This week’s mail brought a new gift to the Archives — panoramic photographs from 1943 of a class of airmen taking training at Davidson College. They were class 7 of the Army Special Training Program (ASTRP). We can only identify one of the men in the photograph but we have the names of all the men who participated in the training courses.
William Randolph is on the front row, fifth from the right.
The photos are in good condition but showing one of the hazards of oversize photographs – some fold lines. We are grateful to have these photos as we do not have much documentation for the Army trainees who spent came to campus for 12 week sessions. Some of their courses were taught by Davidson faculty, others by military personnel.
The earliest panoramic photograph in our collection dates from 1917.
Davidson student body in 1917.
We haven’t done a headcount to see if all 394 students made it to the photo shoot that day. The buildings behind the students include Old Chambers and the YCMA/Morrison Hall. Both buildings are gone from campus. The camera technology of the era distorts the geography but still gives a good sense of the look of the college.
Most of our panoramic photos come from the 1917-1929 period and many of them are of student-soldiers.
G Company of the Davidson’s ROTC students, pose for a picture in uniform in front of their tents at Camp McClellan in Alabama in 1923.
We have more images of SATC and ROTC activities through yearbooks and student scrapbooks taken both on campus and at summer camps.
Our one athletic panoramic was made off-campus – at a college with a larger stadium. The original image isn’t clear enough to read all the information on the scoreboard beyond the advertisement for the Howard Theater. The team played games at Georgia Tech, Richmond, Va, Greenville, SC and at Wearn field in Charlotte – any guesses which place this is?
Varsity football team in 1921.
The oldest of the panoramics in our collection is from 1955.
Davidson students and faculty on 8 March 1955.
If everyone is present, there are 845 students and 63 faculty arranged in front of the Chambers Building. College staff are not included in the photograph. One year later, and one woman could have been included as a faculty member — Carolyn MacBrayer. It’s hard to imagine such a formal portrait today of students and faculty -the number of ties worn regularly to campus has dropped considerably in the last decades. Even with ties and suits, today’s wide-angle lens would capture find a much less homogeneous group.
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