Photographs: Graduates and Former Students

Collection

Identifier: RG 32-003-001

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The photographs of graduates and former students are arranged in two series. A third series holds photographs of Oberlin community members associated in some way with the college.

Loose photographs of graduates and former college students in Series 1, Subseries 1 are arranged chronologically by graduating class, beginning with 1836. Files include photographs taken while students attended Oberlin and after they left. Many of the latter were taken during class reunions. Some students went on to become faculty or staff members at Oberlin College or received honorary degrees. Therefore, researchers should consult both this record group and that for Faculty, Staff, Trustees and Others, RG 32/3/2. Some photographs of students can be found in the student files in record group 28. See Related Materials for a list of other record groups that hold images of former students.

Series 1, Subseries 2 holds born digital photographs stored in the Archives digital archive. Subseries 3 holds oversize class portraits.

Series 2 contains photographs of Academy or Preparatory Department students, not students in the college.

Series 3 contains photographs of individuals who are neither former students nor graduates from Oberlin, filed in a card box.

Dates

Creation: 1836 to Present
Other: Date acquired: 1966

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Unrestricted.

Conditions Governing Use

Those photographs taken for the college as works for hire belong to the college outright. Photographs from the late twentieth century and later with stamps from photographic firms are more likely to have requirements as to credit lines or restrictions; consult the College Archivist.

Extent

17.80 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Method of Acquisition

Most of the student photographs were transferred from the Office of the Secretary in the early years of the Archives’ establishment in 1966. Student photographs have been received intermittently since that time, primarily from the Office of Communications and from private individuals.

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.

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.

Accruals and Additions

Accession No: May include 127, 128, 130, 133, 168, 175, 1986/010, 1986/029, 1987/069, 1988/101, 1989/026, 1989/037, 1989/064, 1989/078, 1989/101, 1991/140, 1991/052, 1991/140, 1993/052, 1995/019, 1999/119, 2001/022, 2010/083, 2011/005, 2011/032, 2013/012 and unaccessioned.