were shaping narratives and those who were being shaped by them—so as to better understand how competing values were appearing and being renegotiated. While “a memory book” might be seen as limited because of its very local perspective and its enmeshments in personal relationships that are inaccessible to historical analysis, yearbooks produced during the postwar era also testify to larger social, cultural, economic, and political phenomena occurring simultaneously (Graebner 10; Kyvig and Marty 5). Perusing a yearbook, when it is not one’s own school, nor one’s own classmates represented in its pages, reveals an interplay of memory and history. University yearbooks did not merely memorialize a year on campus and the events held there, they are miniatures of the specific and localized enactment of larger trends in youth culture.

  • 6 This term has been used by historians to define the way the government and consumer society have ex (...)
  • 7 This yearbook analysis was performed as part of the archival research for my Ph.D. for which I sele (...)
  • 8 This institution underwent three name changes during this period of time. Upon its founding in 1932 (...)
  • 9 Portland State College was born out of a need to address overcrowding in other state higher educati (...)
  • 10 See William Graebner’s “The Cold War: A Yearbook Perspective,” for a brief discussion on yearbooks’ (...)

4The annuals produced during the postwar period symbolize the “exceptionalism”6 of this era for youth, namely the responsibilities of citizenship conveyed by college administrators to students; college student life being a transition to adulthood; and student preoccupations being a way to contest power and reshape American society. Drawing from yearbooks produced between 1945 and 19757 at what is now Boise State University (BSU)8 in Boise, Idaho and Portland State University (PSU)9 in Portland, Oregon, I will try to demonstrate how such ephemera can, in fact, be small portraits of the national narratives of the postwar era. I will look at an archive that has largely been overlooked or relegated to the sidelines because of its limitations.10 In analyzing photographs and their captions, addresses to students by college administrators, essays, even book formats, I will situate young people attending BSU and PSU at that time as both actors and spectators of a dominant narrative on civic roles and duties.

  • 11 I have used town and city here in hopes of creating a distinction of scale between Boise and Portla (...)

5Before doing so, however, there is a need to justify histories of and from these locales. Boise and Portland are located in the northwest of the United States and they are the largest population centers in their respective states. Boise was a large town growing from 26,130 residents in 1940 to 74,990 in 1970 (U.S. Census Bureau, “1970 Census of the Population…Idaho” 14-12) and Portland a mid-sized city, starting the period under study with 305,394 inhabitants and ending with 382,619 (U.S. Census Bureau, “1970 Census of the Population…Oregon” 39-13).11 In highlighting a town and a city in the northwest, I am interested in showing the influence that mass demographic shifts were having on the less populous west, especially in terms of the changes brought about by this growth. Additionally, in the vein of historian Beth Bailey, this article provides examples of how the United States underwent a dramatic transformation during the postwar era when “traditional,” “authentic, and “local” cultures were supplanted by a national identity that was facilitated through federal programs, mass consumption, the media, as well as public and private institutions (Sex in the Heartland 6). Even though the yearbooks produced during the postwar era can be read as localized accounts, or simply discounted for their ephemeral qualities, it is precisely their small-scale focus on individual and collective campus memories that make them excellent reflections of the nationalizing process. Local memories in the pages of yearbooks become reflections of national trends, interests, and concerns.

6This paper will look specifically at three aspects that might be considered hallmarks of student life at that time: dating, extracurricular involvement in the form of student government and activism, as well as housing. The point is to convey a sort of interplay between public and private attitudes and behaviors that were redefining aspects of American life. While authority figures—college administrators and students—were meant to guide youth toward assuming their roles as adults, young people were embracing a new ethos, which Alan Petigny describes as an acceleration of a decades-long “challenge to traditional moral constraints” (2-3). Indeed, youth culture as it is depicted in Boise State’s and Portland State’s yearbooks attests to a cultural evolution that fully incorporated and reimagined the injunctions of college officials’ discourse throughout the postwar era. These yearbooks show the gradual and systemic historical transitions in the meaning of public and private life as well as young people’s engagement with institutions that come to better reflect them rather than simply shape them.

Democratic citizenship realized through the responsibilities enshrined in the couple

  • 12 If the voting age is taken as an indicator of legal adulthood, many college and university students (...)
  • 13 The lowering of the age of eligibility for the draft to 18 in 1942 can be seen as an extension of t (...)

7First, I would like to focus on the rather widespread preoccupation in the United States during the postwar era that youth needed to assume their role as responsible citizens. While this worry was by no means entirely new, by the end of World War II the dimensions of democratic citizenship had expanded to go beyond participation in the public sphere (Hamilton 99-102). In the article, “Looking from the Outside In: Preparation for Democratic Citizenship in a 1925 Michigan High-School Yearbook,” Erica R. Hamilton argues that “academic training, leadership and membership opportunities” were the means by which secondary schools could promote democratic citizenship (94). These different outlets anchored students in their local and national communities; they also gave them a voice in their high schools. I would like to build on Hamilton’s use of democratic citizenship and its transmission in the context of higher education, which is unique in that college students were more independent than their high school counterparts. While eighteen- to twenty-year-old youth in Idaho and Oregon were not legally classified as being at the age of maturity,12 their status as “dependents” was contested during this period.13 As such, their educational experiences could be looked at as a comprehensive attempt to shape the transition into adulthood by college administrators and educators that extends beyond engagement in extracurricular activities.

  • 14 See Regina Lee Blaszczyk’s American Consumer Society, 1865-2000 and Lizabeth Cohen’s A Consumer’s R (...)
  • 15 Defining “traditional” values is particularly tricky with this period because it is so commonly bel (...)

8Also unique to the postwar era was the framing of the historical moment and the need for young people to embrace and further the aims of democracy. The stakes seemed enormous. The United States had experienced significant hardships during the previous two decades—the Great Depression and World War II—and yet young people were coming of age at a time of material abundance and affluence, which spurred demographic and socio-economic shifts that were reshaping social mores and generated economic, political, and cultural anxieties. At the same time, the beginning of the Cold War fueled feelings of uncertainty as the United States attempted to prove that its model of democratic capitalism would triumph over Soviet authoritarianism and collectivism.14 The concern, then, was that “American” or “traditional” values might be lost.15 One arena where these responsibilities could be imparted to the new generation to prepare them for the “new and greater challenges” they would face was college or university (Bailey, Sex in the Heartland 47).

  • 16 The GI Bill, or the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, was seen as a tool to help returning vet (...)

