The point envenomed too!

Hamlet (actor Joseph Dellger, left) and Claudius (actor William Davis, right), of the Court Theatre’s 1979 production, face off in Hutchinson Courtyard. (Copyright 2024, The Chicago Maroon. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)

Let’s hang

In January 1942 Julius Lehrer, AB’42, JD’48, practices “chinning” (pull-ups) in the Physical Preparedness Program for Men. Started in 1942 after the government urged universities to step up physical education programs to save time in basic military training, the program involved a quarterly fitness test, plus optional conditioning courses for those whose fitness was found lacking. Classes included self-defense, wrestling, jumping, climbing, pushing, pulling, hiking, swimming, and volleyball. (Photography by Chicago Daily Times, UChicago Photographic Archive, apf3-02946, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Making headlines

Chicago Maroon staffers edit an issue in 1956. Front-page headlines that year included these and other teasers: “Mystery: Kimpton Theft Still Unsolved”; “Wash Prom Weekend Begins; Mint Julep Air Welcomes Alums”; “Pluto Not Planet UC’s Kuiper Finds”; “Dorms Full, Situation ‘Acute’”; “First Post-Terror Student Arrives Here from Hungary”; and “Are UC Girls Pretty?” Wrote for the Maroon? Write to us! Send your Maroon memories to uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by William M. Rittase, UChicago Photographic Archive, apf4-02634, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Eye to eye

In the Smart Museum of Art, an alumnus at the 1978 reunion views John, a painting by Chuck Close of the artist John Roy. What artwork at the Smart Museum entranced you? Share your Smart memories with us at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by Donald Rocker, UChicago Photographic Archive, apf3-02146, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Can you dig it?

Jane E. Buikstra, AM’69, PhD’72 (left), UChicago professor of anthropology from 1986 to 1995, works with visiting student Danielle Parks at a Middle Archaic (6000–2500 BC) floodplain cemetery north of Eldred, IL, in 1987. Today Buikstra is a professor of bioarchaeology and founding director of the Center for Bioarchaeological Research at Arizona State University. Did you work with Buikstra or conduct fieldwork while at UChicago? Send us a message at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by Keith Swinden, UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-09384, University of Chicago Library)

A sad tale’s best for winter

As part of the Summer Shakespeare Festival in August 2004, University Theater staged The Winter’s Tale in Hutchinson Courtyard. Susanna Gellert, AB’99, currently lecturer in directing at Yale, directed this production of one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays.” (Photography by Amber Lee Mason, AB’03)

Snow day

Students head outside for a snowball fight after the Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011, the third-largest storm in Chicago’s history. The quads were covered in a record 25 inches of snow, and 70 mph winds created shoulder-high snowdrifts. University staff worked 15- to 17-hour shifts to remove snow on campus. Classes were canceled for two days. What are your memories of “Snowmageddon” and Chicago winters? Send your snow stories to us at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by Dan Dry)