Before the PC, before the typewriter...

They wrote everything by hand, everything. Minutes of meetings, correspondance, student registration records, all of it was written out by hand in ledgers and binders. For example here is a page from the 1869 registration book. These massive volumes are leather bound and about 11x17" on a side. Notice that in addition to people's names and so forth, they listed their "religious persuasion!" (Click on the image to view in a larger size.)

The first typewritten records appear in the 1890s and it wasn't till some years later that records were generally all typewritten. Many years later of course PCs and word processing came along, but that's another story!