Lehigh’s History Told in Negatives

The Lehigh University Special Collections team, with the help of its dedicated undergraduate student assistants, has recently digitized thousands of film negatives and uploaded these items to the extensive Lehigh Photographs digital collection. The team of student workers assigned with creating metadata for these images spent weeks individually going through thousands of photos in order to confirm identities, verify data, and ensure the images were properly digitized. There were hurdles along the way, such as receiving some images labeled under an ‘unidentified’ tag. The process of bringing this project to fruition was grueling yet rewarding as the process yielded substantial and intriguing knowledge on the history of Lehigh. Although many of the negatives were already identified, the team spent numerous days attempting to identify unknown persons and events that took place at Lehigh over fifty years in the past. By scouring Lehigh’s archival resources, including the Epitome Yearbooks from the years 1965-1970, the student researchers were able to properly catalog the missing information. Among the thousands of images given to the department there were some hidden gems that showcased the rich culture and history of the university. Explore these selections and over 24,000 other historic images of Lehigh at the Libraries’  Digital Collections Repository.

The image above shows the 1980’s Festival of the arts production of Frankenstein, which centered on a 19th century theme. The images also shows the two actors who were cast as the main leads of the play. 

This image, originally used in Lehigh’s 1965 annual report, shows the exterior of Linderman Library taken from the front of the University Center. Notice any differences? In 1965, Linderman featured its own parking lot. But this image is not like the rest, it is a positive rather than a negative. While a positive image is the type of photograph that most people are familiar with, an original negative image is inverted. For instance, light areas will appear dark and dark will appear as light when working with negative images. For these reasons, special equipment like light boxes must be used when viewing negatives.

This negative image features Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and critically acclaimed author. His memoir Night showcased the horrors of the Nazi death camp where he was held for almost a year. Wiesel was also the 142nd commencement speaker at Lehigh in 2010, just six years before his death.

This 1980’s image shows the dynamic learning environment Lehigh has always created for the students. Lehigh University fosters education and community through programs such as this field research initiative that allowed students to assist  in a field survey of a local body of water.