Jacksonville, AL – Per the JSU press department, on February 22, 1883, Gov. Edward O’Neal signed a bill establishing the State Normal School in Jacksonville, AL. With a state appropriation of $2,500, $200 in donations, one president, three faculty, one janitor, 12 acres of land, one brick building and 272 students, Jacksonville State University was born.
Before there was a Statue of Liberty, a Washington Monument, Yosemite National Park, General Electric, automobiles and 12 US states, there was JSU. Over the past 14 decades, they have survived the Great Depression, two World Wars, multiple pandemics and at least two tornados. But there’s been good moments, too – the kind that, in the words of Pulitzer Prize winning alumnus Rick Bragg, we wish we could “press between the pages of a book” so we “could touch them again.”
Relive all of JSU’s best memories through Houston Cole Library’s digital archives, where you will find a historical image collection, searchable PDFs of old “Teacola” and “Mimosa” yearbooks, every copy of The Chanticleer dating back to 1934 and much more.