9This challenge was taken up by both presidents of BSU and PSU as they addressed the student body from the pages of their respective yearbooks immediately after World War II. The Viking of 1947 contributed a great deal of its text to the massive change brought about by the war everywhere and to veteran students in universities. The very creation of Portland State was in response to overcrowding in other Oregon State schools after the war. The Viking’s focus was not so much on the civic responsibilities of the students, given that 90 percent of them were returning servicemen, but on their re-assimilation into civilian life, which was being made possible thanks to the GI Bill of 1944.16 In his address to students, President Stephen E. Epler applauded the efforts of the school’s first class in creating clubs and organizations as well as a student culture that would continue to influence future students. He also spoke of the value of investing in education, for the individual and the nation.

Education is a form of wealth that bankruptcy or depression cannot destroy. If you are more useful to the community and a better citizen after your sojourn here, then Vanport College has succeeded! An educated citizenry is the foundation of a democracy. The G.I. Bill of Rights is perhaps the greatest advancement American democracy and education have made in this century (Portland State University, “Viking 1947” 1-2).

10In insisting on the importance of education to democracy, President Epler espoused one of the philosophies university officials used in managing student behavior during the postwar era, which Beth Bailey describes: part of the administration’s role was to “develop ‘mature’, responsible citizens through university education” by helping them to “learn to make responsible choices in their lives” (Sex in the Heartland 50). Responsible citizenship should be understood on many levels, ranging from socialization—accepting and perpetuating social norms, including having a family, pursuing an education in order to increase one’s job prospects and climb the socio-economic ladder—to political ideals, the discourse of American exceptionalism and the continuation of democracy and capitalism. Epler did this by asserting that education is an intangible form of personal wealth and a cornerstone of democracy. The President was attempting to stave off the fear of economic uncertainty by boosting students’ faith in their political system. In bringing material insecurity and political stability together, Epler reassured young men and women of the solidity of the American promise. In investing in higher education, the federal government could demonstrate its desire to see the nation’s youth succeed and its commitment to ensuring access to knowledge that permitted responsible citizenship.

11From Boise in 1946, President Eugene B. Chaffee likewise enjoined students to heed their nation’s call:

We have just finished a second war to insure democracy. Most of the two
hundred and fifty service men who have enrolled know the cost of that effort in a very personal way. The remainder have felt that same cost in a less direct, but nevertheless, real sense. […] It remains for us, the living, to 'carry on' and bring to fruition the work they started. We must not falter or fail our generous benefactors. Each one of us by his individual living must justify that faith (Boise State University, Les Bois 1946 11).

12We can see how BSU’s president encouraged students to recognize both the advantages afforded them through democracy and their responsibility to ensure its continuation, which he insisted on by referring to the very real sacrifices made during the war. As the postwar era began in these respective places, the yearbooks demonstrate that college administrators believed their role was to prepare the youth that passed through their institutions to take on the responsibilities of democracy. It meant sacrifice, perseverance, and belief in their nation and its values.

  • 17 See Beth Bailey’s From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth Century America, ch. 2 “The (...)

13Postwar life is not only couched in terms of obligation in these early annuals. The changing demographics of the student population were heralded as something tremendous for both men and women. These yearbooks subtly interweave the civic obligation to carry on and the joy of men and women coming together again after years of hardship. This allowed for dating to return to college campuses with force.17 Democratic citizenship came to embody both overt demonstrations of patriotic participation and support of one’s country, as well as assuming the responsibilities of adulthood—notably marriage. While administrators were reminding their student populations of their responsibilities to the nation, many young people were using this time to find that special someone and settle down. In his history of Boise State, An Idea Grows… (1970), President Eugene B. Chaffee remarked on the impact that the increased presence of veteran students had on campus in this regard. He described them as “serious,” “older”, and “no nonsense” and looking “to capture a normal family life and this, of course, meant a wife and children in many cases” (124-125). This confirms larger dating trends developed by Beth Bailey who claims that women were heading to college for “‘an education and a man’” (emphasis Bailey’s) (From Front Porch to Back Seat 44). The optimism of the postwar era can be found, in part, in this forward trajectory for American youth. Going to college was a step toward the future, which became inextricably linked for many young people with dating, marriage, and family. In the earliest yearbooks from this period, it is evident that these aspects of their private lives were priorities for these college students. Occasionally, they even bear witness to the bringing together of patriotic duty and finding a spouse.

Figure 1

Figure 1
  • 18 Permission for use of the images from the Les Bois yearbooks was given by Boise State University Sp (...)

Les Bois 1946, 8718

14Student support for the war effort was portrayed in Boise’s 1946 Les Bois, in the form of a “victory dance” (see Figure 1). This was an event sponsored by the Boise State Valkyries, a woman’s service organization for sophomore (second year) students. Everyone pictured is paired off dancing; the most readily visible couples have some space between them, so their bodies are not pressed together too tightly. The two couples in the foreground and background to the left appear to be talking to each other as they dance, while most of the other couples seem to be focused on their dance partners. As both a money-making venture and in service to their nation, the Valkyries organized this dance to encourage bond-buying and celebrate the cessation of hostilities. Many references were made in the 1946 Les Bois to the adjustments being made in the wake of the War. A patriotic tone permeates the pages of this yearbook. Figure 1 is a visual representation of patriotism and dating, both expressions of emerging postwar civic duties. This intermingling of citizenship as performed through public and private behaviors resonates throughout the first edition of PSU’s The Viking, too.

Viking 194719
  • 20 While the period might be pointed to as containing not a single generation, but two, and two genera (...)
  • 21 Ironically, this picture was taken at time when the Hays’ Code (1930-1950) was in full effect in Ho (...)

15This first edition is relatively short. In spite of its brevity, a great deal of importance is accorded to student life. The vast majority of the annual is devoted to “Extra-Curricular Activities,” “Athletics,” portrayals of life “Around Campus,” and “Snapshots,” fifty-two pages out of eighty-four total. The last two sections occupy nearly half of these pages and though not labeled “student life”, they certainly portray it. The couple and family are recurring fixtures in these pages. In fact, two pages are dedicated specifically to “Campus Families” and “Living Quarters.” Figure 2 can be found amongst the photo montages in the “Snap Shots” section. There were no captions or descriptions on these pages, but we can see a young couple relaxing together on a couch. The man looks like he is resting while the woman smiles with her arm around him. It appears that they might be in group living quarters as the piece of furniture behind them looks like a bunk bed. There is an ease and comfort expressed here as we look on an intimate moment. Given their clothing—his bow tie and suspenders, her long gown and satin shoes—, they appear to have just returned from a nice night out. If The Viking and Vanport (PSU) were trying to give their veteran students a sense of “normalcy”, this picture seems to perfectly portray just that. It shows a very mundane moment, which does not mean it is without interest. Its importance lies in the fact that it represents something so seemingly quotidian. It radiates hearth and home, reflecting what many young Americans craved in the aftermath of the war. Interestingly, several images like this one can be found in The Viking yearbooks throughout the postwar era.20 This seems to indicate that having a relaxing moment cuddled up on the couch was acceptable—even expected—behavior, that it was so thoroughly integrated into the daily lives of students, its inclusion in the yearbook’s pages was obvious.21

Figure 3

Figure 3

Betty Co-Ed and Joe College, Viking 1950, 74

Figure 4

Figure 4

Betty Co-ed and Joe College, Viking 1953, 93

  • 22 Co-ed refers to a female student at a “coeducational” institution, i.e. one that allows both women (...)
  • 23 Betty Co-Ed and Joe College might be understood as the “typical” college student. In the early post (...)

16It is telling that the archetypical college or university students, “Betty Co-Ed22 and Joe College,” were showcased in The Viking during this time as part of a couple.23 Portland State University held elections for a Betty Co-ed and a Joe College during the academic years of 1949-1950 and 1952-1953 (see Figures 3 and 4). The Inter-Club Council—the intermediary between the student council and student organizations that facilitated funding and planning—sponsored this campaign. While the contemporary observer has no knowledge of the relationship between the two individuals pictured, nor of how they were nominated, they are staged to suggest romantic ties. The composition of these photos is quite telling about the importance of relationships between men and women. In both, the couple is looking at each other in the eyes. In Figure 3, they are seated close together, their left and right shoulders overlapping, nearly touching. Barbara and Cy are smiling joyfully at one another. In Figure 4, Gordon has his forearm and hand on the wall behind Ellene, the other in his pocket. Gordon’s body language suggests seduction, flirtation, and romantic intentions. In return, she looks at him demurely. The photographer even added a vignette effect to the borders of the photo to give it a softer, more romantic feeling. Regardless of the actual relationship of these two individuals to one another, the staging of the photo implies intimacy.

  • 24 The only evidence I found of the Betty Co-ed and Joe College nominations were in 1950 and 1953.

17In both yearbooks, the school’s Bettys and Joes were featured in the “Activities” section and can be found amongst the pictures dedicated to dances. From their placement, it is likely that the titles Betty Co-Ed and Joe College were associated to a dance and/or a nomination process that reflected the students’ popularity. In the 1950 Viking, five pages are dedicated to portraits of the men and women who were elected as symbols of a dance—Homecoming Queen, the Sweetheart of the Delta Tau Rho Fraternity, the King and Queen of Mardi Gras—or presumably of student life—Betty Co-ed and Joe College and the Sweetheart of the Campus. The 1953 volume differs from this only in that “Betty Co-Ed and Joe College” are more clearly associated with their social process as their page is followed by the nominations of “Outstanding Boy,” “Outstanding Girl,” and “Dream Girl.” Though the election of Betty Co-Ed and Joe College appears to have had a short run,24 such labeling could have larger historical and cultural significance as representations of a student archetype. Furthermore, the composition of these photographs associates the prototypical student experience with the pairing off and settling down of the young married couple. These are in all probability staged couple portraits, but they imitate flirting, dating, and, perhaps even, engagement photographs. The fact that model students were being portrayed in such a way indicates that the nature and preoccupations of student life had changed. President Chaffee suggests as much in his history of Boise State writing, “Before the war it was very rare for any of the students to have families and those that did were looked upon as ‘old’ men although they might only be in their early 20s” (125).

18Depictions of a new student and a new student life might be seen as early indicators of a breaking down of distinctions between the private and public roles of students and educators. In the wake of the war, BSU’s and PSU’s college presidents encouraged students to assume their civic responsibilities. This was not exclusive to public behaviors, which is evident from the yearbooks, but also when we look at college and university course offerings at that time. Marriage and family courses proliferated (Landis 36). The presence and quantity of such classes indicate that the administration and faculty believed it was part of their responsibility to prepare students for “mate selection” in their transition toward adulthood. It also demonstrates that colleges’ and universities’ involvement in the private lives of students was expanding. The fact that this is echoed in the pages of Les Bois and The Viking through depictions of the couple attests to its importance. Civic engagement cannot just be understood in terms of private behaviors, though. When looking at these yearbooks, the purpose and nature of student involvement on campus also takes on tones that give it greater importance, implicating that it was becoming a form of political action.

Redefining forms of student engagement

19The yearbooks also attest to shifting roles in student participation on these campuses. In both Portland State’s and Boise State’s annuals, student engagement in campus life initially appears to be social in nature, but over this period there seems to be a political urgency to student involvement. William Graebner hypothesizes that an increased presence and belief in the United Nations in a New York high school’s yearbook was a response to the anxiety of the Cold War and the threat of the atomic bomb (13). While the current article does not deny the particular fears of this era and the ways that people responded to them, the yearbooks from Boise and Portland might further nuance student engagement as not simply being a response to anxiety, but also a consistent call to action, to rise to the times, and to further the aims of democracy.

20At the beginning of the 1950s in Portland, rather than governing, student government was described as an organizing committee and budget allocator for the social side of student life. The 1949-1950 fall term government was presided over by Dan Voiss, who is credited with having made space for “club rooms” as well as “dancing and card playing” (Portland State University, “Viking 1950” 31). The spring term government was led by Don Bluss, who, likewise, was preoccupied with the social life that student government could facilitate, endorsing the “newly introduced square dancing program” and getting students to be more “‘socially minded,’” that is “to participate in the many activities offered” at the college (ibid., 33). These descriptions show that the expectations and goals of student government were almost exclusively social in nature.

  • 25 A lack of funding is also apparent in this edition of Les Bois compared to the 1949 and the 1955 an (...)
  • 26 In their different analyses of yearbooks, William Graebner, Erica R. Hamilton, and Henrietta Rix Wo (...)

