Catawba College has a rich academic history. From its earliest beginning as a mid-nineteenth century German Reformed college in Newton, North Carolina to today's widely diverse and multi-disciplined liberal arts campus of Salisbury, the college has witnessed enormous change.
The library’s archives, the Palmer archives, housed temporarily within the I.C.E. Box, track and document that change. In so doing, they serve as an institution memory – a kind of ongoing testimony of its college’s legacy.
Catawba College Library's Archives
The Catawba College Collection
The Library is dedicated to preserving Catawba's heritage by maintaining the College's archival records. The Catawba College collection contains documents and artifacts chronicling the school's founding, growth, and relocation.
While not complete, the collection includes some of the following items:
Accounts of college presidential inaugurations
Trustee reports
Departmental records, programs and publications
College catalogs
Issues of the school paper
Records of early student organizations
The Student Handbook
Photographs of students enriching the campus community
Catawba College Yearbook Archive
The Catawba College Library has partnered with the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center to bring the Catawba Community and the world a glimpse into Catawba College's history by digitizing and publishing 81 yearbooks online.
The collection contains yearbooks from 1927 until 2010. The yearbook was originally published under the title The Swastika, which was taken from a Native American design found on campus. However the yearbook was rechristened The Sayakini in 1941 as a result of the corruption of the swastika symbol. View the Catawba College Yearbook Collection Online
Access
Due to the intensive nature of archival searches, queries into the contents of the archives must be arranged by appointment. Persons wanting access to archival material may contact Constance Grant. General archival queries may be made by contacting 704-637-4448 and asking to speak with an available librarian.