Flashback
110 years ago
The first UB student yearbook was issued 110 years ago. With sections dedicated to each of the university’s five schools—Medicine, Pharmacy, Law, Dentistry and Pedagogy—the 1898 “Iris” contained photographs of the graduates, the history of each school, biographical sketches of the faculty and the history of each graduating class. The yearbook also reported on student organizations and athletics, as well as provided information about UB colors and songs. Student artwork, like what is pictured here, became a feature of the “Iris.”
The editors of the 1930 “Iris” wrote that no institution is complete without some tradition or legend attached to it and that it fell to the students in the UB classes of 1898 to begin a legend around the university that could be handed down from year to year. That legend took the form of a yearbook and was given the name of “Iris,” a flower described by Oliver Wendell Holmes as one “of dignity and grace…adding a touch of glory to the place.”
“Iris” was published until 1932. The “Buffalonian,” a general student yearbook, began publication in 1934 and ceased in 2001. Beginning in 1976, “Iris” once again was used as a title for a UB yearbook when students in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences adopted it for their yearbook. That title continues to be used by the medical school.
—John Edens, University Archives
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