The University Record, January 30, 1996
Bentley’s gargoyles sit on shelves, not gutters
Not mounted on a building’s gutter, but housed in bound volumes, these gargoyles, copies of U-M’s Gargoyle dating from 1909, are now housed at the Bentley Historical Library.
Authorized by the University’s Board in Control of Student Publications in 1908, the Gargoyle was not the first attempt at a student humor magazine on campus. According to The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey, the first was Wrinkle, a biweekly which first appeared Oct. 13, 1893, and soon became a successful magazine of cartoons and humorous material “published by the students every little while during the college year.” Relatively short lived, though it was once rated by the managing editor of the Yale Record as “the best humorous college paper” he had ever reviewed, Wrinkle died in 1905.
Its first issues led the Gargoyle to gain a reputation as a literary magazine, containing stories, articles and pictures. Only the back part of the magazine was filled with humorous articles and jokes, the “encyclopedia” said, but the publication soon became the campus’s humor magazine.
Issues of the Gargoyle can be requested for perusal at the Bentley Library, open 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturdays.
