CANTON – The Northern New York Library Network of Potsdam has scanned St. Lawrence University’s “Gridiron” yearbooks and placed them on-line on the North Country Digital History site at history.nnyln.net.

There were a total of 91 yearbooks, consisting of 17,966 images. The earliest edition is from 1880, and the yearbook was published sporadically through 1912. The “Gridiron” then went annual in 1925. All yearbooks through the 2008-09 edition were scanned into the database.

St. Lawrence University has been a NNYLN member since the 1960s, and both organizations seek out opportunities to collaborate. This project seemed a good fit since the NNYLN had the hardware and software on hand to get the job done.

“We are looking forward to having the ‘Gridiron’ available online to the university’s students, faculty and staff for research purposes,” said St. Lawrence University Librarian Bart Harloe. “Having the yearbooks available digitally means having them as a more useful tool to the general public.”

While checking the online pages of the “Gridiron,” alumni, faculty, staff, local residents, former North Country natives, and everyone will be able to view over 100 years of St. Lawrence University’s history.

Whether it’s the time honored tradition of Moving Up Day, or taking a trip back in time to the Vietnam era to see how the times were represented on campus, the yearbooks captured it all. They also reported on big-name concert by performers such as Jethro Tull and Peter, Paul and Mary, the visit of Senator Robert Kennedy to campus, and the time students held a sit-in for the right to co-ed dorms.

The North Country Digital History site is available free of charge to the public. It contains the holdings from 19 northern New York institutions.