Time Travel Is Possible at MGC

Nostalgia sets in for many of us as the years pass. One way we can revisit the past and go back in time to the glory days of high school or college is through yearbooks. For some of us, a glimpse of high school represents who we were on the precipice of all the possibilities of who we could become before we actually became who we are now. High school symbolizes the rickety bridge from youth to adulthood, and thus holds our memories, milestones, and growth.

For some of us, college or university might represent the “best of times” in our lives, the time when the taste of independence rewarded our spirits with new experiences, some good and others “not-so-good.” The Midwest Genealogy Center offers customers a stationary form of time travel with its collection of both high school and college yearbooks, as well as plentiful comfortable nooks where a library visitor can visit yesteryears through a meaningful yearbook experience.

The yearbooks at MGC are currently located in the upstairs level Northeast Hall with call numbers 372 (elementary), 373 (high school), and 378 (university). Library customers can walk directly to the yearbooks, and because MGC has open stacks, anyone can find the call number for their desired yearbook in Mid-Continent Public Library’s catalog before taking the resource right off the shelf themselves. The inside scoop on how to best locate yearbooks in MCPL’s catalog is to know the yearbook’s title rather than the school’s name; for example, Independence, Missouri’s own William Chrisman High School yearbooks are catalogued under the yearbook title Gleam. You can also do a keyword search for the town, state, and the word “yearbook.”

In addition to the physical yearbook collection on the shelves at the Midwest Genealogy Center, MGC has a partnership with FamilySearch. Many of MGC’s yearbooks are digitized and available to the public via FamilySearch Books; a few of the digitized yearbooks even have a link to their digital component in MCPL’s online catalog.

Are your yearbooks taking up space in your basement or attic? If so, think about donating them to MGC. Donating yearbooks that we do not already have in our collection helps us grow the resources we are able to offer visitors and guests, and it also frees up valuable storage space you can fill with other items…like that old high school cheerleading uniform!

Kari S.

Midwest Genealogy Center