Documenting Pitt: Owl Yearbooks

The Owl was the official yearbook of the Western University of Pennsylvania and later the University of Pittsburgh.

The Owl began publication in 1907 as the yearbook of the junior class of the Western University of Pennsylvania. The 1910 issue was the first yearbook for the newly renamed University of Pittsburgh. In 1931 the yearbook staff decided to focus the yearbook on the senior class instead of the junior class and so published a transition volume dated 1930/31.

The yearbook documents the students and activities of the College (later the College of Arts and Sciences) and most of the Schools. The School of Medicine issued a yearbook called the Hippocratean. During the years that the Hippocratean was published, the students of the School of Medicine were not included in The Owl.

In 1981 the yearbook’s name was changed to Panther Prints and continues to bear that name to the present.

Documenting Pitt contains yearbooks published from 1907 to 1980.