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Peter Zinman, Collector, Exhibition Curator Initiating freshmen into "college life" was, for upperclassmen, a long-standing ritual at many of this nation's institutions of higher education, including Penn. Some of these traditions eventually came to be considered forms of hazing and were banned. While they lasted, however, they gave rise to a fascinating documentary genre, the Freshman Broadside. These flyers and posters, typically authored by sophomores, proclaimed the rules by which incoming freshmen must abide. The earliest known examples date from shortly after the Civil War, and with the outbreak of the Second World War the genre all but disappeared. Broadsides might be as small as 7 inches or as large as 40 inches. Many were illustrated (often with cartoonish violence); some were written in verse; and all of them remain enthralling. Often composed satirically, in the style of late 18th-century broadsides ( During the latter third of the nineteenth century and the first four decades of the twentieth century, virtually every major American college and university maintained some traditional contest or contests between classes. Many began as informal clashes and only later developed into official campus events, among them Illinois' Cane Rush, Iowa's Push Ball Contest, Michigan's Black Friday, and Penn's Bowl Fight. Along with this good-natured rivalry, however, also came darker forms of freshman hazing. Acts of violence visited upon first-year students might range from a winter dunk in the local river to tarring and feathering (see "MISERABLE MISGUIDED MUTTS") - or worse. By the turn of the last century, public outcry over deaths of students due to hazing rituals put an end to the tacit acceptance by schools of the physical hazing of freshmen by upperclassmen. NOTICE TO FRESHMEN!": one from Princeton (November 1870) and another from Amherst (March 1876) both announce the removal of a prohibition against the carrying of canes by freshmen, a removal presented as a reward for their good behavior. Freshman Rules broadsides were a relatively rare phenomenon in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In the new conditions produced by the hazing prohibitions, however, they served to fill a void. The earliest known examples, from northeastern colleges in the 1860's and 1870's, tended to be small broadside fliers announcing the lifting of a rule. They seem not to have been very common. Two are on display in "By the turn of the century, however, sophomores at numerous colleges across the nation had established a tradition of posting broadsides in the fall to announce the rules, challenge the freshmen to a contest, or both. These were generally written in a prose style and typeface adopted from and intended to parody public broadside announcements dating from the late eighteenth century ( Oyez! Oyez! , YE FRESHMAN ATTENTION! ).
YE BABES in SWADDLING CLOTHES"). Violence and death were another common theme (see "BEWARE the FATE THAT AWAITS YOU"). Illustrations, often crude but occasionally refined, were often inserted. And, at virtually every school, poster writers (ab)used alliteration and shamelessly ransacked "old English" and Roget's Thesaurus: "Skidoo! Ye Sappy, Suckling Simpletons, and Salaam to the Surpassing Supremacy of the Swarthy Sophomores"; "Decide to dare the dark and deadly ducking delegation"; "Fly not after false feminine forms." WOULD-BE SOCIETY QUEENS") is a 1926 poster from Westminster College, Pennsylvania promulgating three rules each for "Boys" and "Girls". The separate rules for "Girls" are not unique. Indeed, coeducational and women's colleges regularly promulgated rules for women. "WOULD-BE SOCIETY QUEENS" contains many examples of this subgenre. BUTCHERY! SLAUGHTER! of the INNNOCENTS" and "YOUR GOODFORNOTHIN' CARCASES", are prime examples. Indeed, some schools did not bother to list rules; their posters consisted solely of a humiliating or violent challenge. At most schools it was not long before freshmen got wise and responded in kind. The quality of their response was not always a match for the experienced sophomores, but some examples are wonderful in their brevity. On display here (see "BUTCHERY! SLAUGHTER! of the INNNOCENTS") are some excellent examples from the University of Michigan. Sophomores both set down the rules and challenged the freshmen to do battle on "Black Friday"; the frosh responded with bravado. "NOTICE-SCABBY-SOPHOMORES" has additional examples of freshman creations. Invariably, these contests would result in numerous injuries, many serious. These eventually led to their extinction in all forms other than pure athletic competitions occasionally seen even today. On the occasions when freshmen won the contest, they would have the last word in the battle of the broadsides.
Peter Zinman started collecting freshman broadsides while a sophomore at Dartmouth College nearly two decades ago. Since then, he has amassed what is without doubt the world's largest collection of the genre, more than three hundred examples of the posters and postcard reproductions. This exhibit presents dozens of the most interesting and unusual in his collection as well as a number of Penn-related items from the University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center. Several date from the second half of the nineteenth century. Interested viewers are invited to send comments or questions to
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