Research Struggle Update

On January 13th, 2016, my English class visited Santa Clara University’s Archives and Special Collections. The items out on display ranged from sports to blueprints to female student history to papers that date back to the beginnings of Santa Clara University and the Mission. I thought that I would definitely want to research something on female student history as my past writing was about feminism, but I found my interest in something else.

There were four tables out, and on one of the tables, there were these books that were titled “Catalogues”. At first, when I peeked inside, there wasn’t anything in particular that sparked my interest. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking at or reading. However, after a while, I realized that I was looking at Santa Clara University’s campus and student history. The book was categorized by school year and within each year, there were sections on the students, student office, classes, degrees, curriculum, and much more. The section that I took particular interest in was the beginning of each year part. Each year started out with a “Prospectus” (I had to look up what this meant: a printed document that advertises or describes a school, commercial enterprise, forthcoming book, etc., in order to attract or inform clients, members, buyers, or investors, definition by Google.com), which talked about the institution’s beginnings and how far it’s come.

Since the university opened in 1851, there were drastic changes throughout the first few decades as it improved in every aspect of a school. I should have begun taking pictures at 1851,  but I didn’t really know what I was going to do with the material, so I started at 1845 and took a whole bunch of pictures. I wish I could have compared the very first one with the rest of the ones I had attained as well.

 

Looking over the years I did have (1854-1879), I noticed many difference between each of the years and decades. The two pictures above showcase 1854-55 and 1867-68 prospectuses. If you compare the two, you will notice how much Santa Clara University has grown. In the 1854 one, the writers seem to be trying to show how much the school has grown through its numbers and how the school has reflected the founders’ purpose of opening such a school. In the 1867 one, the school seems to be getting to the point of being considered a legitimate school since the writers have laid out what buildings the school now has and its concern for the students and their studies and health. Between 13 years, Santa Clara University grew exponentially as an institution, which, in my eyes, is quite amazing.

And now it’s one of the top schools for business in the Bay Area. How crazy it is to think about how something started from a Mission to the wonderful college it is now.