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[Fwd: symbolism of creepy yearbook illustrations]



Afternoon:

This thread caught my eye immediately for I have seen a number of such
illustrations in our turn-of-the century yearbooks and student
publications as well. Mercer University is steeped in the tradition and
support of Georgia Baptists. Still, similar symbols and odd (to us) club
names crop up for several decades.

By coincidence, this a.m. I received an email request for the history of
the name of our yearbook, The Cauldron, started in 1911. Volume One on
the title page features three robed and hooded figures stirring/standing
around a black cauldron with the caption "Double, double toil and
trouble .... "

A 1937 article in our "Mercerian" alumni magazine says the name was
chosen by the students in 1911, taking its theme from the witches' scene
in Macbeth (hence the motto). The student submitting the name suggested
"the title as embodying the idea of a mixture of everything in college
life being poured into a bubbling pot."

The explanation on the page after the title page has above it a round
medallion-type drawing with a witch on a broom -- similar to something
you would see on a modern-day Halloween decoration. Looking at these
drawings without the interpretation in the article produced 20-plus
years later would leave some questions, too!

Our current student newspaper, The Cluster, was organized 1920ish. Some
years prior to that, the student newspaper was The Mephistopholean,
named for Mephistopheles. Now that's a name for a student newspaper at a
Baptist school!

These students had literary backgrounds and it seems they were bright,
creative, fun-loving people who delighted in using symbols and names
rooted in things they had learned. When I first came here I was
sometimes puzzled over these questions but finally decided it appears to
have been innocent of whatever dark magic we might associate with it
today. I wouldn't read real witchery into any of it! :-)

Just my take -- Arlette (also at a Southern University) Copeland

--
Arlette Copeland
Mercer University Tarver Library
Special Collections Assistant
1300 Edgewood Avenue
Macon, Georgia 31207-0001
(478) 301-2968

"In the very presence of books there is an enlargement of mind." -
1892-93 Mercer University Catalogue, page 35.

The University Archives - a glimpse into Mercer's past from the present
while building toward the future.


copeland_a@mercer.edu
http://tarver.mercer.edu/special_collections/default.htm

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