About the Collection
The SMU Course Catalog is more than just SMU’s annual listing of courses. Throughout the years, it has, at times, included the academic calendar, costs and fees, names of trustees and administrators, professors’ credentials, campus maps, lists of graduating students, statistical information about students, student club listings, curriculum plans, admission criteria, academic policies, and the history and aims of the university.
The Course Catalog has served as a source of up-to-date information for current students, as a recruiting document for prospective students, and as a primary source showing what happened each academic year, making it a rich resource for scholars. Throughout its history at SMU, the catalog has been written and produced by the faculty, the publicity department (later the Office of Publications Services), and subsequently by the Office of the University Registrar. However, many staff and faculty throughout the university contributed the content found in the catalog.
The Course Catalog followed larger national trends in both design and content. The first issue, Bulletin #1, was produced in July 1915 before SMU opened. It contained a scant 34 pages, four of which described the requirements for admissions. In its beginnings, the cover’s only decoration was the university seal. There were no pictures. Starting in 1926, a hand drawn map was added. In 1956 a black and white photograph was added to the cover. In 1998, a color photo was on the cover. Today, the catalog is presented as an interactive academic catalog management system. It can be continually updated throughout the year. Fortunately for historians, an official PDF version can be saved for each academic year.
Over the decades, the Course Catalog has also been known as the following terms: Annual catalog, Catalog, Catalogue, General catalogue of the University, General catalog of the University, General bulletin, General information undergraduate catalog, Bulletin of Southern Methodist University, Undergraduate Catalog (2000-), Graduate Catalog (2000-), and SMU Catalogue.
Due to the limitations of optical character recognition (OCR) software and file size restrictions, not all text in these items may be fully searchable. The best way to view and search the catalogs is to download them using the light blue "Download" button in the upper right corner of the online reader.
