Photograph Albums Collection

Collection — Container: boxes

Identifier: RG 32-007

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Photograph Albums Collection comprises albums or album contents dating from 1861 to 2000. Fifteen of these date from the 19^th century, with cartes-de-visite, collotypes, tintypes, cabinet cards, postcards, cyanotypes, and other early prints. Cyanotypes dominate the contents of albums dating from 1900 to 1910, typically taken by Oberlin students themselves. From the 1920s to the 1960s several College-produced albums feature quality gelatin silver prints made by the College photographers, father and son Arthur Ludwig Princehorn and Arthur Ewing Princehorn.

The most common type of album in the collection are those created by students with snapshots of friends in dormitories, athletics, theatrics, and other activities, as well as College buildings and outings to natural areas. Some notable exceptions are a Civil War album by a former Oberlin Academy student with photographs by nationally known photographers; an album of “volunteers” or missionaries to China from the class of 1886; the album of the Japanese Student Club; the Oberlin Ambulance Unit album; the Oberlin Centennial album; the Oberlin College V-12 Unit album; and an album devoted to the proposed Kulas Organ Center within the 1963 Conservatory building by Yamasaki, which includes architectural drawings.

Another exception to the rule in this collection is a dis-bound album of oversized, black and white photographs taken at Oberlin College by Life Magazine photographer Bill Ray in 1970. Life published a photo essay, “An Intimate Revolution in Campus Life,” on November 20, 1970 on Oberlin’s new dormitory policy, which permitted students to visit each other at all hours. The album contains some of the photographs in the essay, and many more that were not; it was presented to the College in gratitude for its participation. Life also gifted photographs to one and possibly more of the subjects of the essay. The copyright to these photographs is held by Time Inc., and thus they cannot be copied or reproduced without their permission. (The published issue is available in RG 21 Oberlin File, Subgroup 5B, Oversize Box 1).

Dates

Creation: 1861 - 2000
Creation: Majority of material found within 1890 - 1920
Other: Date acquired: 05/13/1968

Creator

various (Person)
Princehorn, Arthur Ewing (Person)
Cooke, Frank T. (Cooke, Frank Toffey) (Person)
Princehorn, Arthur Ludwig (Person)
Brady, Mathew B. (Person)
Gardner, Alexander (Person)
Carbutt, John (Person)
Platt, Henry Martin (Person)
Platt, Alfred Cowles (Person)
Ray, Bill (Person)

Extent

47.37 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement Note

Listed in rough chronological order.

Method of Acquisition

The photograph albums were nearly all transferred from individuals to the College. College-produced albums are the exception, such as the College Centennial album of 1933, the album on the Navy V-12 Unit, and the album on the Kulas Organ Center in the Conservatory. The Life Magazine album arrived from an unknown source from a campus office in 2015.

Accruals and Additions

Accession Nos: 38, 72, 88, 109, 115, 122, 127, 128, 133, 207, 222, 1978/36, 1978/43, 1980/17, 1982/19, 1983/33, 1984/26, 1987/9, 1987/74, 1987/89, 1989/191, 1990/12, 1992/13, 1993/27, 1993/28, 1995/019, 1998/14, 1999/130, 2000/4, 2001/98, 2001/108, 2002/4, 2003/56, 2007/83, 2009/30, 2009/31, 2010/45, 2011/45, 2013/70, 2015/30, 2015/32, 2017/53, 2017/63, 2018/43, 2019/001, 2019/010, 2020/002..

Related Materials

Photograph albums exist within other collections, particularly RG 15, Oberlin Shansi Memorial Assocation Records and RG 32/3 Class Albums. See also RG 19/4/3 Student Life: Scrapbooks. For record groups related to photographers represented in the photograph albums, see the Frank T. Cooke Papers (RG 30/287) and the Princehorn Family Papers (RG30/416). See also the Enid Bancroft Sutton Swan Papers (RG 30/465) for Ecology Trip albums.