Photographs of William H. Danforth

William H. Danforth with two unidentified men in front of Danforth Chapel.Danforth Chapel fund directors.

In the front row, left to right, are: President I. D. Weeks, William H. Danforth, and Miss Grace Beede. Standing, left to right, are: the Rev. G. Thomas Fattaruso, director of University religious activities, R. D. Falk, Joan Vaughn, Martin Weeks Jr., Professor H. E. Brookman, and Professor Grace E. Burgess.I. D. Weeks, Rev. G. Thomas Fattaruso, Grace Beede, William H. Danforth, Joan Vaughn, and H. E. Brookman pictured inside of Danforth Chapel.William H. Danforth with three unidentified women.I. D. Weeks and William H. Danforth.I. D. Weeks, William H. Danforth inside Danforth Chapel.

Today has been an exciting day in the Archives and Special Collections department! We have digitized pictures of William H. Danforth, the man who partially funded the Danforth Chapel. These photographs, aside from the group portrait which was shown in the September 21^st, 1954 issue of The Volante, may not have been printed from the negatives or shared before.

“The chapel, a place for quiet personal meditation, will not be used for denominational purposes, but will be open for every student’s use, regardless of faith.” — Danforth

Happy identifying,

Sophia

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The ear knows

 

 

 

Being new to the game of archives and special collections, I have found myself thrown into the whirl of digi specs, local subjects, date hidden, date original, and many other fields that I am to decode from yearbooks and faces and, with luck, information written on the sleeve of the negative. This job has taken me and transported me to a different time in USD history as well as a different time in the scheme of history. The identification of images and more importantly faces was a skill that I was unfamiliar with; looking for certain facial markers and hairlines is something that at first I thought was easy because, scientifically speaking, everyone has a unique face, but being thrust into the 1950’s looking at faces in sometimes blurry yearbook photos has given me a new appreciation for the Digital Library of South Dakota and how many photos have been identified. One photo that really gave me a run for my money was this one of Mary Mumford- Miss Dakota 1953 and Don Egert of KUSD. Luckily 1954 was written on the sleeve, giving me some bearing as to where to start. Second finding out who Mary was somewhat of a challenge, she kept showing up in photos different places around USD and so I went hunting in the 1954 yearbook and lo and behold I found her in the warm gray pages, smiling brightly for her glamor shot. Then came to the man sitting next to her smiling brightly, I then went through the sports section thinking maybe he was a football player and they were sweethearts or maybe he was from a fraternity. After that I sat puzzled as to who this mystery man was, then the background of the photo came into focus for me, those tiles on the walls looked oddly familiar to ones I had seen in a previous photo of Mary at the KUSD studio. AHA! I then thought of the KUSD team. Lucky strike! A man with a similar hairline and jawline was pictured speaking into the microphone with a group of other young ladies. But I was unsure as to if for certain these two photos were of the same gentlemen. First look is the hairline as well as the part in the hair-a match. Second, is the eyebrows, shape, thickness, color, and arch-an almost match, but the expression was different in the photos giving the eyebrows different shapes and arches. Then I moved onto exposed wrists or ankles-weird I know-but they are easy to identify and are unique to individuals-a match. But I still had an air of hesitance to call this man Don Egert. Something just did not seem to click in my mind, there was a red flag going off somewhere in my mind. The identification of this image came down to the curvature of his ear-the curve of the helix, shape of the lobe, as well as the shape of the conch were perfect matches. I was hunched over the 1954 yearbook, magnifying glass in hand, intently comparing ear shape between the computer screen and book. To the outsider I must have look like a lunatic, but it can come down to the shape of the ear when identifying images. But as I settle into my job as a metadata enterer-fancy sounding I know-I find that looking insane and getting frustrated all lead to getting a solid identification of an image, which at the end of the day is what it is all about.
Happy identifying, Sophia

 

 

 

 

 

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