Below is the text of an email exchange between Uni­ver­sity Archivist Dan Linke and David Nathan ’90 con­cern­ing a por­tion of the Archives’ stere­o­graph collection.

Hi Dan,

Here’s a list­ing with all the infor­ma­tion I obtained yes­ter­day, faith­fully tran­scribed from the backs of the His­tor­i­cal Pho­to­graph Col­lec­tion: Stere­o­graphs Series, circa 1869–1880. The only thing I omit­ted is a font issue — some titles appeared in all caps — and the repeat­ing infor­ma­tion about “Col­lege of New Jer­sey”, “R.H. Rose”, etc. Any idea where I might look for the miss­ing cards?

Regards,

David L. Nathan, M.D.

Stere­oview Series of the Col­lege of New Jer­sey, pho­tographed by R. H. Rose, circa 1876–1878

Com­piled by David L. Nathan, Class of 1990

May 6, 2009

No. Cap­tion on reverse of card

1. Nas­sau Hall. / Built in 1756. Burned and rebuilt in 1802 and 1855. Orig­i­nal front, 175 ft.; front with tow­ers, 200 ft.

2. Rear of Nas­sau Hall.

3. The President’s House. / Erected in 1756.

4. Geo­log­i­cal Hall. / For­merly Library Hall. Dimen­sions 68 x 33 feet.

5. East Col­lege. / Erected in 1833. Dimen­sions 112 x 36 ft.

6. West Col­lege. / Erected in 1836. Dimen­sions 112 x 36 ft.

7.

8. Hall of the Amer­i­can Whig Soci­ety. / Erected in 1838. Dimen­sions 40 x 68 ft.

9. The Chapel. / Erected in 1847. Dimen­sions. — Length of Nave, 83 ft. Transept, 53 ft. Width of Nave, 33 ft.

10. Reunion Hall. / Erected in 1870. Dimen­sions 125 x 40 ft.

11.

12.

13. The Chan­cel­lor Green Library. / Erected in 1872–3. Dimen­sions — Front, 160 ft. Depth Main Build­ing, 72 ft.

14. Dick­in­son Hall. / Erected in 1870. Dimen­sions 152 x 58 ft.

15.

16. Bul­letin Elm. / Show­ing part of East Col­lege, Nas­sau Hall and Chapel.

17. Avenue Look­ing West. / From rear of Dick­in­son Hall, show­ing rear of Chapel and East College.

18. Gen­eral view of build­ings. / Depot and Cars in the foreground.

19. Avenue to Whig Hall. / Show­ing part of Nas­sau Hall and East College.

20. Avenue to Clio Hall. / Show­ing part of Nas­sau Hall.

21. Rear view of Reunion Hall and West Col­lege and part of Gymnasium.

22. Front Cam­pus. / From President’s Res­i­dence, show­ing School of Sci­ence, Dick­in­son Hall and part of Library.

23. Foot Ball on East Campus.

24.

25.

26. Pres­i­dents’ Graves.

27. Aaron Burr’s Mon­u­ment. / Show­ing graves of Pres­i­dent Burr on right and Edwards on the left.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32. Model of a Swiss Vil­lage. In E. M. Geo­log­i­cal Museum.

33. Inte­rior of Library.

34. Inte­rior of Gymnasium.

35.

36. E. M. Geo­log­i­cal Museum. /Megatherium cuvieri. No. 23 Ward series Casts of Fos­sils. Remounted by Franklin C. Hill, Curator.

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Hi David,

Thanks for this list­ing. I don’t have many sug­ges­tions for you except to keep an eye on eBay for the miss­ing cards. Now remind me of your logic in dat­ing the series. We know it has to be from 1875 or later because of the “Franklin C. Hill, Cura­tor” note on Card 36. (He was act­ing cura­tor start­ing in 1875 and cura­tor in 1876.) But did you not have another bit of evi­dence to cap it around 1878?

Best,

Dan

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Hi, Dan,

The logic of the “1876–1878″ dat­ing is:

1. Franklin C. Hill was act­ing Cura­tor 1875–6, then Cura­tor from 1876 on. I assumed Rose wouldn’t have listed him if he were in a tem­po­rary job.

2. There are two ref­er­ences to the President’s House. One is an image of Maclean House, and the other is a view “from the President’s House” evi­dently across the Front Cam­pus, from Maclean House to the east. Maclean House was known as the President’s home until 1878, when Prospect became the president’s home.

3. It is clearly a coher­ent series, with no evi­dence that it was pro­duced piecemeal.

If the miss­ing stere­oviews could be located, then we might be more con­fi­dent about the dat­ing. Let’s stay on the lookout!

Regards,

David