Photographs: Panorama and Other Rolled Photographs, 1868-1954 | Oberlin College Archives

This collection comprises Subgroup I, Flat Panorama Photographs and Subgroup II, Rolled Panorama and Other Rolled Photographs (cannot be flattened without conservation treatment). The panorama photographs were taken with special mechanized cameras such as the Cirkut, which made a wide sweep exposing a long roll of film to capture large groups or vistas. The time required to expose the broad sweep of film accounts for the appearance in some of these photographs of one individual at both the left and right-hand sides of the prints. These special cameras were in general use by professional photographers from about 1906 to the late 1940s. The prints from the panorama camera negatives were usually about a foot in height and three to four feet in length, but were often much larger, and were usually rolled for storage if not framed.

The majority of these photographs depict groups at Oberlin College; the earliest is an all-college personnel panorama from 1906. Other campus panoramas feature views of buildings and surrounding grounds. Photographs taken outside Oberlin include Painesville, Camp Sherman and Vermilion in Ohio; Kentucky, New York, Washington, D.C., and China. All of these photographs relate to Oberlin College in some way. Of note are group panoramas of the Anti-Saloon League, founded in Oberlin in 1893, from 1915 to 1926.

This grouping includes panoramas and oversize photographic prints that had been stored as rolls. Over time the paper became dry and brittle, resisting flattening without professional humidification. Rolled photographs are easily damaged by forced flattening, which cracks and pops off the image layer. The photographs in rolls in Subgroup II are restricted.

INVENTORY

Subgroup I. Flat Panorama Photographs, early 20th century, 1906, 1917,

            ca. 1923-25, 1937, n.d.

GR 3, drawer 7

            All-College Photograph, 1906

                    (earliest existing; conservation treatment completed, item matted)

32/10 Box 27

            Tappan Square (composite), n.d.

Case II, drawer 12

            Oberlin Military School portrait, Wilder Bowl, 7.5 x 34.5, 30 May 1917

            American Association of Collegiate Registrars, Lexington, KY, 10 x 36.5,

                      1917

            All-college portrait, Oberlin College, 6.5 x 26.5, 13 October 1937

            Large group portrait, location unknown (possibly national meeting of

                      church denomination), 8 x 38.5, n.d.

            YMCA Conference, Linwood Park, Vermilion, OH, n.d. (2)

            Shansi graduation group with Principal Winn Fairfield, Taigu, China,

                      8.25 x 33, ca. 1923-25

GR 2, drawer 6

            “Above is Heaven, Below is Hangzhow,” views (2) of Hangzhow, capital

                    city of Zhejiang Province, East China, matted, 5.5 x 19.75, early

                    20^th century

Subgroup II. Rolled Panoramas and Other Rolled Photographs, 1868,

            1909, 1912, 1915, 1917-18, 1921-23, 1925-27, 1929-31, 1933,

            1936-37, 1940, 1944-45, 1947, 1954, ca. 1990, n.d.  (restricted

            access)

Box 1

            All-College Photographs, 1912, 1923 (2), 1925 (9)

Box 2

            All College Photographs, 1927 (11), 1929 (5)

Box 3

            All College Photographs, 1933 (4), 1937 (4), 1940 (3), 1947 (9),

                      1951 (3)

Box 4 & 5 (flat)

            All-College Photographs, 1912, 1923 (7), 1925 (2), 1927 (2),

                      1929 (2)

Box 6

            Alumni Dinner Meetings in NY, 1923, 1927, 1954, n.d.

            Anti-Saloon League, 1915, 1917, 1918 (2), 1921, 1922, 1926

            Base Hospital, Camp Sherman, 1918

            Bird's Eye View of Oberlin (photostat), 1868 (6 sections)

            Congregational Conference of Ohio (Painesville), 1915

            Freshmen, 1930,1931 (2 items)

            Men's Glee Club, 1925, 1939 Hi-O-Hi p. 191 (2 items)

            Military Training Unit, 1916/17

            Mock Convention, 1936

                        (Gov. Gifford Pinchot, "Keynoter", speaking)

            National Council of Congregationalist Churches in Washington,

                      D.C., 1925

            Oberlin Military College, 1917-18

            Oberlin School of Commerce, 1929

            Oberlin War Mothers Day, 1918

            Panorama of Campus (left to right:)

                        Warner Hall to Council Hall, 1909

                        Warner Hall to Finney Chapel, 1909 (3 items)

                        Warner Hall to First Church, c. 1915

            Varsity O Club Men's Dinner, 1936

Box 7

            World War II V-12 Unit, 1944, 1945 (6 items)

            Oberlin Band, incl. Frances W. Holbein, 1922 (1 item) [2013/027]

Box 8 (telescoping)

            Aerial view of campus, ca. 1990