Tips for Searching the Online Hilltop Collection

The digital Hilltop may be browsed by (1) all volumes, (2) individual volume, or (3) decade. Once an individual volume is selected, there is additional keyword searching available within the volume. There is also a simple keyword search and an advanced search capability available which provides many more options for searching words or phrases. A complete inventory of color plates within the yearbooks is also available.

Locating Individuals

Since the printed books lack consistency, we recommend initial searching by surname only, excluding first names, nicknames, or initials. Note that almost all volumes have indices, which will be included in search results and can be used for page references. When searching by keyword please note that there are limits to accurate text rendition. For example, the printed text routinely contained highly stylized fonts and colored design elements which reduce the accuracy of the text conversion. Many books printed between 1915 and 1940 contained hand-lettered “poster pages” and these captions often prove problematic for keyword searching.

Locating Information on Colleges, Athletics, Clubs, Fraternities and Sororities

In order to enable navigation of entire volumes – some containing over 600 printed pages – project staff developed a volume-level table of contents. This descriptive information will appear in the left side-bar when a volume is browsed. “Hits” appear in red text. Project staff retained the original terminology and pagination from the yearbooks, but over the decades both the terminology and context routinely changed. For example, the students in the School of Dentistry were routinely described as the 'Dents.' The ‘Society' section was commonplace between 1915-1945, disappeared for a generation, then reappeared in the 1960s with a totally different meaning—as student activism and the counter-culture influenced campus life. To gather information on a specific college, athletic team, or fraternity/sorority, searchers should use the annotated table of contents.

Using the Advanced Search

The advanced search provides access to several MU digital collections, which may be selected on the search page. To search only the Hilltop, uncheck the other collections, and specify the transcript field for searching the actual contents of the volumes. Note that fields may be combined, such as date and transcript. There is also a proximity search available.