Barbara Lopez
HUM 104
Professor Boyer
21 February 2025
Primary Source Analysis: Quips and Cranks 1895
How does the presence of a dominant religious ideology in colleges and universities impact the command and use of a student’s language when commemorating their institutions in a yearbook? The 1895 edition of “Quips and Cranks” provides three pages in which the students praise Davidson College’s origin and present. The Scottish Irish Presbyterian affiliations appear clearly from the beginning. A strong assertion is made at the beginning of the section ‘Davidson College,’ announcing that life was “fatally incomplete” without the three essentials of “Religion, Liberty and Education,” thus prompting the need to found the institution. The content of the three pages I am examining is organized chronologically, starting from the conceptualization of the college and ending with its most recent updates. Formatted with double columns of text on each page, there are no extra designs or illustrations to distract from the words. This written laudation sets expectations for the ratio of subjectivity and objectivity the editors can use when verbally illustrating the culture and institution of Davidson College in 1895.
“Quips and Cranks” is the name of Davidson College’s yearbook which originated as a ‘College Annual’ and was founded by the Davidson Monthly—a student organization (Quips and Cranks Dedication). The annual was a collection of memories of student life and events throughout the designated school year; it consisted of photography, sketches, and poetry (created and written by students). In 1895, the college annual released its first official issue as Quips and Cranks. The purpose of the book was for students to have a physical copy of the college’s history and developments (Quips and Cranks Dedication). Proof of how and what students chose to prioritize, and preserve is necessary to better understand the culture of Davidson College. While some pages focused more on an objective summary of the college, the pages that dealt with student organizations were written informally. Personality and allusions to opinions are able to make their presence known in pages of poetry and illustrations. Though “Quips and Cranks” started as a small project, it quickly garnered enough traction from students, which allowed for it to be established as a yearly tradition—until 2015.
Mentions of a “Western College” are made to emphasize its near failure as an educational institution because of its absence of a sacred oversight. It is not until the college is taken over by ecclesiastical control that they are referred to as, only now, a “fruit” of a “successful enterprise.” Later accomplishments regarding the founding of the college are referred to as “[blessings] of God,” emphasizing the valor of the religious hierarchical system before expressing gratitude for the people working at the college. At the fifty-year mark of this historical summary, a loaded comment is made of the contributors of the college’s success: “the fruits of the prayers, sacrifices and consecrated zeal of the best educated men of the most highly educated section of the carolinas.” The repetitive nature of these remarks makes for an argument against the acclaimed level of scholarship: would there not be more instances of elevated and diverse language when coming from one of the most educated “section of the Carolinas” (Davidson College 14-16)?
While it is apparent that this summary is written in reverence for the college, the language shifts back and forth between casual and formal. Other spreads in the yearbook consistently observe this pattern. By identifying and examining patterns such as these, the extent of the influence of religious ideologies on the presumption of the institution begins to emerge.
Works Cited
“Davidson College.” Quips and Cranks [1895], Davidson College, Davidson, NC, 1895, pp. 14–16. Archives and Special Collections, Accessed 13 Feb. 2025.
Quips and Cranks Dedication · College Archives: Davidson Encyclopedia · Omeka S Home, digitalprojects.davidson.edu/omeka/s/college-archives-davidson-encyclopedia/page/quips-and-cranks-dedication. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
