Photographs: Panorama and Other Rolled Photographs

Collection

Identifier: RG 32-011

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

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.

Dates

Creation: 1868-1954
Creation: Majority of material found in 1906-1940
Other: Date acquired: 1966

Creator

Oberlin College (Organization)
various (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Rolled photographs in Subgroup II restricted pending conservation.

Conditions Governing Use

Subgroup II is restricted.

Extent

12.40 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Method of Acquisition

Most of the photographs were transferred from the Office of the Secretary in the early years of the Archives’ establishment in 1966. 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. Sometimes photographers’ names appear stamped or inscribed on the front or backs of prints. 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). The two Princehorns can be seen taking a all-college panorama portrait with a mechanized camera in a college film from 1927 in Moving Images RG 57/1; this film has been copied to DVD. Two panoramas of Hangzhow, China came to Oberlin College from a former student and missionary to China in the early 20^th century. They were transferred from the Art Library in the 2010s.

Accruals and Additions

Accession Nos: Unaccessioned and 2009/053, 2009/072, 2013/027.

Related Materials

For framed panorama photographs, see the record group for Paintings, Drawings, Prints, and Other Framed Items (RG 40). See also Oversize Photographs (32/10).