21This is also evident in the pages of Les Bois in Boise. The Social Committee, which appeared for the first time in 1952, was part of a larger effort to encourage greater student participation in school-sponsored activities, justifying their expense in the face of waning registrations that year.25 Colleges and universities might have seen student participation as integral to the overall educational experience the institutions were able to provide, hoping to provide them with the experience, know-how, and desire to actively participate in their future communities.26 In that vein, the 1952 yearbook seems to insist on the extent to which the college was a student-oriented campus. Many social spaces are presented as part and parcel of student life in this annual. They were meant to foster community and a sense of belonging. The one I would like to focus on is the Student Union Building (SUB), which is described as being conveniently located, possessing a dining room and kitchen as well as several lounges and rooms where organizations could meet. The SUB also housed the college’s ballroom where many of the school’s dances occurred. Although a great place for large events, its greatest appeal perhaps was the ambiance that this space afforded in the day-to-day lives of students. It is described as supplying “[…] relaxation for students while not in classes” (Boise State University Les Bois 1952 19). Given the financial limitations of the student body’s funds and low enrollment rates, it seems like the 1952 annual was meant to highlight the SUB as integral to the informal social experience that the campus offered its students.

22Student government and student institutions were not alone in touting student participation in formal and informal activities as integral to the student experience, so did administrators. In 1953, the President of PSU, in the vein of college administrators at that time, describes student activity as a service to the campus community. Dr. Epler wrote, “You have changed bricks and stone from a high school building to a thriving, living, growing college. You have made Portland State a better place for the students that come after you and have started traditions that may be followed by future students” (Portland State University, “Viking 1953” 8). Since the school’s inception, Epler had taken it upon himself to prepare students to become the leaders of tomorrow. This is precisely how he framed their participation in creating a new academic environment for the students at Portland State University: they would set the course for the school’s future. He did not give the students credit alone, however. He also acknowledged the ambiance of the school that he had been trying to foster since the early days of the institution in collaboration with other administrators, faculty, and students. This is important because it shows that postwar administrators were attempting to prioritize the individual and group experience as part of the “college experience”, thus, creating loyalty to local, state, and national communities (Hamilton 102-103). Dr. Epler continued, “Portland State has a tradition of placing students and their welfare first. Faculty and staff are interested in doing their best for you, the students” (Portland State University, “Viking 1953” 8). It is significant that Epler framed the discussion in this way because, in a way, he seemed to be adopting the vision that young people needed to be shown a great deal of care and support in order to accept the challenges that the new postwar world would throw at them. In encouraging them, in promising the support of their elders, he also laid the responsibility for creating the future at their feet.

23While early in the postwar era student government might be seen as a glorified social committee, by the mid-1950s the student body government at Portland State became decisively more political. This is evident as early as 1956 in The Viking when self-governing appeared to be a crucial aspect of student life. In fact, following the “Administration,” there is an entire section reserved for “Student Administration,” which includes the student body officers, the representative assembly, the Inter-Organizational Council, the Associated Women Students officers, the sophomore and freshmen class officers, the Viking staff, and the Vanguard staff. Devoting an entire section to a student administration suggests that they were playing an increasingly important role in the decision-making process, or at least they thought they were. It is particularly interesting that the student-run print media, the yearbook and newspaper staffs, were included as part of this section as this seems to indicate that these publications believed they were providing invaluable information to the campus, fulfilling the same functions that professional journalistic outlets do for larger society. At this juncture, no copy or explanation was given as to how the student government worked or what they accomplished in terms of governing, but its prominent position and its independence from the section consecrated to “student organizations” implies that, at the very least, the editors of the yearbook saw its roles shifting and, at most, that it was gaining a voice in how decisions were being made.

24This is further exemplified in the 1959 Viking where students seem to occupy an increasingly powerful role on campus. The emphasis that President Dr. Epler put on creating responsible citizens in earlier volumes seems to be a rhetoric increasingly co-opted by the student body at this time. The foreword of this edition intimated as much:

Once a year, we look forward and backward. We attempt to assess our achievements and to look toward our potential. […] We, the students, are an integral part of Portland State College. A school can be only as good as its students. The students must assume their responsibility if the college is to continue to grow. […] The 1959 Viking is a backward glance. We should not live in the past, but taking a glance once in a while gives us a clearer picture of our current position (Portland State University, “Viking 1959” 14).

25This foreword placed the students at the center and empowered them as actors. The students were imbued with the responsibility of representing the school and contributing to its expansion. The positioning of the student at the heart of the school’s future hinted at a shift in the perception of the student’s role on campus. In this vein, the 1959 annual continued to emphasize the importance of student government. Once again, the “Student Administration” followed the actual “Administration.” It had grown. Adding to its ranks, there were a student court, a college center committee—which coordinated dances, cultural events, and publicity—an Inter-Fraternity Council, and the Centennial Review—a literary publication. Significantly, this also was the first year that the Student Leadership Camp took place (see Figures 5 and 6).

Figure 5

Figure 5

Viking 1959, 234

Figure 6

Figure 6

Viking 1959, 236

26From the captions—no descriptive copy is provided—it appears that this was a retreat for students in different leadership positions on campus where the faculty and administration could help them develop “characteristics of leaders” and learn about parliamentary procedure (Portland State University, “Viking 1959” 234, 236). The documentation of this event was largely photographic, but it still leaves the reader with the impression that there was significant collaboration between the students and the administration and that this was a seminar that represented shifting ideas about forms of student representation, student engagement, and overall student responsibility. The administration continues to lend a guiding hand and it is through their encouragement, it appears, that students began taking their “independence training” to the next level.

Figure 7

Figure 7

Les Bois 1964, 80

27Such indicators of change in Boise lagged behind by a couple of years and when they manifested themselves, they were not quite as clear demarcations of students exercising their democratic citizenship. Rather than apparent structural shifts in the composition of student government, it might be argued that there are micro-glimpses of influences from the counterculture and Anti-War movement that very subtly challenged students’ relationships with the institution, resulting in them shrewdly attempting to redefine them more within their own image. Like prior editions, the 1964 Les Bois presented college life as being a moment in time of which one should take advantage. In a more inadvertent way than The Viking, however, it began to include indicators that life on campus and youth culture in general were, indeed, changing. The foreword implies as much when it states, “The Bronc motif for this 1963-64 LES BOIS is symbolic of the youth and vitality of our community college” (Boise State University Les Bois 1964 3). Taking “youth and vitality” as the representative characteristics of campus was a less blatant claim to active communal meaning making than The Viking’s assertion that the students were intricately associated with the Portland community and that they were responsible as civic actors, but it still indicates that student life was its own unique manifestation of a larger youth culture. It also infused the notions of age and energy into the student community, perhaps, attempting to break with the seeming tiredness of a staid institution.

