Metalheads

This 1953 photo shows Charles S. Barrett, PhD’28, in his laboratory at the UChicago Institute for the Study of Metals (now the James Franck Institute). A research professor of metallurgy at the University for 25 years, Barrett was a pioneer in using X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy to analyze the structure of metals. (Photography by Weissner Studios, UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-09234, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Women of letters

Residents of Phoenix House, a women’s housing community in the 1940s, eagerly collect their mail in 1944. All University housing was single sex until the opening of New Dorm (later Woodward Court) in 1958, where women and men lived on separate floors, but under very different rules. Unlike their male classmates, female residents were subject to curfews (called “women’s hours”) and required to clean their own rooms (male students’ rooms were professionally cleaned each week). Restrictions such as curfews and limited coed visiting hours remained until the 1970s. Since 2011 the first undergraduate housing community in International House has borne the name “Phoenix House.” (UChicago Photographic Archive, apf4-02895, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Smooth operator

In this 1950 photo, an audio engineer with the “music for surgery” program (introduced in 1947) prepares the day’s selections in the duonetic recorder room that served the UChicago hospital system’s six major operating rooms and six preparation rooms. Music provided a soothing supplement to spinal, local, or regional anesthesia. The innovation had the added benefit of shielding patients from surgeons’ conversations during operations. Patients listened to their choice of “classical, semiclassical, or popular music.” (Children’s songs and stories were available for younger patients.) Would you rather listen to “Rag Mop” or “If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake” during your appendectomy? (You don’t really need to share your answer with us at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu.) (Photography by Town & Country Photographers, UChicago Photographic Archive, apf3-01138, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Knights of the square table

Students play chess in a common room of what was first dubbed the new men’s residence hall (“New Dorm” was already taken) in 1960, the year it opened. Officially named Pierce Hall in the spring of 1961, the residence hall was a home away from home for more than five decades of students until its demolition in 2013. In its place today stands Campus North, designed by innovative Chicago architect Jeanne Gang. What were common spaces in Pierce all about when you lived there? Write us at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by Albert C. Flores, EX’62; UChicago Photographic Archive, apf4-03440, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Beyond Barbarella

Jane Fonda spoke at UChicago in 1971 in protest of the Vietnam War. Students crowded into Cobb Hall’s Quantrell Auditorium for the event. The auditorium housed Doc Films at the time, and the chalkboards behind Fonda displayed upcoming screenings, one of which was Barbarella (1968). As Paul Preston, AB’72, AM’73, recalled in a letter to the Magazine, Fonda was not pleased to give this talk surrounded by reminders of the sexy sci-fi film she’d starred in three years before. When a student challenged her on her continued Hollywood career, Fonda responded that she was “only ripping off Hollywood for every penny I can get”—pennies needed to fund causes she supported. (Photography by Bruce Rabe, AB’74; Copyright 2023, The Chicago Maroon. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)

Through rose-colored glass

In this 1982 class, students learned about making stained glass from UChicago electrical engineer Harry Bostrom. With his wife, Doris, Bostrom repaired stained glass windows and doors around campus, including those of Robie House and Judd Hall. Other courses in the “Eclectic Ed” series, sponsored by the Student Activities Office, included doll making, vegetarian cooking, playing the Irish tin whistle, belly dancing, yoga, and, of course, aerobics. Did you take any nontraditional classes at UChicago? Share your memories with us at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (The more eclectic the better!) (Photography by Anna Yamada, EX’84; Copyright 2023, The Chicago Maroon. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)

Delicious debate

An excited crowd sets aside their differences after the 1994 Latke-Hamantash debate in Ida Noyes Hall. This past November, the debate returned in-person for the first time since 2019, filling Mandel Hall with merriment, ironclad arguments, and lots of noshes. What is the most memorable argument you heard in potato versus pastry debates of years past? What argument would you contribute to the debate? And, c’mon, you can tell us: What side are you on? Send your memories and opinions to uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. In the meantime, take a peek at Benjamin Lorch’s (AB’93, AM’04) film project on the debate at latkevshamantash.com. (Photography by Richard Kornylak, AB’95; Copyright 2023, The Chicago Maroon. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)

Rye2K

Time? The year 2000. Place? The sidewalk scene in front of Medici and University Market. A couple of years after this photo was taken, Medici opened its bakery; it’s still there to this day. We hunger to know your usual Medici order: uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by Wes Pope. Hyde Park/Kenwood, image 112, 38198100122249_06. Comer Archive of Chicago in the Year 2000 [University of Illinois at Chicago].)

Have photos from your UChicago days? The Magazine may be able to share them in Alumni News and in a future Snapshots. Send high-resolution scans and your memories of what the pictures are about to uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu.