The Once and Future Yearbook

The first Corks and Curls yearbook was published in 1888 and featured “short historical notices” of each academic department, as well as poems, engravings and cartoons. After documenting student and University life for 119 years, the yearbook ceased publication in 2008. The Alumni Association’s Jefferson Trust provided a 2013 grant to the Corks and Curls Legacy Project. Members of the project are working to create an online archive and virtual museum commemorating the student yearbook.

“We’re really excited about this project and making terrific progress,” says Coy Barefoot (Grad ’97), president and executive director of the Virginia History Lab, and leader of the Corks and Curls project. “There are a lot of moving parts to it … the massive digital archive that covers over 100 years, which is of course the core of the project; plus dozens of essays and articles about the history of Corks and Curls as well as the fascinating stories you can find inside the pages the yearbooks; the decades of amazing photographs; and the oral histories with alumni. It’s a big project, that wouldn’t have been at all possible without the generous support of the Jefferson Trust and John and Trula Wright.”

Barefoot and his team are aiming to open the online museum to visitors in the fall of 2014. 

Meanwhile, University students and alumni are continuing to work on re-establishing Corks and Curls. Two second-year students, Carly Buckholz (Col ’16) and Michael Buhl (Engr ’16), with support from alumni, Student Council and the dean of students, are planning to publish the next edition of Corks and Curls in 2015. 

“We signed to work with Herff Jones as our publisher,” Buckholz  says. “Currently, Michael and I are putting together a leadership team and moving to establish ourselves as a CIO. We have continued to receive an immense amount of support and donations from former Corks and Curls alumni. The book is in a great place.”