History of Slavery at the University of Georgia: Alumni Catalogs

As early as 1853 the University of Georgia started issuing a listing of faculty, officers and graduates, entirely printed in Latin. The work was periodically reissued with more recent graduates being added. By the time the last issue appeared in 1906, the Catalogue of the Trustees, Officers, Alumni and Matriculates was being published in convenient English and had accumulated a wealth of biographical information about the men associated with more than 100 years of the institution’s history.

In 1901, to celebrate 100 years of classes at the Athens campus, the University of Georgia assembled the Centennial Alumni Catalog, containing, "as far as possible, a full but concise account of the life and services of all alumni during the century." Although the word "alumni" was used, the project attempted to collect biographical data about anyone who matriculated at the university during that first century, whether or not they graduated.

A four-page questionnaire was mailed to known matriculates or their families and an impressive 1,749 completed forms were returned. These were placed in alphabetical order, bound into several volumes, and deposited with the University Libraries.