Being a Music major at Bethany college, I found this old photograph from the Bethany Yearbook: 1917 very interesting. It is a picture of the music department (the called a “conservatory”) complete with students and staff. While observing this picture, I couldn’t help but draw some comparisons between this class, and 2016’s current class of music majors here at Bethany. I figure that the most obvious difference would be the amount of students. Although we are not the smallest major on campus by a long shot, we are a significantly smaller than this 1917 pictures portrays this class to be. Another difference would be the line drawn between the music department, and the rest of the majors in 1917. Today, the music department is just another department like Science, or English, but after some research looking through the yearbook that this picture was found in, I discovered that the music department wasn’t so much a “department” as it was an entirely different school within Bethany campus that’s specific job was to teach and perform music. Today, the music department is equally integrated into the campus life and catalog and not so much of a “stand alone” section of academia.
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