Exhibition curated by Judith Dartt, Special Collections Research Center Digital Projects Specialist.
The visual history of the University of Chicago is preserved in more than 60,000 images in the University Archives Photographic Files. A project to preserve and digitize these files is currently under way. On view is a selection from this rich collection documenting individuals, buildings, activities, and events associated with the University, dating back to the pre-Civil War period founding of the Old University of Chicago. The exhibition displays a variety of photographic formats, including the cyanotype, carte-de-visite, and dry plate negative, and highlights recent publication of Photofiles images in works on civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, physicist Enrico Fermi, and ecological researchers of the University of Chicago Department of Botany.