A History of Student Residences
The Yale Daily News posted pictures of student residences in the late 1800s and early 1900s, juxtaposed with current residences. The older photographs are part of an online exhibition curated by the Yale University Art Gallery. Though the black-and-white pictures don’t allow for a lot of detail, one can see well-appointed rooms with fancy rugs, full bookshelves and framed art on the walls.
Some of the present houses don’t compare so well; despite the color they add to the room, liquor bottles arranged along the mantel don’t have the panache of a well-mounted elk head. However, some of the present rooms look like cozy, comfortable spaces.
As we mentioned earlier in this blog, early residence hall rooms weren’t always so plush. At the first meeting of people who would later form ACUHO-I in 1949, housing directors discussed washers and dryers. Some felt a set was only necessary in women’s housing. Some only provided washers, but not dryers, for men. (Many men would have to share one washer.) I’m still puzzling over what the men did with their damp clothes; it doesn’t sound like a good situation to me.
What were the early residences like at your institution?
Tags: History