28One organization stands out more than others this year as it is the only one to very subtly deviate from themes discussed in previous parts. It was the Esquires, an ex-servicemen’s club that was originally formed in 1953 in the wake of the Korean War (1950-53) and was reorganized in 1963. Membership was contingent on having completed two years of active duty in any one of the branches of the armed services. The description of the club’s activities does not stand out in any particular way except that they made a float for the Homecoming parade, on the side of which we can read “Pray for Peace” (see Figure 7). The float won first place in the Homecoming parade (Boise State University, Les Bois 1964 96). No further discussion of the float is given, but the fact that it was made and that it won, might be indicative of a large portion of the student body’s feelings about the United States’ presence in Vietnam, the uncertainty of the Cold War, or both. This might not be considered outright dissidence given the banality with which it is presented, but it is a manifestation of how young veterans on campus might have felt they should present themselves to the community. It could also be read, in the more conservative context that was Boise, Idaho, as communal support for the troops and for the nation at war. Whether it is read as being a marker of the Anti-War Movement or as communal support for veterans, these ideas are not inherently antithetical and the presence of such an object as well as its manifest popularity among the student body indicate that students were behaving as political actors within the confines of their collegiate experience.

Figure 8

Figure 8

Les Bois 1970, 26

  • 27 This can be seen as linked to the burgeoning Free Speech movement on the University of California B (...)
  • 28 The 1965 Viking also devotes two full pages of photographs to protests with the caption “Assorted i (...)

29Unlike their Portland State counterparts who were beginning to show interest in issues linked to the counterculture as early as 1965 in that they included in that year’s Viking an “unrehearsed poetry reading” by faculty members,27 overt student political activism in Boise appeared relatively late and was conveyed as existing in harmony with varying viewpoints.28 There was a feature of a rather small group of people gathered together to observe the Vietnam Moratorium on October 15, 1969. Following this there is a picture of two different recruitment tables in the Student Union Building: one with a sign that said, “Peace Now” and the other with U.S. Navy recruiters seated at it. The caption reads, “Differing opinions on war, the Moratorium and the Navy Recruiters peacefully coexist in the Student Union Building lobby” (Boise State University Les Bois 1970 26) (see Figure 8). It is notable that the attention given to the Vietnam War and the Peace Movement are featured in “Activities” of the year, in the sense that the nation’s engagement and young people’s response had become an issue that was so ubiquitous that photographic portrayals of it were included in the college’s annual. Furthermore, the attempts by the administration and the yearbook staff to bring together the opposing positions on the war speak volumes about the local community. It seems that there was an attempt on the ground and in the photographic representation to allow for the acceptability of protesting the war at the same time that supporting and encouraging it was possible. Perhaps then, this illustrates how democratic citizenship for college students in Boise could be expressed in many forms. This year, The Esquires again appeared to stand out as an organization as their role had gone from being one of subtle cries for peace to assuming the larger burden of readapting the soldier to civilian life. Their club page described their mission as trying “[…] to unite these individuals on campus so their adjustment to college life will become easier and their associations with students of their age groups, experiences and social relations” (Boise State University, Les Bois 1970 125). The budding activism on Boise State’s campus was paired then in this annual with the realization of civic duty: reintegrating soldiers.

  • 29 I have chosen in this article to focus on the presence of veterans and their response to the Korean (...)

30In looking to traditional sites of student involvement, student government and clubs, the yearbooks make clear that the preoccupations of students as actors changed during this time. Early on, student government was linked to student life and social events. With time, student governments and clubs seemed to have embraced the mood of the era, attempting to render cries for change concrete by bestowing more institutional power in student governments and student organizations taking on more political overtones. Student clubs and activities reflect the increasing political concerns of young people of the era and demonstrate varying forms of civic responsibility.29 Diving further into the interplay of private and public behaviors, this final section will analyze the ways in which housing and students’ living situations changed during this era implicating a larger swath of student life as a site of engagement and expression of the rights and duties of citizenship.

Disrupting the public and private: Student housing as a site for political voice

31One thing both Portland State and Boise State had in common was that they were both established as commuter schools, which meant that they hoped to bring education to a more urbanized population that could not, for various reasons, attend the state’s campus-based schools and thus, the provision of student housing by the university was less expected, but this does not mean it was not problematic.

  • 30 Beth Bailey explains the “panty raids” as youth coming together to contest administrative and paren (...)

32Early on, Boise State made it part of its mission to begin providing student housing. Dormitories can be seen as the site where the student’s public and private lives merge. As such, they define much of the social experience that was campus life. Driscoll and Morrison Halls were inaugurated in the 1952 academic year. The former for female students and the latter for male students. In constructing student residences, the college was more able to market “the campus experience” to prospective students and get those who were already attending involved in the institution’s social activities. Dormitories were the perfect environment through which postwar era administrators could further their mission to foster civic responsibility in young adults as they combined the public and private aspects of student life. They were a continuation of the scholastic environment, which was enacted on the Boise State campus through mandatory study hours for dorm residents. They were also the occasion for the college to provide autonomy and independence to young adults by furnishing students with a living space away from their families. Additionally, dorms were a means to soften the transition towards “full” adulthood because they were highly controlled spaces. Beth Bailey describes the dormitories as the site where in loco parentis—where administrators acted in the stead of parents—was the most strongly felt. “Parietals”—the rules that imposed curfews on female students, study hours on freshmen, a code of morality and ethics on all residents at Boise State—were supposedly done for the students’ own good. They were meant to keep young women safe, while simultaneously keeping young people’s sexual behavior in check (Sex in the Heartland 78). The 1952 Les Bois boasts of the convenience and social environment provided by its new dorms, but also notes their function in controlling the gender and sexual behavior of students: “There are two new dormitories on the campus this year: Morrison for the women, and Driscoll for the men. These dormitories are located conveniently on the campus and are arranged for comfort, group living, good study habits, and guidance away from home” (Boise State University Les Bois 1952 37). This is the first mention in either Les Bois or The Viking of any type of college-provided supervision over the private lives of students. It seems particularly apt given the fact that the spring of 1952 was the first to see disorderly chaos erupt on many campuses across the nation in the form of “panty raids”, a national trend where young men on college campuses would break into women’s dormitories and steal their undergarments, hence the name the “panty raids” (Fessler 31).30 The inclusion of the word “guidance” in describing dorm life in the 1952 Les Bois could have been an attempt to reassure any outsider that the administration was doing its utmost to keep such behaviors in check, whether it was rioting for panties or maintaining enough chaperonage to remind young people that they were still morally accountable.

