November 17, 2023

Did you know Drexel University is currently home to over 300 different student clubs and organizations, many of which can be traced back to the early 20th century?

The Drexel University Archives’ latest exhibit, A Journey Through Time: Drexel Student Organizations Throughout the Years, offers a glimpse into that history, highlighting just a few Drexel student organizations, events, and traditions and the diverse identities of the Drexel community that have set the foundation for the dynamic and engaging campus we know today. The exhibit is on display in the W. W. Hagerty Library now through March 2024.

The exhibit, which was curated by Drexel students Myleah Herbert and Huynh Ninh, includes physical copies of The Lexerd, Drexel’s student yearbook, as well as reproductions of photos originally printed in those yearbooks.

“As a new student at Drexel, this project was very fun. It was interesting to discover that Drexel had a rifle team, or a football team,” said Huynh Ninh, a first-year architectural engineering major and work-study student with the Drexel University Archives. “I really enjoyed learning many things about the history of Drexel’s student organizations and seeing all the changes in the student-life aspect of Drexel throughout the years. I hope everyone will enjoy the exhibit as much as I enjoyed putting it together.”

Myleah Herbert, A third-year marketing major and the Libraries’ Marketing & Communications Assistant co-op student, also expressed her excitement about working on the exhibit.

“It was a lot of fun looking through all the older yearbooks and seeing how the students’ activities and styles have changed over the years,” Herbert said. “Curating this project with a fellow student was also nice, because I felt that we were able to reflect on our own experiences with organizations here at Drexel. It was cool to see a bit of history from organizations that I am currently a member of. It really allowed me to see the progress we’ve made as an organization, and as a university.”

Visit the exhibit to learn more about organizations such as WKDU, Drexel’s student-run radio station; The Triangle, Drexel’s student newspaper; National Pan-Hellenic Council and National Panhellenic Conference (NPHC) Sororities and Fraternities, to name a few. The exhibit spans the period of 1939 to 2014 and is a small sample of the yearbooks, photos, records, and artifacts included in the University Archives’ collections.

The exhibit is free and open to all members of the Drexel community and the public. It will be on display in the W. W. Hagerty Library atrium November 2023 through March 2024.

Visit our website to learn more about the University Archives’ unique collections.