Histories & herstories: A photo tale of Ohio State

In 1927 — the year Charles Lindbergh completed his solo flight across the Atlantic — Weaver Aircraft Co. of Ohio flew a plane to the heart of campus. “For years there have been rumors of planes landing on the Oval,” Chute says. “This picture says, ‘Well, yes, as a matter of fact.’” Note the small child watching, someone chatting with the pilot, another photographer chronicling the event and the propeller spinning. Chute guesses it was a publicity stunt that still makes us look twice.

These student mechanics in a School of Military Aeronautics class in 1918 are an early example of Ohio State’s commitment to research, which began in earnest during World War I as part of the war effort, Chute says. The mechanical arts, which evolved into engineering, also were a pillar of the land-grant mission. Sanfilippo was drawn to the thinker in the center, chin in hand. “When I think about transmissions,” he says, “I don’t meditate on them quite as intensely.”

This operating room scene dates to 1917, just three years after the College of Medicine was established. The openness of the room, the public nature of an operation-in-progress, the lack of a sterile field — all of these startle us, but the tradition of hands-on learning connects the scene to the present. Chute and Sanfilippo appreciate that the surgeon, just left of the patient, appears to be in mid-lecture. Among the somber onlookers, the woman at right and the African American man at left are not out of place: Ohio State graduated its first woman doctor in 1915 and was open to all regardless of race or ethnicity from the beginning.

The Armory, was built in 1897 to house the military training required of male students at land-grant institutions. Some alumni may remember it as the place where physical education classes were held, though women’s classes like the one pictured here in 1903 moved to Pomerene Hall when it opened in 1922. The Armory burned in 1958, but today’s Wexner Center for the Arts — which stands in its place — pays tribute with contemporary echoes of its grand brick turrets.

Chute and Sanfilippo chose to begin the “Athletics and Sports” section with the undated photo of an archery class because they wanted to represent the breadth of athletic life at Ohio State, including its rich intramural and physical education offerings. They also like how it shows the many (some long-forgotten) uses of the grounds around the stadium. The crisp line of shadows and summer clothes convey a beautiful day in front of an open Horseshoe, before construction of the south stands closed it off.

This action shot from 1909 was taken at Ohio Field, near the intersection of Woodruff Avenue and High Street. The fellow being tackled appears to have lost his helmet, which back then would have offered minimal protection anyway, and the referee is recognizable by his familiar dash along the sideline. Speaking of headgear, take a look at the fans, with women in dress hats and men sporting top hats. “It was a formal activity,” Chute says. There were still some 13 years to go before the game would move to the ’Shoe.

The photos here are black and white, but student life was enduringly colorful. At left, a photographer documents 1955’s May Week festivities from an uncomfortable perch. For decades, May Week was a spring counterpart to Homecoming, with its own parades and court. Many alumni will remember the bed races, two of which are pictured in Time and Change. The tradition waned in the 1990s, and the semester schedule now makes a comeback unlikely. But May Week hung on long enough that the baby at bottom center could have experienced it as a student.

Breaking down the wooden goalposts after a football win — as seen here in the 1940s — was a common ritual. In fact, there’s a piece of one in University Archives, Chute reports, musing, “It must have been expensive for the school to keep replacing them.” Adds Sanfilippo, “There’s so much joy in their faces. That’s another commonality with the present — the delight and happiness that, after a big victory, everybody shares.“