33When Portland State relocated to its downtown location in 1950, it decided that housing would not be one of the amenities that it offered to its student body. In 1959 and 1966, President Branford P. Millar justified this in part as the college’s refusal to assume the role of in loco parentis. Housing though became an issue for students to express their democratic citizenship within the pages of the college yearbook. The 1968 Viking devoted fives pages of copy, spanning nine pages as part of a photographic essay, to what the author presents in part as a problem in affordable student housing near the campus. It is much more political in nature than just lamenting a lack of cheap student housing though. It is a history of Portland’s urban redevelopment project that began in the mid-1950s and ultimately cleared fifty-four blocks in the city’s downtown core, most of which was low-income housing and the location of the city’s historic Italian and Jewish neighborhoods. Urban renewal in this essay disrupts the cohesive experience of student life according to the author. Cheap housing contributed to the creation of a student community whether one was more a part of the “bohemian colony” or enjoying the “good times” provided by fraternities (Portland State University, “Viking 1968” 126). The author, Mike Smith, writes, “Those who stayed long found, if they wanted to, intellectual companionship, scholarly isolation, tavern philosophizing, a good part time job, a lover, a self-discovery—all independent of the college, yet all facilitated by its proximity” (ibid.). The fact that there was no student housing was not a problem because students found housing, built communities and began adulthood, at the edges of the campus. It was precisely the “independence” and “cosmopolitan” nature of student life that made the school different from other campus-based colleges and universities (ibid., 127). (See Figure 9 for a photographic representation of student living and community in this photographic essay.)

Viking 1968

34Having established what housing was like before 1963, Smith continues by describing the construction of a freeway, the displacement of families, speculation, and development. When he arrives at the expansion of the college which was part of this urban renewal, we can detect a hint of regret, “P.S.C. will rise here, skyward, appearing to be part of the commercial complex of buildings that will surround it. Concrete, steel and glass, vast garages below. Progress. The legislature loving. But what of that displaced?” (ibid., 131). (See Figure 10 for the photographic representation of urban renewal in this essay.)

Viking 1968

35He then gives a list of what had already disappeared and of what was slated to go. While he mourns the loss of businesses on which the student community relied, the true tragedy was that “there may […] be no independent student community around Portland State” (ibid., 132). Smith professes to be speaking for the “poor student who wishes to be independent” (ibid., 134). He goes on to explain that it is precisely the “independent” and “creative” types who have sought out the unique community and experience of the college. He laments not only what has been and will be lost, but also what will come of it: the grind of “bus drivers, frozen windshields, tokens, gas pumps, grey streets, traffic reports on tall buildings, and fumes in the air” and the regimentation of “dorm counselors, small rooms, meals on the hour, rules for dress, and the return to the automobile for expressions of love” (ibid.). He is doing so much more than complaining about a loss of student housing. He is staking out a political position that contests urban redevelopment, the displacement of low-income housing and those who use it, and the relocation of independent businesses to make way for big ones. Smith objects to the commuter-lifestyle, which was becoming so prevalent in the wake of suburbanization, and the exacting control of college administrators when student housing is on campus. He claims that this transition would put a wall up between students and the community and ultimately, change the purpose of the institution.

36Michael Smith wrote for Portland State’s newspaper, The Vanguard. This essay was originally published there before it was reproduced in The Viking. As a student journalist, Smith was doing his democratic duty to inform the populace and to hold the powerful accountable to the people. In so doing, he was rising to the call made by college and university administrators of that era, about embracing and perpetuating the tenets of democracy. As we have seen throughout this article, the expressions of civic duty by that point had changed significantly.

Conclusion

37At the close of the war, veterans were flooding into colleges and universities. The age of marriage was falling. While courtship was a norm of yesteryear, young students embraced steady dating and marriage as a means to access the security of full adulthood. Student government at that time became increasingly interested in governing and resembled less and less an organizational committee for social events. A reframing of student government must have necessarily influenced or been influenced by young people’s political engagement at the time. Even in a conservative place like Boise, Idaho, there is evidence of the effects of the Peace Movement. Because it was so closely linked to self-determination and autonomy more than any other aspect of student life, housing was a site early and late during this period for students to define their democratic participation. Housing, extracurriculars, and dating were all means through which students were meant to find their footing as adults at this time. College administrators and educators called students to embrace and further the democratic mission of the United States. These aspects of student life became central to students appropriating democracy and reshaping it according to their criteria throughout this period.

38The dominant narrative about young people in the postwar era was one about coming of age. The peculiarities of that coming-of-age story shifts depending on the decade under discussion. The postwar era is often characterized as two decades at odds with one another; the 1950s as distinct from the 1960s. Any rumblings of the subversive elements of the 1960s commencing in the 1950s are discounted as “undercurrents” (Petigny 2). The yearbooks from two northwest urban centers help nuance this understanding precisely because they are perhaps more representational of the normative, rather than the exceptional, experience of most youth in the U.S. at this time. There were certainly “undercurrents”, but these were particular to the whole of the postwar era as society as a whole moved away from traditional mores. This is evident in looking at the intersection of the public and private lives of young people on college and university campuses at that time. The varied aspects of student life were given greater meaning, imbued with greater importance by administrators and educators. Students heeded the call; they exercised their voices, and ultimately embodied democratic citizenship beyond finding a place within their local, state, and national communities. Their participation was a means for them to seize control of their narratives and shape them more to their liking.

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Notes

1 Excerpted from the foreword of Boise State University’s 1964 yearbook, Les Bois 3.

2 Many American high schools still create these annuals, but universities and colleges have largely ceased production. Both institutions under study here stopped in 1978. Portland State University, then, took up reproduction in 1990 and printed books until 1995.

3 Copy is a word used in journalism to describe the written material that does not explain photographs or illustrations.

4 Halftone printing is a printing technique that reduces images to a series of dots, allowing for the full range of a photograph or image to be accurately reproduced.

5 The postwar era referred to in this paper is thought to encompass the 1950s and the 1960s, from approximately 1945 to 1974.

6 This term has been used by historians to define the way the government and consumer society have explained the extraordinary aspects of this era—demographic and economic growth, relatively widespread affluence, as well as the United States as an actor on the international stage. While this idea can be traced back to the founding of the nation, it was quite present during the 1950s and 1960s.

