49
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(IOWA CITY COLLEGE)
Handsome cyanotype album compiled and, apparently, photographed, by Harry A. Little, Class of
‘08, with more than 105 photographs arranged in two parts: the first features 39 cyanotypes of the
campus and surroundings of Iowa City College, “the Athens of Iowa.”The pictures are sequenced
in such a way that the viewer is introduced to the site: a view of the church, Central Hall, and
Engineering Hall open the narrative.We “approach” the campus from railroad tracks, to barns. From
there the Creamery, Greenhouse, Agricultural Hall, Margaret Hall and the Library are in close
proximity. Class and dorm room pics are shown as well as “an excursion day” parade with loads of
students amidst horsedrawn carriages; later photographs depict seasonal changes in the campus, with
the final image (“The End”) of a large tent and graduation(?) festivities. The second half of the
album concentrates on Little’s family (including cyanotypes of a child’s wedding); a group portrait
of former students “twenty years after” and a wonderful theatrical image, which concludes the album.
Cyanotypes (42), 5x7 inches (12.7x17.8 cm.), and smaller, and silver prints (70), various sizes from
4x3 inches (10.2x7.6 cm.), and smaller, several with handwritten notations on the album page. 4to,
leatherette; soiled; joints starting. 1904-1928
[400/600]
Although albums associated with recording family histories were generally considered women’s work,
Little was a talented photographer who took great pride in recording his school. His very neat calligraphic
handwriting appears in a poem on the title page, written many years later, which captures his warm
feelings about his college days:
When the woes of life o’er take us;
Mingling fast our locks with gray;
When our dearest hopes betray us —
False fortune turns away,
Then we’ll banish care and sadness
By recalling days of old —
Days of toil and gladness
’Neath the cardinal and gold.
