Bringing History to Life: The 75th-Anniversary Issue
THE CHALLENGE: To capture the history of Harvard Medical School through a survey of 75 years of its alumni magazine
THE SOLUTION: For the school’s 75th-anniversary issue, we sought to pay tribute to the changing ways in which the school’s alumni have dealt with their life-and-death responsibilities over the decades. At the same time, in keeping with the issue’s celebratory theme, the overall mood was deliberately gleeful, with playful pieces meant to engage readers’ wits, including a quiz on arcane bits of school lore; “Connect the Docs,” a matching game that asked readers to pair noteworthy alumni with their nonmedical accomplishments; and “Harvard’s Index,” a lighthearted sidebar that borrowed the “Harper’s Index” format to offer glimpses into the school’s history through numbers.
In “Like Shakespeare and the Bible,” I was able to write a wry chronicle of reader critiques of the magazine across the decades, including a notable epithet from 1981: “I have been trying to analyze what is so repulsive about the latest issue of the Bulletin and have finally come to the conclusion that it’s not the literary copy but, like an inflamed carbuncle, it hurts just to look at it.”
THE RESPONSE: “The 75-year issue is a triumph!” one alumnus wrote. “It has wit, insight, history, people, things, ideas, and feeling—all in delicious proportion. It’s a joy to read and pore over, and I will treasure my copy forever. You deserve the plaudits and appreciation of everyone who has ever been at Harvard Medical School.”
The issue received a gold medal in the Periodical Special Issues category from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, an award of distinction from the Association of American Medical Colleges in the External Audience Periodicals category, and a Clarion Award in the Best Overall External Magazine (Circulation Under 100,000) category from the Association for Women in Communications. It was also named a finalist for an Eddie Award from Folio: Magazine in the Healthcare/Medical Category.
Yet the most significant honor came from the alumni themselves. When Harvard Medical School celebrated the 100th anniversary of the groundbreaking of its original quadrangle, the administration invited the Alumni Association to make a single contribution to a time capsule that would be kept sealed for another century. The association chose to include a copy of the 75th-anniversary issue of the Bulletin.