7 This yearbook analysis was performed as part of the archival research for my Ph.D. for which I selected ten yearbooks from each schools’ collection that spanned a thirty-year period: Boise State’s 1946-1973 and Portland State’s 1947-1974. These cities were chosen in part because they are in the northwest, far away from major urban and industrial centers; they were seemingly isolated from but still very much influenced by the political and economic discourse of the era.

8 This institution underwent three name changes during this period of time. Upon its founding in 1932, it was inaugurated as Boise Junior College. It became Boise College as the institution gained its four-year degree accreditation between 1965-1966, then it was renamed Boise State College in 1969. The institution became a university in 1974 at which time it became known as Boise State University (Bryson 19, 412). For the sake of clarity and consistency, I will refer to it as Boise State University (BSU) throughout this paper.

9 Portland State College was born out of a need to address overcrowding in other state higher educational institutions in Oregon and was, thus, initially called the Vanport Extension Center when it opened for the fall semester of 1946. In 1952, it became the Portland State Extension Center and, in 1955, Portland State College. Its institutional status changed once again in 1969 when it became Portland State University (Bryson 19-20). I will likewise refer to this institution as Portland State University (PSU), unless clarification is required.

10 See William Graebner’s “The Cold War: A Yearbook Perspective,” for a brief discussion on yearbooks’ limitations as historical sources, and Henrietta Rix Wood’s “Transforming Student Periodicals into Persuasive Podiums: African American Girls at Lincoln High School, 1915-1930,” for a demonstration of the interplay of the historically “frivolous” aspects of yearbooks, their portrayal of collective identity, and some students’ abilities to use this medium to bolster a racialized collective identity.

11 I have used town and city here in hopes of creating a distinction of scale between Boise and Portland without relying on Census nomenclature. Census documents between 1940 and 1970 did not include a definition for towns, nor did they stipulate a difference in size of such locations with terms like “large” or “mid-sized.” It might be noted that before 1970, Idaho had no “urbanized areas” or “statistical metropolitan areas,” terms used by the Census to describe city size and density as well as an urban core and surrounding communities that are socially and economically interdependent (U.S. Census Bureau, “1960 Census of Population…Idaho” 14-20; “Metropolitan Areas” 13-1).

12 If the voting age is taken as an indicator of legal adulthood, many college and university students would not have been adults. Nevertheless, this issue was being debated during this era, which demonstrates that the rights and responsibilities of adulthood were controversial at that time. Both states attempted to lower the voting age to 19 during this period by amending their state constitutions, Idaho in 1960 and Oregon in 1944 and then again in 1970. Neither attempt was successful (Idaho Secretary of State Election Division; Initiative, Referendum, and Recall).

13 The lowering of the age of eligibility for the draft to 18 in 1942 can be seen as an extension of the duties of citizenship placed on young people at that time. Additionally, this change resulted in 31 states discussing whether or not the rights of citizenship, voting, should be extended to 18-year-olds (Brewer).

14 See Regina Lee Blaszczyk’s American Consumer Society, 1865-2000 and Lizabeth Cohen’s A Consumer’s Republic for thorough analyses of the ways in which American values became the battleground for which the Cold War could play out on U.S. soil.

15 Defining “traditional” values is particularly tricky with this period because it is so commonly believed to have been the pinnacle of “tradition.” I ascribe to Stephanie Coontz’s description of this era’s understanding of “tradition” as being “an amalgam of structures, values, and behaviors that never coexisted in the same time and place” (The Way We Never Were 9), but for the argument of this article to be understood properly, tradition might be important to put forward as promoting the tenets of democracy and individualism, shoring up the institutions of marriage and the family, and reiterating the importance of civil society (Stid).

16 The GI Bill, or the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, was seen as a tool to help returning veterans reassimilate into civilian life. It provided qualifying veterans with health insurance, unemployment pay, education stipends, as well as access to advantageous property and business loans (Astin 18; Canaday 935-937, 945; Coontz, Marriage: A History 147; Cott 190-191). This act is accredited with helping more than 2.2 million veterans attend college and university and thus might be seen as an explanation for why “older” students were flooding campuses (Canaday 957).

17 See Beth Bailey’s From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth Century America, ch. 2 “The Economy of Dating” for a description of the codes enshrined in courtship and their varied transitions between the interwar period and the postwar era.

18 Permission for use of the images from the Les Bois yearbooks was given by Boise State University Special Collections and Archives.

19 This first annual did not have any labeled page numbers and so they are self-designated. Permission for use of the images from the “Viking” yearbooks was given by Portland State University Library Special Collections & University Archives.

20 While the period might be pointed to as containing not a single generation, but two, and two generations that are commonly depicted in opposition to one another, pictorial portrayals of couples and families can be found throughout the period understudy in the yearbooks. Perhaps “hearth and home” as being something that was “craved in the aftermath of the war” was no longer the case by the end of the period, but there does seem to be a social and cultural emphasis on family throughout. The last yearbook in this sample is a very interesting example of transformations in depictions and understandings of family. It is the 1974 yearbook from Portland State and rather than going by the school’s traditional name, The Viking, the cover indicates that this is “A Portland Family Album.” While the 1973, 1975, 1976, and 1977 annuals also subverted the name of the yearbook, the earliest in the chronology uses a possible synonym for yearbook calling itself the “Annual Report 72/73”and the latter three all mention Portland State. The 1974 “Family Album” has no date, nor any institutional affiliation on its cover. Its introduction might point to some of the transformations in understandings of family for this later generation. The editors write, “This book is a collection of photographs, a collection of Portland’s people. […] In taking pictures for this book, we tried to be as honest and straightforward as in taking a snapshot for a family album, and we prefer to think of the book in just those terms: a family album—A Portland Family Album” (Portland State University, “The Viking 1974” 5). There is an obvious difference between the early family of this era that might be viewed as exclusive, as an escape from the rest of the world, and the later family that might be seen as inclusive, as expanding its notions of community and belonging, if we are to focus on differences between generational types. While this article does not deny that there is not a significant transformation between the early 1950s and the late 1960s, it is attempting to look at the acceleration of changing value systems in institutions like the family which seem to be represented in the yearbooks’ pages.

21 Ironically, this picture was taken at time when the Hays’ Code (1930-1950) was in full effect in Hollywood, requiring that lovers have “at least one foot on the floor” whenever there was an amorous scene in order to keep it from being labeled obscene (Benyahia, Gaffney, and White 152). Such a contrast is important to keep in mind when we are trying to reconcile the differences between espoused and actual behaviors or the differential positions of those who set standards for young people and actual young people.

