Bulletin of the Georgia Institute of Technology

The issues of the Bulletin of the Georgia Institute of Technology provide rich information about the history of the Institute's curriculum, its students and faculty, and its technological education. These publications also illustrate how Georgia Tech promoted itself to potential students during the period from 1901 to 1975.

In the first twenty years of its publication, the Bulletin came to be published five times a year. At the core of the publication is the annual Catalog issue, at over 200 pages the largest annual issue by far, which provided course descriptions and general information for Georgia Tech students. Also published at least once or twice annually in the Bulletin was a shorter pamphlet providing general information on courses of study, admission requirements, and degrees offered. Both of these annual issues contained many photographs and drawings of the campus and its buildings, as well as images of student athletic and musical groups of the period. Beginning in October 1910 (and ending about five years later), after the founding of the Department of Architecture, an annual review of this department appeared as one of the Bulletin issues. These issues contained general information about the course of study in Architecture along with prints of the prizewinning student designs for the previous academic year. Occasional issues highlighted other departments, such as the Department of Civil Engineering (Volume XII, No. I), the School of Commerce (Volume XIV, No. 1), the A. French Textile School (Volume XIV, No. 5), and the Co-Operative Plan in Engineering (Volume XVII, No. I). Other highlights of the Bulletin's first years of publication include an issue on the Night School (Volume V, No. 3), special Commencement Issues (such as Volume VIII, No. V), an issue published in Spanish (Volume XIV, No. 3), and one issue featuring the military activities and war work of the School during World War I (Volume XV, No. III). All other volumes except the Catalog issue tended to be 40 pages or fewer in length during the early years of publication.

The issues of the Bulletin followed a similar pattern of publication until the World War II years. Catalogs and announcements continued to be published annually during the 1920s and 1930s; issues on the Co-Operative Plan, the Evening School of Commerce, the Evening School of Applied Science, and one called Information for Prospective Students, were also published frequently but irregularly. A small pamphlet titled "Regulations for Students" was also published about once every two years during this time period. Occasionally, issues on conferences held at Georgia Tech (for example, the Welding Conference covered in Volume XXVIII, No. 3) and a pamphlet called "Our Technical School in Georgia" were published.

The Bulletins issued during World War II, particularly those of 1943, contained information on the revised, accelerated programs for the Naval and Army Specialized Training Programs as well as for the Accelerated Civilian Program. A special issue of Announcements for the Civilian Engineering Training Program was published in April 1943. Special accelerated programs stayed in place after peace was declared; these continued to be announced in the Bulletins until the transition back to peacetime schedules in the late 1940s.

By the early 1950s the five issues per year became relatively standardized: Usually each year a graduate catalog, a general catalog, a catalog for the co-operative program, and one for the engineering extension division were published, along with one issue containing information for prospective students. Once the Engineering Extension Division was taken over by Southern Polytechnic State University, that issue was dropped. Additional issues of significance to Georgia Tech's history continued to appear. Highlights include a printing of the School's new Statutes in November 1945 (Volume XLII, No. 4); several President's Reports, beginning in October 1958 and annually after about 1964; and a directory of graduates and former students (Volume 76, No. 6). For a brief period during the late 1950s, the Bulletin appears to have increased its numbers of annual issues to eight or nine, but many of these added issues may have been brief newsletters. The Archives only has a few of these Tech Topics newsletters dating from 1959 and 1960.

The Georgia Tech Archives' bound volumes of the Bulletin appear to be incomplete, especially prior to the 1930s, because several issue numbers are missing. Several other gaps in issue numbers occur throughout the holdings. A complete list of available issues is provided in the Container List of this inventory. Some of the missing issue numbers may be found in other publications collections at the Archives (see Related Materials listed below).

The final issue of the Bulletin appears to be Volume 87, No. 1; after that issue, a note bound into the volume indicates that each individual catalog continued to be published separately.