Tyee Yearbooks Digitized and Online

The University of Washington Tyee was first published in 1900 for the graduating class of 1901. It was "dedicated by the Junior Class to all those students of the University of Washington in the past who loved their Alma Mater, and to those in the future who shall uphold her honor."

View a slideshow of Tyee images

From the inaugural Tyee to the final volume published in 1994, the contents, as well as the absence of volumes reflects the student body, campus politics and finances. Decline in revenue and student interest, and dissolution of the ASUW publications board in 1971 by UW President Charles Odegaard led to suspension of Tyee publication until its resurrection in 1986.

The 1967 Tyee, edited by Jack Rhodes, won the All-American Award from the Associated Collegiate Press. The cover, which featured photographs for the first time, was given special notice, and the photo essays, especially "What Is Camp," "The University in the Seattle Community," and "Haiku Interlude," were also praised.

Tyee Yearbooks are among the most requested items in Libraries Special Collections—by UW Alumni, descendants of alumni, researchers, and those curious about the history of our state.

Now, thanks to Libraries Digital Initiatives staff and student employees, the Tyee yearbooks are online after being carefully disbound and digitized, page by page, over the past several years. OCR (optical character recognition) technology helped with the indexing to make the volumes more easily searchable by name or keyword.

Original Tyee yearbooks still reside in Special Collections, the Suzzallo and Allen Library stacks, and in Odegaard Undergraduate Library.

As the University of Washington commemorates 150 years, the yearbook, as a physical object, may have disappeared as a social connector and reminder of times. But their contents will live on, marking the University’s history and contribution to the state. For more information, see http://content.lib.washington.edu/uwdocsweb/index.html