Format Print (Hardback) Founded 1911 OCLC number 18818180 | Owner(s) Duke University Headquarters Durham, NC, USA | |
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Publisher Duke University Undergraduate Publications Board | ||
The Chanticleer is Duke University’s undergraduate yearbook. It was founded while the institution was still Trinity College in 1911, and was first published in 1912. The yearbook has kept the same title each year, with the exception of 1918 and 1919. Because of World War I, there was no issue in 1918, and in 1919 the yearbook was titled The Victory to mark the war’s end.
The origin of the title Chanticleer is not verified, but there are a few theories. Chanticleer is the name of the rooster in the Nun’s Priest Tale of the Canterbury Tales. One possibility is that the yearbook was named in response to a campus theater production of the Canterbury Tales in 1911. Another theater production popular at the time was titled Chantecler: A Play in Four Acts, which may have inspired the title. The rooster may have been a mascot at Trinity at the time, possibly because of the presence of chickens on campus. The rooster was also a symbol for an announcement in the early 1900s.