1914 Le Mirage Yearbook West Texas State Normal College Canyon TX Suede Rare For Sale

Up for sale is an incredibly rare, authentic piece of Texas Panhandle history: the 1914 edition of Le Mirage, the annual college yearbook for West Texas State Normal College (now West Texas A&M University) in Canyon, Texas.

This specific volume is highly coveted by historical collectors and institutional archives. On March 25, 1914, a catastrophic fire completely leveled the campus’s main academic building ("Old Main"). Because of this disaster, surviving campus artifacts, documents, and yearbooks from 1914 are exceptionally scarce.

Features & Details

• Year: 1914

• Publisher: West Texas State Normal College (Canyon, TX)

• Binding: Original flexible brown suede leather wrapper featuring embossed gold foil lettering and the early institutional emblem on the front cover.

Content Highlights: Beautiful Art Nouveau borders, a historical dedication page to noted Texas educator Horace Wilson Morelock, and the printed 1914 "Class Song."

Cover: The original flexible suede cover is present with vibrant gold leaf text. As is typical for over-century-old suede, the wrapper shows noticeable drying, brittleness, and age-related wear.

Spine & Edges: There is significant chipping and loss along the suede wrapper's spine cover and overhanging edges (please review photos closely). The underlying binding structural elements are visible at the spine tips.

Interior Pages: Complete and well-preserved. The internal pages have gracefully aged with an authentic, uniform yellowish vintage toning/patina. The paper remains intact, the binding holds firm, and the text, illustrations, and art style elements are completely crisp, clean, and legible.

Except for on the brittle suede front cover, spine, and back cover, no major tearing, water damage, or loose pages observed.

Note: A momento from 1937 was found inside the cover.