The Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism’s Exhibit of the Century Celebrating 100 Years of UNT Journalism and the Pulitzer Prize

An old typewriter, film canister and canvas photos showing the 100-year history of the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism and the Pulitzer Prize were highlights of an exhibit at the University of North Texas from September to Oct. 7.

Image via Sydney Cooper

Displays included information about when “Campus Chat,” now known as “North Texas Daily,” was first published, when C.E. Shuford became part of the UNT staff, when Mayborn gained membership to the Southwestern Journalism Congress, and when the Department of Journalism earned its accreditation in 1970.

Dorothy Bland, Dean of Undergraduate Journalism, said the Mayborn Exhibit was not just a one-person effort, however, she played a vital role in the idea and creation of the Mayborn Exhibit.

“I was the person who said we should be celebrating it,” she said. “I’m the architect behind pulling together the program and my role as dean is I have to help finance all this to make it happen. So part of my job was to say ‘what can we do that would be really special for our students and alumni?’”

The idea did not play out until last spring. All the information and sources took much time and effort to gather.

“There were lots of external sources, we had a lot of help,” Bland said. “I mean to be honest with you, UNT libraries provided archival images, we had folks in NT Daily, we had them make phone calls to find people. It took a lot of work to pull that off, it really did.”

Nicole Newland, a UNT alum and former UNT Arts Coordinator, played a part in making the Exhibit happen. Her job was to assist with logistics and work on getting the artwork up.

“We thought it would inspire pride in UNT,” she said. “We thought it would be an interesting way to use the space more as a historical gallery space as opposed to just an art gallery space. Because this is the Union we want that space to be multidisciplinary.”

Jonathan Lichtenwalter, a journalism minor and employee at NT Daily liked seeing how things changed over the years and “how even the language has changed over the years.” However, there was one aspect he said he would have changed/added.

“I felt like it jumped in time quite a bit,” he said. “It went from black and white to past 2000 so I thought that was kind of a big jump. So I would have liked to see more progression in time.”

Bland said she believes students will be inspired by the exhibit and with their time studying journalism at UNT.

“What I want them to take away as a journalist is when you learn to report, write, edit, shoot and produce, those skills are transferrable across many platforms and it’s up to you to choose what career path you want to take and I wish our students much, much success.”