Then & Now

Connecting with Alumni

Stanford University Archives
An Exchange of Greetings by Telephone, 1916
Cindy Pearson
Stanford+Connects, 2016

The Stanford Alumni Association was founded in 1892 by the university’s first graduating class, to facilitate connections for Stanford alumni after they leave the Farm. The Alumni Association was integrated into the university in 1998. As of 2015, there are Stanford alumni in 154 countries and territories worldwide, and 218,882 alumni living in the United States. Left: Less than a year after America’s first transcontinental call, Stanford’s President Ray Lyman Wilbur and the Stanford alumni club in New York City carried out “An Exchange of Greetings by Telephone” on January 22, 1916, following Wilbur’s inauguration. Right: Stanford alumni connect with faculty and staff in Shanghai on March 12, 2016, during Stanford+Connects, a four-year outreach initiative launched in 2013 by the Stanford Alumni Association as part of an effort to bring university content and connections to alumni communities worldwide.