Photographs: Buildings, Monuments and Places, 1860s to Present
| Oberlin College Archives
Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative InformationThe bulk of the photographic record for the college was not formally accessioned and was transferred from the Office of the Secretary after the establishment of the Archives in 1966. The college hired freelance photographers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1917 a college photographer position was created for Arthur Ludwig Princehorn. He and his son Arthur Ewing Princehorn produced nearly all of the college’s negatives and photographs from 1917 to 1969 (see the Princehorn Family Papers, RG 30/416). Sometimes photographers’ names appear stamped or inscribed on the backs of prints. Photographs dating from Clarence Ward's directorship of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, taken of the museum and other buildings on campus, were transferred from the art museum in 1999. These include extensive documentation of the construction of the original art building from 1915-17 by the Cass Gilbert architectural firm, and the Ward addition in 1937-38.
In 2009 the Communications Office moved to a different building on campus, and a great many photographs, negatives, and other visual materials were transferred to the Archives that year. Most of this material dated from the 1980s through the early 2000s.
In the 2010s the Archives began soliciting born digital photographs from one of the College photographers, John Seyfried, for new building projects such as the Lewis Gateway Center. Seyfried also took photographs of certain older buildings at the request of the Archives for its Architecture of Oberlin College virtual guide in 2015. Archives Student Assistant Serena Creary also contributed photographs of structures not previously documented for the virtual guide, published in August 2015. A limited number of born digital photographs have been transferred from other campus offices dating from about 2004 to the present.
In 2020 a carton of photographs of buildings was transferred from the Office of Communications.
Additional photographs of buildings can be found in the record group for oversize prints (RG 32/10). One may also find images of buildings in other photographic media, such as lantern slides, film slides, postcards, negatives, and moving images. Buildings on campus are also represented in photograph albums (RG 32/7) and in art works in record group 40 (see the digital collection for the Archives Museum Collection at http://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/objects).
Photographs of houses that were not owned by the college, but may have served as residences for college personnel, can be found in the record group for prints sorted by subject (RG 32/5). Also in that record group are files of photographs of “Campus Views” and “Aerial Views,” which include views of more than one building. Many of these can be accessed online from the Oberlin College Campus Views digital collection at http://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/ephemera.
Many other record groups hold photographs of buildings. These include the Office of Business and Finance (RG 6), the Allen Memorial Art Museum (RG 9/3), the Physical Education Department (RG 9/6), the Conservatory of Music (RG 10), Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association (RG 15), the Office of Communications (RG 18), Scrapbooks (19/4), and personal paper groups under RG 30.
Finally, Architectural Records (RG 53) holds Project Photographs, which include proposals, design, models and construction.
Photographic images of buildings, monuments and places on campus, on paper of legal size and smaller, fill this category; it also includes born digital images. Nearly all of the buildings represented are college buildings; the exceptions are a few early Oberlin churches. The monuments represented are college-owned, with some exceptions. Places constitute the Arboretum, a large natural area with a reservoir, and Tappan Square, now devoid of buildings but which once served as the site of the early Oberlin Collegiate Institute. The photographs of buildings are arranged in alphabetical order by building, monument or place name. College dormitories are arranged at the end, again alphabetically.
Additional photographs of buildings can be found in the record group for oversize prints (RG 32/10). One may also find images of buildings in other photographic media, such as lantern slides, film slides, postcards, negatives, and moving images. Buildings on campus are also represented in photograph albums (RG 32/7) and in art works in record group 40 (see the digital collection for the Archives Museum Collection at http://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/objects).
Photographs of houses that were not owned by the college, but may have served as residences for college personnel, can be found in the record group for prints sorted by subject (RG 32/5). Also in that record group are files of photographs of “Campus Views” and "Aerial Views," which include views of more than one building. Many of these can be accessed online from the Oberlin College Campus Views digital collection at http://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/ephemera.
Born digital photographs are stored in the digital archive, but if images came to the Archives as CD-ROMs, those were retained for reference purposes. These are currently stored in one CD-ROM storage box. The CDs can be viewed on the public computer in the reading room; they may not be accessed from a personal computer.
See also Related Materials in Administrative Information.