The digital archive from the repository library online that I chose to immerse myself into was the UCLA Historic Photographs. This photographic series shows UCLA through the years. The photos show UCLA’s experiences through construction projects, historical events, and daily life photos throughout the years (images below).
If I were asked to write a paper based on this archive, I would be able to tell the story of UCLA. I think that these photos are able to explain certain parts of UCLA’s history in a way that you can’t understand by simply taking a tour at school. For example, when one decides to take a UCLA tour, a lot of tour guides talk about the famous bridge from the late 1920’s. This bridge led to the plaza where we now find Royce Hall, Haines, Humanities, and Powell library. However, this archive allows you to explore this historical and architectural event by not only looking at the photos of the bridge, but also seeing the pictures of what it took to plant it, build it, and the look it gave to UCLA at that time (images below).
Another story that can be told through this series of photos is the daily life of the students and how they connect to nowadays. Below, we can see images associated with students receiving their student ID’s, a commencement ceremony, a sorority group, and three female friends skipping class to admire the unexpected snowfall.
I thought that these photos were very powerful in evoking the feeling of the stories that really mattered at UCLA. These photos show that although UCLA has gone through many changes over the years, it is still a symbol of higher education with a sense of home and family. When one goes through this series, one comes to embrace and fall more in love with UCLA and acquires a sense of pride to be a part of a chapter that will too leave many memories behind. It also allows one to feel as if though UCLA will never forget one’s footprint that we all leave at UCLA. As a senior graduating in few months, these feelings and thoughts linger in my head and create a sense of never-ending belonging to UCLA. These are the kind of memories and stories that one is able to acquire through these photos.
The only thing that I felt this series lacked was that it was actually small. I feel that there were many events that weren’t added on here. For example, on April 27, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. gave speech at UCLA. This event was documented through photographs, however it wasn’t added to this collection. It may be argued that it is because it is focused on a certain timeframe; however, this series of UCLA Historic photos contains photos up to the 1970’s. The best way to remedy this is by going back and creating an enhanced timeline of events, collect photos from other libraries, within and outside of UCLA, or even people with photos which they own. The more research that is done to this project, the more events and photographs it will have and actually be complete. I think that a photo series like this is important because as we immerse our lives with technology more and more, these digital projects are nowadays the photo albums that future generations will utilize to look back in history with. It is no longer the case where these photos can only be admired through a physical album book; it is now a digital archive that can be viewed by future students and UCLA members or spectators.
-Karla Contreras