Staff Writer Elana Rebitzer takes us back 100 years to the Barnard Course Catalogue of days long gone. Elana found much more than course lists, however. She shares with us tuition fees, the only residence hall on campus, and some eyebrow-raising course names. 

One-hundred years ago, many things that we now take for granted didn’t exist – there was no internet, women couldn’t vote or attend most universities, and most households did not have a telephone. But one thing was the same: Barnard and Columbia students were attending classes as usual.

To see what life was like for our collegiate predecessors, I found the Barnard course catalog from exactly 100 years ago in the Barnard archives, and pored over it to see what’s changed and what hasn’t in those 100 years. The small blue book doesn’t feel any older than a used textbook, and is actually in far better shape than most used books. I almost expected the course catalog to be handwritten, but it was typed – and much easier to navigate than the current registration system.

Just as it does today, the catalog included many unusual classes. At the time, the mandatory P.E. requirement was, “Lectures on Personal Hygiene, Elementary Dancing, Games, and Athletics.” These courses were taught by a Miss Beegle, including three sections on “elementary dancing,” “advanced dancing,” and “general athletics and swimming.” “Women in Gainful Occupations” was an economics class, and there was an entire Zoölogy department. Most confusing is “Blowpipe Analysis,” a laboratory class offered in the mineralogy department.

Though the catalog did not include anything about the (hotly debated) guest policy, it’s doubtful that 100 years ago Barnard was any more lenient about allowing overnight guests. Brooks Hall, the oldest residence hall on Barnard’s campus, was then the only residence hall – and it definitely didn’t have air conditioning then, either. School also didn’t begin until the end of September, but the year was much longer, ending in early June.

Just like today, students had to complete a set of general education requirements to graduate – and a lot of these requirements aren’t too different from what still stands today. When you’re struggling to make sense of the “Odyssey,” just remember that your forebearers probably had to do the same – but they were reading in the original Ancient Greek.

Perhaps the biggest difference between then and now is the cost of tuition. This 100 dollar fee, which comes out to $2197.41 when adjusted for inflation, is (unsurprisingly) drastically smaller than what students are paying today. Honestly, it might be worth giving up the internet for that large of a tuition drop.

Dose of Institutional Memory via the Barnard Archives