This year, the Class of 2018 will walk across the stage to receive their diplomas and step onto the world’s stage. Graduations mark the ending of a demanding academic journey and signal the beginning of an adventure that awaits. It is a time of celebration and anticipation, of farewells and of new plans.
The Class of 2018 has the profound honour of being the class that welcomes Dalhousie University’s third century.
In January 2018, I received an e-mail from Joyline Makani who shared a video that featured the graduating class of 1931.
Dianne Landry, one of the Archives staff, discovered a 16mm film of the 1931 Convocation while doing some shifting of the collection. We took the original film and sent it to our film preservation service provider, Media Preserve to transfer the film to digital. The digital files just came back from Media Preserve and Creighton Barrett, the Archives’ Digital Archivist has put the file up on our Youtube channel. This 16 mm film was shot by R. Gordon Harris, the “Life Secretary” of the Class of 1931.
1931 marked the opening of the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and the year that the Statute of Westminster went into effect, giving Canada full independence in national and international affairs. Those born in 1931 included Mordecai Richler, author, screenwriter and essayist, William Shatner of Star Trek fame and Alice Munro, writer and marvelous storyteller.
This archival treasure captures all the festivity and excitement of the Class of 1931. There is an eagerness to take on new challenges, a willingness to embrace life with exuberance and a hint of audacity. This was the generation that would experience the economics of the 1930’s, WWII, and the massive technological advances that sent us into space. Their voices may no longer be with us, but their hopes and efforts are embedded in the fabric of our nation, and in the spirit of a new generation ready to make their voices heard.
From all of us at CEGE Connection, congratulations to the Class of 2018. We know that whatever you do, you will be remarkable.