The pages of these newspapers have yellowed with age. Nearby, black-and-white photographs capture faces, buildings, and events from an era that feels far removed from today. Old books, official documents, and student magazines are arranged in the Lobby of the PAU Building, UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, on Monday (9/21/2026).

That morning, the building's lobby was no longer simply a passageway. It transformed into a corridor through time, carrying visitors back more than seven decades, to when Indonesia's first state Islamic institution of higher learning was still just an idea, gradually being fought into existence.

This trace is brought to life through the Archival Exhibition titled “RINTISAN: An Indelible Trace, Across Time 1951–1961: Rereading the Roots of Identity.” This exhibition marks the first archival exhibition ever held by UIN Sunan Kalijaga, and the first held within a State Religious Higher Education Institution (PTKN) environment.

No archival piece is left standing as a lifeless object. Every photograph, news clipping, book, and document is placed as part of a larger story, the story of the birth of state Islamic higher education, and the people who worked behind it.

That story begins with a timeline. The years within it connect fragments of the journey, from the founding of the Sekolah Tinggi Islam (STI) in 1945, its transformation into Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) in 1948, through to the separation of UII's Faculty of Religion to be nationalized by the government under the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

From that long process, the Perguruan Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri (PTAIN) Yogyakarta was born. PTAIN was formally established on September 26, 1951, with Prof. K.H.R. Mohammad Adnan as its first rector. That date has since become an important marker in UIN Sunan Kalijaga's journey to this day.

From the timeline, visitors' steps are guided toward a row of old newspapers. There, PTAIN's history unfolds through the language of the press in the early years of the republic.

The newspaper Asia Raya preserves the trace of the founding of the Sekolah Tinggi Islam. Kedaulatan Rakyat carried the official announcement of the Perguruan Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri Yogyakarta, while Suara Rakyat documented PTAIN's inauguration by Minister of Religious Affairs K.H. Wahid Hasjim. The newspaper Merdeka also reported on the opening of the Islamic institution of higher learning.

In a 1953 edition of Kedaulatan Rakyat, visitors can read coverage of PTAIN's 2nd Anniversary (Dies Natalis). The letters in that faded newspaper clipping may have dimmed with age, but the news it carries remains alive, a reminder that PTAIN's founding was not simply a campus-bound event, but part of public conversation in the early years of Indonesian independence.

Where newspapers record events through words, a row of photographs from the collection of the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI) brings faces and atmosphere to life.

One photograph shows the PTAIN building in the Sekip area of Yogyakarta. Another captures the handover of PTAIN's founding documents to Minister of Religious Affairs K.H. Wahid Hasjim by the chair of the inauguration committee for the Islamic institution of higher learning.

Within the same frame appear Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX and the Deputy Minister of Education and Culture, Dr. Sardjito. The presence of these figures shows that PTAIN's founding drew significant attention from national and regional leaders at the time.

Prof. K.H.R. Mohammad Adnan also appears across a range of moments beyond campus life. One photograph captures him, as former Head of the Hajj Mission, handing over a Red-and-White flag that had once flown over Arafah to President Soekarno.

In another photograph, Prof. Adnan is seen delivering a speech at an Isra Mikraj commemoration. Among the guests present, Fatmawati can be seen following the proceedings.

There is also a visual record of President Soekarno delivering a public lecture at PTAIN in 1952. Subsequent photographs bring visitors into the atmosphere of PTAIN's 2nd Anniversary celebration and a visit by Egypt's Deputy Prime Minister, accompanied by Indonesia's Deputy Prime Minister II, Harsono Tjokroaminoto.

Prof. Muchtar Jahja's thinking is also represented through 22 printed books on display. One is titled Pertumbuhan Akal dan Memanfaatkan Naluri Kanak-Kanak (The Growth of Reason and Harnessing Children's Instincts). This collection reflects the breadth of Muchtar Jahja's attention to education, human development, and religious life.

Also featured is a work by Prof. K.H.R. Mohammad Adnan on the commemoration of major Islamic holy days, alongside the text of the Minister of Religious Affairs' speech at PTAIN's inauguration and the speech delivered by the Head of PTAIN's Faculty, K.H. Mohammad Adnan.

Amid these official documents and the writings of key figures lies a trace of PTAIN student life in its earliest years. That trace can be found in the yearbook of PTAIN Yogyakarta's first class of students, held in the collections of the DIY Regional Library and Archives Agency and the National Library.

The exhibition also features Criterium, the monthly student magazine of the Islamic institution of higher learning. Through its pages, visitors can picture the intellectual life of young people at the time, what they thought about, discussed, and wrote, in the early, still-young years of the republic.

Behind the careful arrangement of this entire collection lies a long process of searching. Head of the Archives Unit at UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Wahyu Setianingsih (Aning), said the team deliberately chose the 1951–1961 period as the exhibition's focus.

UIN Sunan Kalijaga's journey now spans 75 years, far too long to be captured entirely within a single exhibition. For that reason, the team chose to begin with the founding period, the era when the institution's foundations were first laid.

When the research began, Aning explained, the team started from two names: Prof. K.H.R. Mohammad Adnan and Prof. Muchtar Jahja. The search unfolded gradually. One piece of information led to the next, until the team discovered that one of Prof. Adnan's grandchildren was in fact a lecturer at UIN Sunan Kalijaga. Through that connection, a line of communication with the family began to open. The team eventually connected with Prof. Adnan's children, who live in Jakarta and the United States.

The search for Prof. Muchtar Jahja's family carried a story no less moving. At one point, the team received information suggesting that his heirs could no longer be found. Hope of bringing the family's voice into the exhibition nearly came to a halt there.

But roughly two weeks before the exhibition opened, word came that Prof. Muchtar Jahja's son was still alive. A meeting with the extended family was finally made possible.

Aning also recounted a similar difficulty the team faced in tracing news coverage of the journey from STI, to UII, to UII's Faculty of Religion, and finally to its nationalization as PTAIN. The search, moving from one source to another, eventually led the team to coverage in Asia Raya and a range of other old newspapers, which helped piece back together fragments of the institution's history.

This journey of research is captured in a documentary video, featuring testimonies from the families of both rectors, as well as Dr. Damami, a UIN Sunan Kalijaga lecturer who has written a manuscript on the university's history.

The voices of these families add a deeply personal layer to the official documents. History, which might otherwise appear as a mere sequence of years and decisions, transforms into a story about parents, families, struggle, and a legacy of thought still remembered by the generations that followed.

Aning noted that archives are often imagined as piles of old, worn-out, and tedious paper. Through this exhibition, that perception is one the team hoped to change. Photographs, newspapers, books, and old documents have been woven into a single narrative, so that visitors can enjoy the archives, understand the information within them, and once again feel the atmosphere of the past.

As UIN Sunan Kalijaga turns 75, these archives carry with them a single reminder: a great university is not built overnight. It is pioneered through ideas, the courage to make decisions, the perseverance to build institutions, and the quiet work of people who believed that Indonesia needed a state Islamic institution of higher learning.

Seventy-five years later, that trace speaks once again from the Lobby of the PAU Building. Today's generation can see just how far UIN Sunan Kalijaga has come, while also understanding the roots that must be preserved as the university moves forward into the future. (humassk)