members of the Big Red football team ready for a play, 1977

In Living Color: A Photographic Portal to a Past Cornell

Browse through another long-ago East Hill scrapbook, from a game of medicine ball on the Ag Quad to a Collegetown festival

Editor’s note: Do you have additional info on these images? Do you or anyone you know appear in them? Scroll down to leave a comment!

By Joe Wilensky

A few months back, we debuted our “Glorious to View” feature that showcased selections from a vast collection of little-seen color images stashed in the University Archives.

Most of the photos are from the 1960s through the 1980s, taken by official University photographers for a variety of publications and other one-time needs and have never been scanned or digitized before.

Scroll down for a look at another baker’s dozen of these windows into the past on the Hill. Some views remain familiar to this day, while others—like the photo that includes the famed tree stump that long served as a campus bulletin board and political canvas—have not been seen for decades.

students relax at the Temple of Zeus in Goldwin Smith Hall, surrounded by the plaster statues that used to be displayed there, 1967

A typical scene at the original Temple of Zeus café in Goldwin Smith Hall in 1967, watched over by some of the iconic statues from the College of Arts and Sciences’ Plaster Cast Collection.


Two female students walk past the famed stump near Willard Straight Hall in 1972

Students stroll past the legendary stump near Willard Straight Hall in 1972.


students play with a medicine ball on the Ag Quad in an undated image

An extra-large medicine ball is kept aloft by a group of students on the Ag Quad in this undated photo.


A typical fraternity dining hour is shown in an image from 1967

This image was described in the files as a “typical fraternity dining hour,” circa 1967—leave a comment below if you can identify the location!


Students study in Uris Library in 1984

There’s not a laptop or smartphone in sight as these students study in Uris Library in 1984.


Cotton candy is served in Collegetown during a spring festival in 1974

Cotton candy is served during a 1974 spring festival in Collegetown.


students gathered at the Olin Library information desk, 1983

Cornellians gather at the Olin Library information desk in 1983. (Today, the iconic numbered call board above the desk is being rewired for use as a clock as part of the library’s ongoing renovations.)


A student swings on a swing hung from a tall tree on the Arts Quad, 1975

For several years in the mid-late ’70s, a swing on the Arts Quad near Lincoln Hall (pictured here in 1975) was a popular attraction.


Big Red cheerleaders stand atop the shoulders of other students during a routine at Schoellkopf Stadium, 1984

Big Red cheerleaders show off their spirit (and stunts) during a routine in Schoellkopf Stadium in 1984.


Students gathered in a room in Willard Straight Hall, 1967

Students confab in an upstairs meeting room in Willard Straight Hall in 1967—complete with cigarettes and ashtrays on the table.


Two students relax in a dorm room with a sloped ceiling, 1984

Two students relax in a thoughtfully decorated sloped-ceiling dorm room in 1984. Comment below if you recognize the residence hall!


a dog relaxes near the entrance to a campus building with colorful ivy visible on a building in the background, 1983

No vintage Cornell collection of images would be complete without spotlighting the omnipresent campus dogs—this one seen here lounging happily in the fall of 1983.

Top: The Big Red football team on the line of scrimmage at Schoellkopf Field in 1977. (All images courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections.)

Published November 20, 2024


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