students and professor Glenn Altschuler, at left, gather outside on campus for a discussion in the 1990s

Blue Skies, Good Vibes: Vintage Summery Photos, Part Two

Travel back to Big Red years past (again!) with more of these long-unseen campus images from the 1970s to the early 2000s

By Cornellians staff

A couple of weeks ago, we brought you a selection of vintage images of student life in summery weather, mined from Kroch Library’s Rare and Manuscript Collections. As promised, here is part two of these evocative, color-saturated photos from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

Stored as slides (many of them on glorious Kodachrome) they’ve never before been digitized—and likely have not been seen since the eras when they were shot.

And stay tuned: a dozen more images from this batch will run with an upcoming feature on alumni’s summertime memories.

As we noted in part one, we doubt that most of these photos were actually taken during the summer rather than the academic year. While some may have been captured during a summer session, we suspect that many derive from the very late spring or early fall semesters, when the Ithaca weather can be tantalizingly balmy.

Do you recognize anyone in these photos? Do you see your younger self? Let us know in the comments below!

students walk down the south edge of Libe Slope with McGraw Tower and Uris and Olin libraries in the background, 1986
two students sit and read on opposite sides of the base of the sundial on campus in a vintage color photo from the 1990s
two students sit in the grass with Barnes Hall in the background in 1972
several people hang out and chat outside the Olin Library entrance in 1974
four students walk near the Arts Quad in a vintage color photo from the 1990s
six student hang out on a North Campus lawn with Helen Newman Hall in the background in the 1990s
a student reads "American Government" outside by a tree, accompanied by a puppy chewing on a bone, in 1997
a student paints on the Arts Quad in 1990
students on the southeast side of the Arts Quad with Olin Library and McGraw Tower in the background, 1990–2000
photo of students crossing East Avenue on campus in the 1990s with the Arts Quad visible in the distance
a student relaxes in the grass, with the sundial visible in the distance in the 1990s
a student sits at the base of the Ezra Cornell statue in a vintage color photo from the 1990s
students on the grass above the Cornell Store next to Ho Plaza in a vintage image

(All images courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections.)

Published July 27, 2026

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