Kirksville, Missouri
The book was called Echo beginning with the second edition, because it was an echo of the education on the campus. There were a several years that a yearbook was not published: 1903, 1905, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914 and 1919. In 1924, during the fire that burned down the Old Baldwin Hall, the yearbook was also burned. The name did change for one year, 1934, to Annual.
During the early years, the yearbook was produced by the junior class for the senior class. The editor-in- chief and the business manager were elected each spring. These two then appointed the rest of the staff to produce to the Echo. In 1925, the Echo started the tradition of sponsoring an Echo Queen. In 1949, the Echo King was introduced. Royalty were selected based on their appearances. In some years, the queens were chosen by mail by celebrities such as Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan and Norman Rockwell. This practice was discontinued after 1967.
As years passed, the styles of yearbook design changed. In the beginning, the design consisted of mug pictures and art work instead of candid pictures. In later years, layouts were designed with paper and pencil. As technology increased in use, design techniques were enhanced.
In 1992 the Echo was produced for the first time on computer, with two Macintoshes and over 700 computer disks. In 1995 the staff added four more Macintosh computers to its computer lab. In 1998 the Echo changed brands and replaced the Macintosh computers with two IBM computers.
During the 1999-2000 school year, the Echo staff used four IBM computers to produce the 328-page book, using Adobe PageMaker 6. for page designs. This was the first year ever Adobe Photoshop was used to scan pictures. Both a flatbed scanner and a negative scanner were used to allow the staff to see how the pictures would look on the page before it went to print.
Back
to the first part of Echoes of the Past
Our publisher is Walsworth Publishing Company
Our group photographs are contracted with Lifetouch
