Diving into the archives

By Anna Hebb

It was epiphany term in first year when I stumbled upon the Palatinate article: ‘2000’s Twenty Sexiest Students – Where are they now?’ Twenty six years ago, in the spirit of Valentine’s day, Palatinate produced a list of the ‘twenty sexiest students’. Hooked, I eagerly scanned the rest of the page in search of the details – photos, names, college, degree. After this, I became intrigued as to what people tended to write about in previous issues, so naturally I rummaged through the tens of issues hidden away in the Palatinate archives – from the very first issue in 1948 to the most recent – to explore what our former Pal writers were getting up to.

1940s – a feminist front cover?

‘From the woman’s point of view, my first antipathy to male undergraduates finds its roots, and a low root it is, in their calmly appraising glances. They look us up and down like cattle, they comment on among themselves and then guffaw in unison. Would they dare to do the same to a man? Indeed not, for the male is a cowardly animal and – caught on his own – rapidly changes his bombast for a sheepish and embarrassed grin’.

Would you believe me if I told you that this audaciously feminist paragraph was featured on the front cover of Palatinate’s very first issue? I was shocked too. Entitled ‘These men…!’, this bold critique of the so-called ‘cowardly animal’, that is the ‘male undergraduate’, took the very first page of Palatinate’s very first issue. Our anonymous writer proceeds to point out the ‘permanent, revolting and unhygienic fungus’ and the importance for Durham ‘ladies’ to ‘teach him manners and a due sense of his own unimportance’ – an icon, though a little harsh, I must say…

1970s – college changes and disco dancing

As we enter the seventies, fewer feminist critiques took the front cover, but several significant changes to the Durham student community took place. I thought these were deserving of a mention. Firstly, the formerly single sex colleges Bede and Hild’s united to form the mixed-sex college that we know today: Hilde and Bede. Bev Zinn and Peter Warburton, J.C.R. Presidents of Bede and Hild’s, were determined to fill the existing gaps of the respective colleges and truly believed they could create one of ‘the leading colleges in the country’ – a much more amicable relationship between the genders compared to our first issue!

Secondly, and perhaps more crucially, our beloved Klute opened for the first time in Durham’s town centre. After more than a year of opposition from town planners, who repeatedly objected due to fears it would bring ‘troublemaking elements’ into the town, the night club was finally approved in 1971, fulfilling the contemporary student desires for late-night drinking and disco dancing!

1990s – a series of scandals & controversy

What stood out to me about the 90s was the sheer amount of scandals and controversy. In every issue I read, something seemed to be kicking off – whether it be the principal of Chad’s lying about his qualifications, the local vicar on dope, students left dead after random attacks in the Viaduct, biology staff murdered, or £1,200 mysteriously disappearing from Mary’s bar. While sometimes a little unsettling, these issues are exceptionally eventful and certainly worth exploring if you have a moment.

Image: Atharva Kamboj