Historic Images From the Archives

by Tom Runge • November 23, 2015

From the Archives
By Beth Swift, Archivist

The month of December seems like a good time to highlight one of the Ramsay Archives’ best online projects, the Historic Images Collection. This project contains over 800 images and is wide ranging. If you find yourself with some spare time in the next month, go to this link: http://cdm15705.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/wabhist

There you will see loads of interesting old photographs from the Archives collection. Type in the word aerial and you will see five different views of campus including this one:

http://cdm15705.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/wabhist/id/852/rec/5

Clearly used for planning Baxter Hall, the ink outline shows just where it was later built. Also in this same photo we see Forest Hall next to the brand new Martindale dormitory. There is no Ball Theater, no McCanliss Athletic Center with its swimming pool, later to be the Allen Center, no Thomas Hall attached to Waugh, later torn down to build the new science building, Hays Hall . A nice bonus to this online collection is the ability the user has to zoom in on an image.

On the following pages are a few highlights of the gems in this collection.

In this season of Football championships, perhaps some old football images are of interest:

http://cdm15705.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/collection/wabhist/page/8

This page features many past teams including that of 1884. This team’s only game was against Butler and won by Wabash. Look at the picture and note that next to it is the back side of the image with the team members listed and the story of the victory, all courtesy of Max Servies [W1958]. Here is Max’s description of that game, “Intercollegiate Football Comes to the Midwest. On Saturday, October 25, 1884, Wabash defeated Butler 4-0 in the first intercollegiate football contest ever played west of the Alleghenies. Wabash had accepted the challenge to play Butler at the Indianapolis Base Ball Park on Seventh Street. In a game that bore little resemblance to what we would see today in Little Giant Stadium, Jesse Taber, city-wide and campus-wide lawn tennis champion, scored all four goals. Although Butler refuses to enter this game in its record books, an account of the contest can be found in an article by A.J. Stott published in Indiana Football. The student newspaper The Lariat reported on the contest in its November 24 edition.”

Here is a beauty of a picture of the original Scarlet Inn:

http://cdm15705.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/wabhist/id/64/rec/260

Located just where the SE corner of the Sparks Center is now. That is old Forest Hall which served as both dining hall and dormitory before it was moved to build the Campus Center. As a side note, the lean-to seen in the picture above is now the garage behind the Caleb Mills House. It was moved there to house Frank Hugh Sparks’ Cadillac out of the weather.

In this online collection, there are many images of Forest Hall in various states of repair, in various locations and at different times of the year.

Click on this page to see several images of the V-12 program at Wabash: