CARLI News
The Purple Parrot (Dec 1949)
What exactly is The Purple Parrot? This question has crossed my mind many times as I’ve searched through some of CARLI’s expansive holdings the past few years. From 1921-1950, The Purple Parrot was essentially Northwestern University’s answer to the Harvard Lampoon, a satirical magazine that skewers student life and cultural events of the time.
"The silence & quiet inactivity around this squadron is slowly driving everybody nuts. Pretty soon I'll be cutting out paper dolls in strings, I wish I could give you the full dope about this but I can't."
Rush University Rush Medical College New Student Picture Book, 1977
Before there was Facebook, there were face books. Unlike yearbooks, comprehensive retrospectives published at the end of an academic year, these books were issued at the beginning of the year as a means of identifying students new to campus.
Miriam Centeno, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Have you ever had the experience of having a retired professor walk in to your library with an 8 mm film reel and not having the equipment to play it? Or has a donation come in for your archives with VHS tapes that are all covered in mold? How often do you worry about the state of your media collection? Have you ever tried to plan for its preservation?
The Eagle (1971)
Ah, summer. On the surface, campus activity seems to slow to a crawl. A few faculty and students remain on campus for summer courses, but you can park closer to campus now, and you no longer worry about someone taking “your” favorite seat for eating lunch.