Alumni Association of Augustana College collection, 1860-1999 | Augustana College

The Alumni Association of Augustana College was formed in 1877 by the first graduating class of Augustana. The main objectives of the group differed slightly with each iteration of the constitution but generally included continuing "the pleasant relations formed" while at Augustana and promoting the interests of the institution. Membership is open to any person who has been a student or member of the faculty at Augustana. While the early activities of the Association were separate from the administration of Augustana College and Theological Seminary, evidence of an administrator within the offices of the College appears in the 1928-1929 Catalog where Fridolf Oscar Hanson is listed as Financial and Alumni Secretary (pg. 5). This position within the administration grew to Director of Alumni and Public Relations as listed in the 1938-1939 Bulletin. Today, the Development and Alumni Office, with a staff of over 20, provides support to the Alumni Association.

Activities of the Association included publication of The Alumnus a monthly "educational magazine for young people" that made its debut in September of 1892. The magazine had many different titles through the years: The Alumnus (1892-1894), Augustana Journal (1894-1906), Young Lutheran's Companion (1911-1949, 1952-1962), and Augustana Lutheran (1950-1951). Apart from the various magazines, the Alumni Association also published its first alumni registry under the name Who's Who Among the Alumni in 1922. The Association used Who's Who in America as their model for this volume, and in fact entries of Augustana alumni that appeared in Who's Who in America were used verbatim in Who's Who Among the Alumni. The Alumni Association also plans annual special events for alumni including Homecoming, Alumni Weekend, and an Alumni Banquet as well as helping to organize reunions.

L. E. Jones, who was secretary of the association from 1918 until 1926 when he and his wife moved to Butte, Montana, appears to have collected much of the material that constitutes this collection while performing his duty as secretary. He saved clippings about Alumni Association events as well as articles chronicling lives of various alumni from Augustana. In addition, Jones was on staff at the Augustana Observer as Alumni editor. He wrote articles for the paper which are also included in the clippings files.