22 Co-ed refers to a female student at a “coeducational” institution, i.e. one that allows both women and men to attend.

23 Betty Co-Ed and Joe College might be understood as the “typical” college student. In the early postwar era, Joe College would have been a WWII vet. From the outset, both Betty Co-Ed and Joe College were objecting to the exclusion of racial and ethnic minorities from fraternities and sororities. These two would have also been more marriage focused in the early years as this was considered the respectable outlet for sexual expression, regardless of whether it reflected actual sexual practices, and more sexually experienced or open to sex outside of marriage by the end of the period. They were more racially, ethnically, and economically diverse than ever before. The democratization of higher education and encouragement to engage in citizenship resulted in Joe College and Betty Co-Ed increasingly getting involved in student government and political issues of the day (Bryson 350-353). See John E. Grinnell “Goodbye, Joe College” for a subjective historical narration and lament of the typical college student between the 1920s and 1960s.

24 The only evidence I found of the Betty Co-ed and Joe College nominations were in 1950 and 1953.

25 A lack of funding is also apparent in this edition of Les Bois compared to the 1949 and the 1955 annuals. The 1952 volume is shorter and it does not have a theme or follow the academic calendar, indicating that the staff had limited financing and, thus, tried to include just the essentials: identification of the administration, faculty, staff, and students; student organizations; the social life of campus; and athletics.

26 In their different analyses of yearbooks, William Graebner, Erica R. Hamilton, and Henrietta Rix Wood look at student participation in various forms as civic engagement. Additionally, student participation was a recurring theme of concern for administration officials in the archives of both Portland State and Boise State.

27 This can be seen as linked to the burgeoning Free Speech movement on the University of California Berkeley campus that had begun in the fall term of 1964. The editors of the yearbook speculate that this poetry reading was either a “satirical stiletto aimed at Bend’s Central Oregon College’s controversial censoring of [Allen] Ginsberg’s Howl—or a sanitized spoof of the later public protest reading of Howl by University of Oregon faculty” (Portland State University, “Viking 1965” 51). While not direct action by students, this impromptu event was significant enough to include it in the yearbook’s pages.

28 The 1965 Viking also devotes two full pages of photographs to protests with the caption “Assorted impromptu protest demonstrations were also big” (Portland State University, “Viking 1965” 97). An explanation for the difference in when and how political activism developed in these two places might be due to their proximity to other hubs of political activism and the counterculture. Oregon was the home of Ken Kesey—a notable Beat novelist and social provocateur whose antics of cross-country gallivanting in a school bus with his band of Merry Pranksters to bring LSD to the nation were made widely known thanks to Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. One of the state’s universities, the University of Oregon, was a hotbed of social and political activism during the mid- to late-1960s and early 1970s. Many communes were located in the state as well (Bryson 447). Conversely, Boise, and Idaho more broadly, was far from many of these bursts of political and social engagement.

29 I have chosen in this article to focus on the presence of veterans and their response to the Korean and Vietnam Wars because these actors and events were present on both the PSU and BSU campuses. I have not treated the Civil Rights Movement, nor the 1960s Movement more generally. From the twenty yearbooks in my sample, it was not immediately apparent that there was a strong response to the Civil Rights Movement or other offshoots of the Movement in both locations. There is evidence in The Viking that there was a student response and interest in the Civil Rights Movement. However, the relatively minimal role it plays in the 1965 Viking and its seeming absence from Les Bois should be acknowledged. This might be due to the fact that both Boise and Portland lacked significant racial diversity. Between 1950 and 1970, Portland’s racial composition went from being 97.7 percent white, 1.55 percent black, and 0.72 percent other races to 96 percent white, 2.3 percent black, and 1.5 percent other races (U.S. Census Bureau, “Population and Housing…Oregon” 51; U.S. Census Bureau, “General Demographic Trends…Oregon” 9). During the same period of time, Boise went from being 99.1 percent white, 0.5 percent black, and 0.4 percent other races to 98.97 percent white, 0.27 percent black, and 0.76 other races (U.S. Census Bureau “Population and Housing…Idaho” 42; U.S. Census Bureau, “General Demographic Trends…Idaho” 9). In terms of resonance of national trends on the local level then, it might be deduced that a lack of racial diversity in marginalized places like Boise and Portland made it less likely for such movements to have significant groundswell.

30 Beth Bailey explains the “panty raids” as youth coming together to contest administrative and parental authority through the explosive nature of sexuality at that time (Sex in the Heartland 46). She stipulates, however, that this was less revolution, and more carnival. Quoting Alfred Kinsey’s response to the panty raids—‘All animals play around’—reflects to some degree the purpose of such movements, but for Bailey, the panty raids represented a desire to subvert middle-class sexual norms and challenge the authority of university administrators (ibid., 82). On the one hand, Bailey does not portray the panty raids as inherently problematic, but as a means through which young people could express their discontent with the controlling influence of university officials over their private behavior, most notably represented by parietals and in loco parentis. While, on the other hand, university and college officials, as well as those who read the sensationalized accounts of the panty raids in mass-circulation magazines, could see these movements for what they were “very public challenges to authority” (ibid., 47). If “guidance” was included in this year’s annual in response to the panty raids, then it is meant to serve as a reminder to students, future students, and the Boise community that the private lives of Boise State students were being supervised, to prevent this sort of anarchy from taking place and to reassure the larger public that norms were being inculcated.

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List of illustrations

Title Figure 1
Caption Les Bois 1946, 8718
URL http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/docannexe/image/44464/img-1.jpg
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Title Figure 2
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Title Figure 3
Caption Betty Co-Ed and Joe College, Viking 1950, 74
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Title Figure 4
Caption Betty Co-ed and Joe College, Viking 1953, 93
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Title Figure 5
Caption Viking 1959, 234
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Title Figure 6
Caption Viking 1959, 236
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Title Figure 7
Caption Les Bois 1964, 80
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Title Figure 8
Caption Les Bois 1970, 26
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Title Figure 9
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Title Figure 10
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References

Electronic reference

Christen Bryson, ““As You Thumb through These Pages, Memories of”National Youth Culture in College Yearbooks: Dominant Narratives Told from the Marginalized Places of Boise, Idaho and Portland, Oregon”Miranda [Online], 25 | 2022, Online since 21 April 2022, connection on 28 March 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/44464; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/miranda.44464

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About the author

Christen Bryson

Maîtresse de conférences
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (EA 4399 – CREW)
christen.bryson-charle@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr

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Copyright

CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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