"Atmosphere of Magic and Unreality"

From costumed May Day pageants in Deering Meadow to free-form Armadillo Day festivals with student-designed entertainment, celebrations by Northwestern students to mark the end of the school year have taken many forms. Since the 19th century these events have reflected the social realities and campus concerns of their times. Looking back at the history of May celebrations, change and renewal may be its own form of tradition.

A performance at Armadillo Day 1979. Photo by Tom Lascher.

Not having attended Northwestern, the history of student spring traditions was all new to me. In looking through the archival material and putting together this exhibit, I wondered what students now make of older forms of those traditions and what commonalities they see. I wonder if they would say the ways they express themselves at the end of the school year now come from a similar point of view as those older traditions did. For instance, invitations for the first “I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas Anymore” Festival and Fair in 1973 (what became Armadillo Day) proposed that students pitch in to make “an atmosphere of magic and unreality,” a spirit that has much in common with early 20th century May Day pageantry.

A special thank you to Charla Wilson, Archivist for the Black Experience, for her support and collaboration in putting this exhibit together. I would also like to thank the staff of the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections & University Archives for their help and diligence, and for all the work they do in their stewardship of these collections.

– Ben Taylor, McCormick Library Curatorial Assistant

Northwestern University Libraries is dedicated to the fair and ethical preservation, digitization, curation, and use of its collections. This exhibit is made available to the public under Fair Use (Section 107 of the Copyright Act) for learning and teaching purposes, as well as to promote the mission and activities of Northwestern University Libraries (ARL Code of Best Practices in Fair Use). Northwestern University Libraries does not claim the copyright of any materials in this collection. If you are the copyright holder of any item(s) in this collection or have questions, comments or concerns about this exhibit, please contact us via email at library@northwestern.edu.