In the days following a new Hourglass publication, Baldwin’s Schoolhouse is filled to the brim with copies of the new issue. Displayed in the library, stacked on Harkness tables, or scattered throughout classrooms, the iconic Hourglass heading is easily recognizable. 

But how has The Hourglass transformed into the newspaper we know today? I took a look at the Baldwin archives, which are available through the Anne Frank Library’s digital resources, to try to answer this question.

The oldest issue in the archives was published on February 14, 1947; coincidentally, this year’s Issue III was published on February 14, too. However, this is one of the few similarities between the current Hourglass issues and 1947’s. The only familiar feature of the 1947 edition is the iconic header, which consists of the volume and issue numbers, the words “The Baldwin School,” and the date. 

For the rest of the paper, much, if not all, is different from The Hourglass today. Many sections in the 1947 issue include information Mrs. Choitz might post in our digital Daily Bulletin. On the front page, a “Highlights of the Coming Weeks” section is featured in the center, while “Baldwin Wins and Losses” is featured on the third page, and “Alumnae News” takes up a sizable portion of the back page.

The four-page issue from 1947 is news-heavy, concise, and informational in comparison to the myriad of news, opinion, features, and other articles that currently make up The Hourglass. It also features a gossip column, entitled “Censored Scandal,” which seems to have survived at least through 1953. 

Published six years later, in the 1953 issue from February 27, the majority of the four-page paper is still devoted to Baldwin-specific or local news: nothing particularly considerable seems to have changed since 1947. There is still an updates section, now titled “Coming Events,” which moved to the back page; the issue mainly focuses on overviews of recent events including Middle School Assemblies and a Valentine Concert from February 14.

The header also remains the same as in 1947. However, the logo at the top gained some complexity in comparison to the simple, italicized 1947 logo reading The Baldwin Hourglass. This issue includes a logo combining Baldwin’s classic disce verum laborem motto and an image of an hourglass, which sits next to bolded text reading “The Baldwin Hourglass.”

In the third and most recent Hourglass edition available in the archive, dated April 19, 1978, the format and content changed considerably. This Hourglass issue contains slightly longer, more in-depth, and often opinionated articles. 

For example, the second page includes an essay titled “The Pope Speaks,” written by Kiara Pope ’79. It discusses life at a private, single-sex school as opposed to local public schools. An article touching on this topic wouldn’t be particularly out of place in a 2023 Hourglass issue.

While Baldwin’s Hourglass archives end at the 1978 issue, there are a number of relatively recent Hourglass issues from 2018 through 2022 that are accessible. These issues are recognizable as The Hourglass today: an elaborate “Hourglass” logo at the front, and a header just below, both of which invite readers to dive into a wide variety of articles from sports and arts to news and opinions. 

The gap in the archives between 1978 and 2018 allows a comparison between the two to be made: it reveals the sheer volume to which The Hourglass has grown over the past decades. The elaborate designs, layouts, and articles have come a long way, but if the 1947, 1953, and 1978 archives teach us anything, it’s that The Hourglass will not cease to continue evolving moving forward.