The Heritage Library · 1919–2026

A century of service, in the Club’s own words and pictures

The Balita as members read it, week by week since 1948. The photographs of their projects and fellowship. The plaques, trophies and books the Club gathered in more than a hundred years as Asia’s first Rotary club.

106presidents since 1919

2,237items catalogued

491Balita pages to read

709photographs

The library is growing: volumes, issues and albums are being added from the Club’s archive every week.

This week in club history · 78 years ago

Balita No. 604, 16 September 1948

Coming meetings: Commodore José V. Andrada on the Philippine naval patrol, a meeting at Pete Lim's La Dicha cigar factory to mark his birthday, and Jorge Vargas on the Philippine Olympic delegation to London.

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A century, decade by decade

Eleven decades of the Club

1919–1929Foundations and First Convictions

10 presidents 1929–1939Discipline in an Unsettled World

10 presidents 1939–1949Silence, War, and Survival

7 presidents · 1 Balita volumes 1949–1959From Relief to System

10 presidents 1959–1969Expansion and Confidence

11 presidents 1969–1979Service Under Pressure

10 presidents 1979–1989Renewal and Relevance

10 presidents 1989–1999Global Partnerships, Local Depth

10 presidents 1999–2009Scale, Technology and Transition

10 presidents 2009–2019Centennial as Continuum

10 presidents 2019–2027Resilience in a Fragmented World

8 presidents

The reading room

The Rotary Balita, from 1948

Every issue as it was printed, page by page, with the text searchable. The Balita itself began in 1919, but the Club’s records before 1948 were lost when they were burned during the war.

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