New Mexico State University Yearbooks, 1907-1992
This collection is comprised of 95 yearbooks dating from 1907 through 1992. The yearbooks contain a wealth of university history and nostalgia. The New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, better known as New Mexico A&M, published its first student yearbook in 1907. A contest was held among students to name the yearbook, and the name 'Swastika' was selected.
"The Swastika is a Sanskrit word meaning Happiness and Good Luck, but archeology demonstrates that it was in existence before the Sanskrit, which is the most ancient of languages. The Cheops pyramids, the Sphynx, and the tombs of the Ptolemies, are modern in comparison to the antiquity of this sign. In Hindustan, China, Japan, Korea and Thibet this cross is held in highest reverence. In China it is called Wan, and is an important emblem in the temples. The Japanese endow it with ten thousand virtues, when as a talisman it is encircled on porcelain. The Swastika appears in ancient Egyptian records and pictures and on the remains of ancient Babylonia and Assyria. It is abundantly found in the terracotta objects dug by Dr. Schliemann at Troy and Mycenae and conjectured to date from 1000 to 1500 B. C.. The funeral pottery in Greece bears this seal. It occurs in the Swiss Lake dwellings, which are set down (...) at varying ages from three thousand to six thousand years. Swastika relics have been found (...) under the water of Lake Zurich. In the Buddhist cave temples of India it is found sculptured thousands of times on the wall of rock. The Alaskan Indians have woven it into their baskets to ensure Good Luck and carved it on their totem poles. The Pima Indians of Arizona have also used it as a mystic symbol in their basketry and inscribed into their leather shields, invocative of protection. The Navajos use it in their blankets and hammer it out of silver."*
As the years passed, and the symbol was appropriated by the Nazi Party in Germany, the meaning behind the symbol changed. Attempting to maintain its long tradition, New Mexico A&M, and later New Mexico State University, held on to the name Swastika until 1983, when it was renamed - The Phoenix, again through a student contest.
The publication of multiple volumes occurred in some years, particularly near the time of the discontinuation of the yearbook. In the fall of 1987, the format changed to that of a magazine, and by the time the final volume was published in 1992, it resembled less of a yearbook and more of a literary magazine.
* Cited from Swastika, Vol. 19, 1925, A Brief History of Swastika - as sourced from: Indian School Journal
"The Swastika is a Sanskrit word meaning Happiness and Good Luck, but archeology demonstrates that it was in existence before the Sanskrit, which is the most ancient of languages. The Cheops pyramids, the Sphynx, and the tombs of the Ptolemies, are modern in comparison to the antiquity of this sign. In Hindustan, China, Japan, Korea and Thibet this cross is held in highest reverence. In China it is called Wan, and is an important emblem in the temples. The Japanese endow it with ten thousand virtues, when as a talisman it is encircled on porcelain. The Swastika appears in ancient Egyptian records and pictures and on the remains of ancient Babylonia and Assyria. It is abundantly found in the terracotta objects dug by Dr. Schliemann at Troy and Mycenae and conjectured to date from 1000 to 1500 B. C.. The funeral pottery in Greece bears this seal. It occurs in the Swiss Lake dwellings, which are set down (...) at varying ages from three thousand to six thousand years. Swastika relics have been found (...) under the water of Lake Zurich. In the Buddhist cave temples of India it is found sculptured thousands of times on the wall of rock. The Alaskan Indians have woven it into their baskets to ensure Good Luck and carved it on their totem poles. The Pima Indians of Arizona have also used it as a mystic symbol in their basketry and inscribed into their leather shields, invocative of protection. The Navajos use it in their blankets and hammer it out of silver."*
As the years passed, and the symbol was appropriated by the Nazi Party in Germany, the meaning behind the symbol changed. Attempting to maintain its long tradition, New Mexico A&M, and later New Mexico State University, held on to the name Swastika until 1983, when it was renamed - The Phoenix, again through a student contest.
The publication of multiple volumes occurred in some years, particularly near the time of the discontinuation of the yearbook. In the fall of 1987, the format changed to that of a magazine, and by the time the final volume was published in 1992, it resembled less of a yearbook and more of a literary magazine.
* Cited from Swastika, Vol. 19, 1925, A Brief History of Swastika - as sourced from: Indian School Journal