TACOMA, Wash. – The Trail newspaper, produced by University of Puget Sound students for students for as long as anyone can remember, is commemorating its 100th birthday. A celebration event will be held Thursday, Sept. 23 in Rasmussen Rotunda, Wheelock Student Center, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Puget Sound campus members are invited to meet The Trail team and editor-in-chief David Cohn, and to browse through issues of the newspaper spanning the last 100 years. The event will also be the official launch of The Trail’s new website. Cake and refreshments will be served.

The newspaper’s staff and Collins Memorial Library teamed up to make this “look back through history” possible. Over the summer, selected editions of The Trail were made available through Sound Ideas, a digital repository of historical and scholarly materials created by campus members. Student archivists Jordan Apele ’12 and Kelsey Mahler ’12 went through past editions of the newspaper, starting with the first edition published in 1910, and identified major historical events. Working with the newspaper’s editors, the archivists selected historic articles and advertisements that will be reprinted in a special section of each issue of The Trail throughout the year ahead. The first issue of this academic year will be available at the celebration event and will be distributed throughout the campus the following day.

The very first student newspaper on campus was called Ye Recorde. It was started in 1895, not long after Puget Sound University was founded in 1888 and had enrolled its first class of 88 students in 1890. In 1903 the newspaper’s named was changed to The Maroon, and seven years later it was changed to The Trail, which endures today.

The Trail is an independent, student-run newspaper funded by the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound. The Trail staff produce a weekly newspaper with comprehensive information relevant to students, thereby creating an archival record for the university. The newspaper serves as a link between Puget Sound and the greater Tacoma community, and provides an open forum for student opinion and discourse.

Photos:  From A Sound Past archives: Top right: Robert "Skippy" Sprenger, Jr., '67, Chuck Howe, Clint Gossard, and Professor Robert Sprenger in the lodge at Deep Creek, September 1948. Photo from the September 20, 1948, issue of The Trail. Above: The Trail staff working in Kittredge Hall in 1948. Right: The Trail cover 1952.

Tweet this: Read All About It!  The Trail student newspaper @univpugetsound is 100 years old. We’re celebrating Thurs., Sept. 23. http://bit.ly/bn38w1

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