In these two pictures, you can pick out some differences here and there, but what significance do they even have that you would take the time to do such a thing?

If you look back at my previous post, you will understand why it is relevant. To summarize, as many schools have, Santa Clara University has undergone many changes to get where it is now. The Mission in the black and white picture was just a Mission (with historical significance of course), but now it’s part of something even bigger: a landmark within an institution that is dedicated to helping students reach for a brighter future.

If you take a look at this 1854 prospectus, you can see that this school was founded on the basis of religion (i.e Fathers of the Society of Jesus), and for many decades, religion was a huge part of the curriculum and daily schedules of the students. It makes one wonder where was the turning point in the school’s history that lowered its emphasis on religion in its curriculum. However, even though there is less of a religious emphasis in academics, the mission is still a significant part of Santa Clara University as it is usually the cover photo of the school and is the place where this all started.

Religion is not the only aspect that has changed in the school’s lifetime.

This catalogue is from 1868 and from this, you can tell that there has been drastic changes since 1854. From 1854 to 1868, Santa Clara University grew a school through their class size and buildings on campus. There are official subject-related buildings like a chemistry lab and a museum for natural history. They even have a library that grew in numbers throughout the years (in the 1871 prospectus, they say that they now have 12,000 volumes, compared to the 10,000 in 1868). Compared to the little they had in the past decade with only the Mission to go off of, in 1868, the school increased in its surface area and classes, curriculum, and class size.

These are differences that one can’t really tell in the first two pictures of the 1850s’ Mission and today’s Mission, especially since they are just pictures of the Mission. What has been cut out is the rest of the landscape. The settlement in the 1850s and the buildings of today are invisible. The ever-changing growth of the school cannot be seen especially when there aren’t enough pictures to display the changes.

However, thanks to these catalogues, outsiders get to read them and get a sense of what has changed each academic year and undoubtedly agree that Santa Clara University has come a long way to where it is now.