Hi everyone, my name is Seth Ford, and today I’m excited to walk you through my project on the history of yearbooks at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. This project looks at far more than old photos or past layouts. It explores how our yearbooks have captured the spirit, identity, and student experience of the Island University across different eras.
My goal today is to highlight how these yearbooks serve as historical artifacts, showing us how TAMU-CC has grown into the diverse, student-centered institution it is now. I’ll walk you through major changes in design, themes, and representation, and connect those shifts to larger ideas in higher education—like student identity development, campus culture, and what it means for a university to tell its own story.
In Student Affairs and Higher Education, we spend a lot of time talking about campus culture, sense of belonging, and institutional identity. We look at how students form community, how they see themselves within the university, and how institutions communicate their values.
Yearbooks actually give us visual evidence of all those things. They’re a record of what mattered on campus at the time and how the university wanted to present itself to students, families, and the wider community. When you flip through a yearbook, you’re not just seeing pictures but you’re seeing a snapshot of the student experience in that moment.
What students valued and chose to highlight
Who was represented—and sometimes who wasn’t
The traditions that helped shape campus identity
How diverse the university was during different time periods
What programs, organizations, and student activities were available
And overall, how the institution defined itself through imagery, tone, and storytelling