Documenting Trinity, Preserving History: The Trinity Tripod at the College Archives

By Savannah Brooks ’26

This year, the Tripod has been incredibly intentional about documenting and preserving the work of students, administrators, and faculty. The Tripod is crucial when considering Trinity’s history, particularly its student history. One phrase we like to tell our writers this semester is: “If it isn’t in the Tripod, it didn’t really happen.” Without our coverage of student events, activities, and activism, the information will likely not become archived. Therefore, we have been trying to extend our reach all over campus to cover student events on the ground rather than reporting on national news. Of course, our donation of our archives to the Watkinson also reflects the value of our archive, and we wanted to ensure that everything we kept in our office would be properly stored and evaluated. The Watkinson Library maintains both the physical copies of the entire run of the Tripod as well as the digital archive of scans which the library began digitizing around 2005. 

For over a year, I have been working as a student assistant at the Watkinson Library and College Archives. While I started by contributing to the writing of the Encyclopedia Trinitiana, I have since turned to archival processing. While I have been at the Watkinson, I have worked with unique or rare print materials from the Tripod’s past. Concurrently, I climbed the ranks of Trinity’s student-run newspaper: the Trinity Tripod. As a managing editor this year, I assisted in the organization and donation of a portion of the Tripod archives, some of which were previously kept in the Tripod office and I helped bring to the Watkinson this semester. 

In my work at the Watkinson this semester, I have had the unique opportunity to process materials I donated on behalf of the Tripod. After searching the Tripod office for any material of note, the existing archives held there were donated to the Watkinson’s Tripod Inc. records (the “Incorporation” comes from the original 1913 legal documents which incorporated the Tripod as a state entity). This collection includes a plethora of objects ranging from an early 20th century loving cup to print photographs of pre-games in the Tripod office in the early 21st century (don’t worry, we don’t have those tailgate parties anymore). Inventorying and arranging these objects into easily findable categories has allowed me to better understand the Tripod’s history and has given the Watkinson Library more never-published or behind-the-scenes photos than those that made it into the printed newspaper. A number of photos in this collection document different stages of the Tripod office; I wonder every day who made the decision to get rid of the chalk wall. These photos give us more than Trinity’s history — they also allow us to reflect on our history as a newspaper. 

I invite you to come to the Trinity College Archives at the Watkinson Library to check out the collection. The Watkinson Library is open to the public for research appointments from 9-12pm, and 1:30-4pm on Mondays through Fridays through the entire year. Please email watkinson@trincoll.edu to set up an appointment.