HADLEY — Formal and casual photographs of students, faculty and staff at Hopkins Academy, write-ups about academics, athletics and other extracurricular happenings and insights into school life and community traditions are included in yearbooks printed annually for more than 100 years.
Now, almost every yearbook, starting in 1911, when the student publication called The Hopkins Arms began and featured extended articles about the school, through to 2024, when the yearbook was printed in full color and featured lively, brief profiles for each graduate, is available for online browsing, following a digital archiving project recently completed by Bound Book Scanning Inc., in Monsey, New York.
Supported financially by the Hopkins Academy board of trustees, the work at the school was led by Hopkins history teacher Jason Burns, who worked with students active on the yearbook committee to organize the yearbook collection housed at the school, box these volumes up and ship them out.
“The yearbook students were very excited about getting this done and spent a great deal of time organizing our collection and determining what we have and what is missing,” Burns said.
Bound Book Scanning then scanned all the pages and set up the website.
Superintendent Anne McKenzie said she is thrilled to have the school’s history accessible to alumni, students, researchers and community members, as it offers a unique window into the school’s rich legacy.
“Hopkins is one of the oldest public high schools in the country, with a long tradition of excellence,” McKenzie said.
In the earliest years, articles were printed four or five times each school year, such as one that can be found in the January 1917 edition, mentioning the Christmas spirit in town on the eve of the United States’ entry into World War I: “Such community expressions of holiday cheer and good will make a strange contrast with the European nations flying at each others throats in apparent disregard of the anniversary of the birth of their Master.”
By the 1950s, the contents were more conventional, with black-and-white photographs of students, photos of sports teams, band and majorettes, accounts of junior prom and a dedication.
Then, in the 2000s, the yearbooks are in full color throughout with less formal designs, along with baby photos and pop culture references.
In continuous publication since 1911, The Hopkins Arms totals 92 volumes as of May 2025. The volumes missing from the collection are 1965, 1976 and 1980.
Burns said the hope is that someone in the community or beyond has these editions and would be able to lend the copies so the collection can be completed.
The yearbooks can be viewed by going to the Hopkins Academy website website at https://www.hadleyschools.org/hopkins-academy and clicking on the tab labeled “Historical Yearbooks.”
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.