Across the line: Notre Dame's million images

1850s–present — the University Archives' photograph collection

The boundary stated: The University of Notre Dame stands in the unincorporated Notre Dame community north of the city, not in South Bend itself, and its photographic record is covered here at survey size for that reason — the university's own file carries its history whole. What belongs to this record is the scale of the institution that has photographed beside the city for a century and three quarters. The University of Notre Dame Archives' photograph collection holds over one million images, the earliest from the 1850s — within a decade of the city's own first daguerreian. Its named holdings map the whole life of the place: the Notre Dame Life Photograph Collection, running from about 1867 to the present with its bulk in 1950–1979; Notre Dame Scrapbook A, about 1867–1879, mostly the work of professional and studio photographers; the Glass Plate Negatives Collection of the 1870s–1900s, some of them probably made for the 1893 Columbian Exposition; the Charles M. Carey Photographs, 1908 to the 1940s; and the Grover Miller Scrapbooks, 1912–1916, the amateur and student side. The university kept its own photographers as an office: the University Photographer Records in the Archives date from 1948, and the Archives' own page records that the University Photographer's Office is now defunct — the function lives on, under other roofs, in the two entries that follow. One photographer's archive stands in the collection under his own name: the Richard (Dick) Stevens Photographs, 1960–1982 — negatives, contact sheets and prints of university events, student life, campus buildings, academics, sports, alumni, faculty and staff.

Sources:

1. University of Notre Dame Archives (archives.nd.edu), photograph collections page (updated 7 October 2014) — over one million images, the earliest from the 1850s; the Notre Dame Life Photograph Collection (c. 1867–ongoing, bulk 1950–1979); Scrapbook A (c. 1867–1879); the Glass Plate Negatives Collection (1870s–1900s; some probably for the 1893 Columbian Exposition); the Charles M. Carey Photographs (1908–1940s); the Grover Miller Scrapbooks (1912–1916); the University Photographer Records from 1948; the University Photographer's Office defunct.
2. University of Notre Dame Archives, ArchivesSpace — Richard Stevens Photographs (identifier RST), 1960–1982: negatives, contact sheets and prints of university life.