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In May 1912, with little fanfare, Barnard alumnae published the first volume of The Bulletin of the Associate Alumnae. The forerunner of today’s Barnard Magazine, the pamphlet wasted little time getting down to business. On page 1, under the headline “Gifts,” a straightforward report outlined the terms of the residence scholarships created to honor the memory of Lucille Pulitzer, daughter of the famed newspaper baron, who had died of typhoid fever 15 years earlier. Dean Virginia Gildersleeve penned a section on student academics, followed by faculty updates, undergraduate interests, alumnae activities, and, of course, class notes. It wasn’t until April of the following year, in Vol. 2, that the editors of The Bulletin acknowledged its very existence and purpose:
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The Bulletin, after years of probation, trusts that it has become an established institution; it even dreams of appearing twice a year. The Editors hope that it may carry with its news of college and alumnae the sense of goodfellowship and warm college spirit. As all we alumnae are united by our common experiences at Barnard, so we have common interest in the growth and progress of the college and the importance and repute of its graduates. Write us what you are doing and what your friends are doing — the rest of us want to know. If you are not a member of the association, we want to know about you just the same; but please join, for we think you are interested in our news and we cannot send you The Bulletin unless you will help us pay the printer.
By December 1922, with more than 2,000 alumnae out in the world, the magazine’s volunteer staff tapped the Columbia Alumni Federation for their “addressograph,” which helped save time and money on getting the Bulletin out to alumnae. Four years later, the editors celebrated the growth of what was once a slim mailer with annual reports into a larger booklet with editorial content.
“We were a pamphlet; we are now a magazine,” they declared — albeit a rather thin one, at just 32 pages. Over the years, the magazine continued to evolve, becoming Barnard College Alumnae Monthly, then Barnard Alumnae, and finally Barnard Magazine, which debuted its bold masthead on the Summer/Fall 1993 cover and featured President Judith Shapiro alongside a quote from her inaugural address: “Virginia Woolf had it right. As she might have put it if she were from the Upper West Side, ‘Give a woman enough subway tokens and college of her own, and let her tell it like it is.’”
After growing from a pamphlet with a few fee-paying readers from the alumnae association to a full-fledged magazine delivered to more than 38,000 alums, the Magazine continues to deliver a “sense of goodfellowship and warm college spirit,” more than a century later — online and in print. On the following pages, today’s editors share a few favorite covers and images that have appeared in Barnard Magazine over the decades.
—Tom Stoelker
A Selection of Covers
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