While attending the 1997 Association of Former Students Fall Conference, the Class of '49 agents discovered that the Cushing Memorial Library was undergoing a much needed facelift. The agents inquired as to how the Class could assist the programs the library would be developing. A meeting with the library's leadership outlined an innovative project that would have a lasting impact on the library, the history of Texas A&M, as well as providing a permanent memorial to the Class of '49. The Library was seeking a partner to assist in the digitization of the University's vast collection of A&M historical documents. (Digitizing is placing common items like basic printed text and pictures into an electronic format that can be used by a computer.) The Library needed an additional $100,000 of the planned $200,000 funds needed for startup costs. A Class of '49 committee was quickly formed to raise the additional $100,000 needed to electronically capture the historic documents and create a World Wide Web site to post these documents for any person to search. From this discussion in the fall of 1997, the Class of '49 Golden Anniversary Project was born.

A '49 FIRST: THE 1949 AGGIELAND

   In 1949, the students of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas voted to change the name of their yearbook. In an election featuring twelve possible new names, "Final Review" and "Aggieland" finished in a tie, necessitating a runoff. The winner was Aggieland, a title still in use today. The new publication continued the volume numbers of the old Longhorn series, beginning with volume 47.