Local librarians want to preserve a bit of history you might prefer to keep buried in the basement 鈥� your high school yearbook. The Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library is trying to expand its yearbook collection, which already includes 3,000 items.
Larry Richmond, department manager of genealogy and local history at the Downtown location, says the yearbook collection is really popular.
鈥淚f you think about doing research on an ancestor, the idea of having a photo is sort of the Holy Grail, right? Lots of people have done genealogy research and never seen a picture of an ancestor,鈥� Richmond said. 鈥淪o the idea that we can go back so far in Cincinnati history and have a photo of someone's relative is a pretty big deal.鈥�
The collection has been growing for decades, but Richmond says a recent grant from the State Library of Ohio prompted this new push for donations. The grant funded a new book scanner, and now 1,200 of the yearbooks are .
鈥淪ince they are donated, you know, these aren't new yearbooks that we get, it's always interesting to see what's written in them,鈥� Richmond said. 鈥淪o there's signatures and well wishes and everything you'd imagine in a yearbook.鈥�
Richmond says they want to represent as many schools as they can. The spans more than a century, from Academy of the Sacred Heart in 1869 to Withrow High School in 2021.
If you don鈥檛 have a yearbook to donate, Richmond says you can contact your alma mater and ask them to donate extra copies. Some schools need to give permission for a digital version to be shared online, especially for the more recent years.
If you have a book to add to the collection, contact the library at .
The main library is displaying a "Glory Days" exhibit with yearbooks and memorabilia from local high schools. You can see the exhibit in person in the Cincinnati Room or .
