Max Hubacher Photographs, 1953
| Oberlin College Archives
Administrative/Biographical History
Max Henry Hubacher was a chemist, local historian, and amateur photographer who was born in Bern, Switzerland in 1900 and emigrated to the United States in 1923, where he lived in West Virginia and New York. In 1928 he married Frieda Baer, a fellow chemistry student from Bern. Hubacher photographed his travels throughout Europe, Canada, New York, and the American West. He developed all of his prints from glass plate negatives in his darkroom. The Hubachers had two children: Sylvia, an Oberlin College graduate in the Class of 1953, and Eric Max Hubacher of Austin, Texas. Max Hubacher died in Austin in 1989.
Hubacher’s photography is well represented in a collection of approximately 5700 loose photographs and nine scrapbooks at the New York Public Library. Their finding guide provides a thorough biographical sketch, available at https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/collection-of-photographs-of-new-york-city-new-york-state-and-more-by-max#/?tab=about.
Sources Consulted
Biographical information supplied by Sylvia Hubacher to the Oberlin College Archivist in 1990, located in the Hubacher case file, Oberlin College Archives.
Finding guide to the collection of Max Hubacher photography at the New York Public Library accessed from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/collection-of-photographs-of-new-york-city-new-york-state-and-more-by-max#/?tab=about, June 22, 2017.
Author: Salsich, Anne Cuyler Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative InformationOberlin College Archives
Jeanne Ragner Papers, RG 30/419. Jeanne Ragner was the director of French
House from 1948 to 1965. Other French House images can be found in
RG 32/4, Building Photographs, under “Dormitories.”
New York Public Library
Collection of Photographs of New York City, New York State and more by Max
Hubacher, finding guide at http://archives.nypl.org/22378. For digital
images, see "Max Hubacher" New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Accessed June 22, 2017. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/52c46be0-a762-0133-edc4-00505686d14e
The Max Hubacher Photographs comprise twenty-four glass plate negatives measuring 4 x 6 inches, and nineteen contact prints from those negatives, taken between June 6 and June 9, 1953 in Oberlin. Max Hubacher was in Oberlin for the 1953 Commencement exercises for his daughter Sylvia’s graduation. Many of the negatives were inscribed with the date that they were taken. The prints have typed or handwritten notations on the backs as to the subjects and dates. It was highly unusual for a photographer in 1953 to use cumbersome glass plate negatives, which had not been in common use since about 1925. A note from Sylvia Hubacher to the archivist states that the plates were taken using a German Voitlander camera, the oldest name in cameras.
Sylvia Hubacher lived in French House, which is represented in seven negatives and six contact prints of the house and its staff and occupants. There are six negatives and four prints of Commencement itself. The Class of 1898 posed for a group photograph at French House for Max Hubacher, and according to the note on the back of the print, Edward R. Murrow featured the group portrait in a program on Oberlin’s 1953 Commencement that aired on television on June 14, 1953. Hubacher documented Murrow’s camera crew photographing the group in one plate and print. The remaining images show Oberlin’s business district, the train station, and a few College buildings. Sylvia Hubacher appears in many of the photographs.
INVENTORY
Contact print photographs (black and white), 4 x 6 in., June 1953 (19)
Commencement, 6/8/1953 (4)
French house, director Madame Jeanne Ragner, house staff, Sylvia
Hubacher and other students, 6/6-8/1953 (6)
Views of Oberlin, 6/6 and 6/9/1953 (4)
Business District (3)
Train Station (1)
Views of Oberlin College, 6/6-8/1953 (3)
Hall Auditorium with Sylvia and Roberts Family (1)
Finney Chapel (1)
Bosworth Hall (1)
Class of 1898 and Edward R. Murrow’s crew, 6/7/1953 (2)
RESTRICTED
Glass plate negatives (black and white), 4 x 6 in., June 1953 (24)
Commencement, 6/8/1953 (6)
French House, director Madame Jeanne Ragner, house staff, Sylvia
Hubacher and other students, 6/6-8/1953 (7)
Views of Oberlin, 6/6 and 6/9/1953 (6)
Business District (4)
Train Station (2)
Views of Oberlin College, 6/6-8/1953 (3)
Hall Auditorium with Sylvia and Roberts Family (1)
Finney Chapel (1)
Bosworth Hall (1)
Class of 1898 and Edward R. Murrow’s crew, 6/7/1953 (2)