University photographs: how colorful can we be?

A young woman wearing a leather coat and a knitted cap, controlling an observatory telescope while looking through the eyepiece.

It's hard to fight the perception that archives are filled with old things: dusty old elephant tails and black and white photographs. Now, old things can actually be great. Every day on my way to my office I walk by Tisch Library's black and white print, taken in 1930, of Dorothy Myers at a telescope. I love this image, and its age is part of what I love about it.

But I also love that we have recently taken in a large selection of the photos shot by the University Photography department between 2005-2010. Because as much as I love the dusty old things which are part of our mission, I also love the shiny, colorful things which are also part of our mission.

I just find this set of images so aesthetically pleasing.

A view over the books on one bookshelf to the spines of another shelf of bound periodicals. Inside Tisch Library.

Close-up of a colonial-style drum and the drummer's legs. Parents' Weekend, 2005. Senior Class Reception, 2005

Rows of Tufts University glasses filled with amber liquid, close-up. Senior Class Reception, 2005.

Somebody in an elephant costume stands next to a father holding a small boy.Tufts Community Day, 2005.

Close-up of a curious baby looking away from the out of focus speakers on a podium a few feet away. Naming ceremony for the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, 2005

A beam is lifted in the air by a crane, a pine tree on one side and an American flag on the other, covered in colorful signatures. The last major beam is lifted onto Sophia Gordon Hall after being signed by construction workers, 2005.