1952 & 1953 Oklahoma A&M Redskin

TWO OKLAHOMA A&M COLLEGE YEARBOOKS - THE REDSKIN, 1952 AND 1953 VOLUME 44, STILLWATER, OKLAHOMA The fifth pair from this Stillwater yearbook consignment, both from the early 1950s while the school was still Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College. The 1953 volume is bound in cream-white textured leatherette with a molded crackle-grain surface, deep red raised lettering reading The REDSKIN 1953 across a diagonal band, and a spine reading The 1953 REDSKIN, OKLAHOMA A&M, VOLUME 44. The 1952 volume is bound in deep red embossed leatherette with an all-over swirled texture, silver-gray raised lettering reading the 1952 REDSKIN, and a molded mascot figure of a child in a feathered headband beating a hand drum, a period graphic that reflects the imagery of its era and the yearbook name the university has since retired. Both are thick, heavily photographic records of early-fifties campus life with class portrait sections, residence hall and organization pages, ROTC and athletics coverage, and candid photo features. The 1953 cream cover is stained and soiled, and both books show handling wear, all detailed below. Companion lots to the 1935, 1936, 1937, 1947, 1955, 1956, 1959, and 1960 Redskin volumes offered separately in this sale. Sold as a lot of two hardbound volumes. Description The 1953 Redskin, Volume 44 - cream-white molded leatherette hardcover with raised red script and block lettering reading The REDSKIN and 1953, with matching raised rules. Spine reads The 1953 REDSKIN with OKLAHOMA A&M and VOLUME 44 in red. Interior pages photographed include a double-page black-and-white aerial campus photograph across the endpapers, a candid photo feature titled The first Taste of College covering enrollment and move-in, a spread on the Oklahoma A&M College ROTC Cadet Corps Band with drill-formation and campus lake photographs, and multi-page class portrait grids with printed name keys down the margins. The 1952 Redskin - deep red molded leatherette hardcover with silver-gray raised lettering reading the 1952 REDSKIN and an embossed drummer mascot figure, with a raised red band across the lower cover. Front pastedown carries a printed staff and colophon panel headed REDSKIN 1952 listing an editor, a business manager, a publications board, and the credits Official Photographer, Cherry's Studio, Stillwater, Oklahoma; Southwestern Engraving Co., Oklahoma City, Engraving; Economy Advertising Co., Iowa City, Iowa, Printing, though the individual staff names on that panel are small and not fully legible in the photograph and are not transcribed here. Interior pages photographed include a campus architecture section with photographs captioned ANIMAL HUSBANDRY BUILDING, WILLIAMS HALL, and GALLAGHER HALL, a SENIOR CLASS of 1952 opening spread with portrait grids and printed row-by-row name, hometown, major, and activity keys, a full candid feature spread of coeds at intramurals, swim practice, and around campus, and facing pages for the INDEPENDENT MEN'S RESIDENCE COUNCIL and CORDELL HALL with officers, group photographs, and hall staff portraits. Each volume measures approximately 12 inches tall by roughly 9 to 9-1/2 inches wide per the tape-measure photographs. In the height photographs the tape is laid on top of the closed book and in the width photographs the hook plate is resting on the carpet off the edge of the book rather than hooked on it, so all figures are close estimates. Bidders should verify all dimensions from the photographs. Both are thick, heavy, sewn-and-cased hardbound volumes. Attribution note Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College at Stillwater, founded in 1890, was renamed Oklahoma State University in 1957, which places both of these volumes in the A&M period, a few years ahead of the 1955 and 1956 volumes and the OSU-era 1959 and 1960 volumes in this sale. The annual was published under the title The Redskin for roughly eighty years, a name the university has since retired and publicly addressed as reflecting the racial stereotyping of its era, as documented by the Stillwater History Museum, and library cataloging records for the series reproduced at the Internet Archive show the title carried across both the A&M and OSU periods. The embossed mascot figure on the 1952 cover is part of that same retired imagery and is described here as it appears on the book. Athletic teams at the college were known as the Aggies in this period. Identification and dating are offered as the consignor's photo-based opinion and are not guaranteed. Bid on the items as pictured. Condition Used, roughly seventy-year-old books in fair to good structural condition for their age, sold as-is. The 1953 cream leatherette cover is the weak point of the pair and shows scattered yellow-brown stains and spotting across the front cover and spine, overall soiling and darkening in the recesses of the texture, gray finger-grime, and rubbing along the edges and at the corners. The 1953 spine ends and corners show bumping