Today is the first day of classes at MU, and campus is bustling with new and returning students and faculty, just as it has for the past 173 years. Today's collection highlight provides a glimpse of campus as it was one hundred years ago.
University publisher Joseph Chasnoff produced a booklet entitled Every Day at the University of Missouri in 1912. In the introductory text, he noted,
"To this town students come each year in ever increasing numbers to attend the University. This year 3000 came. They flooded out at the Wabash and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railway stations. They poured into and filled dormitory and rooming house. The student is a predominant factor in Columbia. He is one to three in numbers. The population of the town is 10,000."
The library, Chasnoff notes, was a hub of campus in 1912 – as it is today. At that time, the library was housed in the west wing of Jesse Hall (then called Academic Hall). In 1912, the library owned over 100,000 books. Today, that number is over 3 million.
Most of the buildings pictured in the booklet are still standing. A few photos, however, provide an idea of how much campus has changed.
