Your yearbooks over the years truly encapsulate the era in which you went to school. Whether you’re laughing at your tooth gap in elementary school, appreciating the awkward “tween” phase of middle school, or reliving your varsity years in high school, what better way to capture the vibe of that era of your life than revisiting your yearbook?
But unfortunately for some people, their personal yearbooks from over the decades are long gone. Between moves, decluttering, and packed attics, somewhere along the way at least one of your schoolmates lost this cherished keepsake.
But don’t feel bad for them. If your elementary, middle, high school, or college yearbook isn’t yet available in the Classmates® yearbook archive and you still possess your own copy, YOU have the ability to grant your entire graduating class access to their classic school pictures online. Here are the step-by-step actions to take to preserve your yearbook for decades to come.
Key Takeaways
| – Simple Digitization Process: Send your physical yearbook to Classmates, and the team will professionally scan and upload it, then ship your original book back to you at no cost. – Submission Eligibility: To be accepted for the digital archive, yearbooks must meet specific age requirements (High School: 2020 or earlier; Middle School: 2016 or earlier; Elementary: 2009 or earlier). – Condition Requirements: Books must be free of significant water damage, animal damage, or missing covers/spines to ensure a high-quality digital scan. – Why It Matters: Digitizing your yearbook creates a permanent digital time capsule, allowing you to share memories with peers online and protecting your history from physical loss or damage. – Searchable History: Once uploaded, your yearbook becomes a searchable resource, making it easy to find specific classmates, sports teams, or faculty members without flipping through every page. |
How to Submit Your Yearbook to Classmates
The process of lending your yearbook to Classmates is simple. Send in a physical copy of your yearbook and our team will digitize it and send it back!
Here’s how it works:
Make Sure Your Yearbook Isn’t Already in the Classmates Yearbook Collection.
Classmates’ yearbook archive already has 480,000 yearbooks from elementary, middle, high schools, and universities across the United States.
Log in to Classmates to search for it.
Not logged in? Search for it on this yearbook landing page. Simply click on the name of your state, first letter of your town, town name, and school name to see which yearbooks from your school are in the collection.
Confirm it Meets our Requirements
Physical Requirements
Classmates cannot accept yearbooks with the following issues:
- water damage
- loose or torn pages
- books detached from their spine
- books with damaged or missing covers
- animal damage (rodents, dogs, etc.)
- excessive writing over photographs
Accepting Yearbooks From Before These Dates
Additionally, Classmates will only accept yearbooks from before the following time periods:
- high school yearbooks from 2021 or earlier
- middle school yearbooks from 2017 or earlier
- elementary school yearbooks from 2010 or earlier
U.S. Yearbooks Only
At this time, only U.S. yearbooks are eligible to submit to Classmates. It also needs to be a physical copy of your yearbook. We cannot accept already digitized yearbooks.
Fill Out Your Information
On the yearbook submission landing page, simply provide us with general details about who you are and the yearbook(s) you’d like to submit to the archive.
The data we’ll need about your yearbook includes the State, City, High School Name, and Grad Year. From there, you can select a button to either confirm that your book is good to go, or that you need a bit of time to prepare.
Once all of your personal and yearbook information is submitted, hit “Submit”
For your reference, here are some of the terms for submitting your book to Classmates:
I represent that I am the rightful owner of the yearbook and that Classmates.com may scan my yearbook “as-is”, including all hand-written content contained in the book. I grant Classmates the perpetual, non-revocable right and license to use, publish, display, modify, market, distribute, transmit and create derivative works from the yearbook images for use on the world wide web, in email, and in any other electronic, print or mixed media for any purpose. Additionally, I release and discharge Classmates, its affiliates, employees, agents, licensees, successors and assigns from all claims, demands or causes of actions that I may have now or in the future for libel, defamation, invasion of privacy or right of publicity, copyright and/or trademark infringement or violation of any other rights from the use of my yearbook.
Ship Your Yearbook to Classmates!
Soon, if Classmates is interested in scanning your yearbook, they will email over a shipping label to you. Simply print it out and take your yearbook to the local USPS to send it.
Wait for an Update
Once Classmates receives and processes your yearbook, it will be scanned before being shipped back to you directly. Please note that your yearbook may not appear immediately on the site.
Once it’s uploaded to the site, you and your schoolmates and their family and friends can browse your entire class’ hilarious and sentimental yearbooks from back in the day.
Why Share Your Yearbook?
There are plenty of reasons that you should let Classmates digitally archive your school yearbooks, including:
Share the Nostalgia With Your Peers
You and your family love revisiting your high school yearbook. There’s so many classic photos, memories, and messages between those pages, from the class pictures to the ‘HAGs’ filled signature pages.
Give your entire graduating class the opportunity to share these experiences with their families. Anyone missing their old school yearbook can now browse it for free on Classmates!
Have Your Yearbook Photos Handy Online
No need to schlep your yearbook from place to place? Visiting an old friend from high school? Across the country to see your grandchildren. Now you can pull your yearbook up online to relive classic memories without the need for a physical copy.
Reach out and share the news that the yearbook is online via Classmates, email, or other social media platforms so that they can pull it up too. Reminisce together virtually. No in-person hangout necessary.
And now, if somehow your physical yearbook was damaged or misplaced, you’ll forever have your class photos and personalized hand-written messages handy in the digital version, and can even order a yearbook reprint*.
Preserve the History of Your Community
Classmates has yearbooks in the archive that date back to the 1800s all the way to modern times. In the future, your yearbook will act as a digital time capsule, archiving not only the vibe of the decade you lived through, but the distinct qualities and makeup of your city in that era.
Who knows. Your yearbook could even end up in local journalists and historians’ works as a key piece of research.
Leverage Yearbook Search for Easier Schoolmate and Photo Tracking
Digitizing your yearbook makes it much easier to find a specific person or photo. Classmates allows you to search within a specific yearbook, meaning you can look up “John Smith” or “varsity football” and get more specific results rather than flipping through the entire yearbook by hand.
Share Your Yearbook Today!
Do your part for your peers and community. Sharing your yearbook with Classmates will ensure it’s preserved for years to come and available for all of your peers and their family and friends to browse on demand.
Click here to get started on sending in your yearbook today. And be sure to search the yearbook archive for more of you and your friend’s yearbooks from over the years.
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*Reprints are copies of previously owned yearbooks so handwriting or effects of aging may be present, and pages, images, or other content may be missing or obscured.
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