blast from the past -- century-old denison postcards

i have a pile of things to be scanned and blogged about that reaches almost to the ceiling -- old ads, original 128k mac manuals, lots of snapshots from the pre-digital days ... and i never get around to doing it.

but in the past few weeks, i've secured a brand-new mac pro with like a bazillion gigs of RAM, and while setting it up, i decided to attach the ol' flatbed and start some scanning.

first up: old postcards of denison university ... at one time, before the nostalgia for campus days completely wore off, i would troll ebay and look for denison items. invariably i'd find tons of stuff from denison, texas, and from some harlot author named janelle denison. i did manage to find some old postcards, with the intention of ... well, i can't say what my intention was at the time. it's just a weakness -- in finding URLs for this post, i was on ebay and almost bid on a pennant from 1918.

sigh.

science hall, originally uploaded by pr9000.

if memory serves, this is now called barney-davis hall. it was barney when i was there, and was the science building at the time. i have heard, though i don't really know for sure, that it's now administrative offices. it had the old, creaky wood floors, though i was only in there about three times in four years (and most of those were to see one person).

and when i say "if memory serves" i mean "i have been looking at this because i can't remember for shit anymore."

doane, originally uploaded by pr9000.

doane hall was originally called doane academy, and according to my trusty copy of "heritage and promise: denison 1831-1981," doane was built in 1892 to house students, college offices and a big-ass chapel. as is the case with most colleges, the administrative needs grow like weeds -- i would imagine the administration took the building over in 1893.

doane had gorgeous offices, especially for the president on the second floor. michele myers was president during my time there; my roommate, best friend, bullsheet editor and all-around procrastination teacher john had the biggest crush on that woman's voice -- not her body, not her face (though she was cute and perky), just her accent. the mere mention of her name still makes john blush.

she'd meet with the campus media editors once a week, to help manage the stories we were reporting. for the most part, she did a great job, as the campus media had no teeth. i still kick myself thinking of all the real news that i knew about, but never ever reported ... drug busts, sexual assaults, an underground klan-esque group of fraternity boys, professors diddling with co-eds -- denison had it all. too bad most students never knew about it, or only knew very little (and even that through rumor and innuendo).

faculty, originally uploaded by pr9000.

these postcards all come from a professor named a.a. griffa. i have to scour the book to see if he's mentioned; there is no index. damn you, g. wallace chessman, denison historian!

burton, originally uploaded by pr9000.

burton, i think, houses music. i took a guitar class there once. it's either music or dance -- i'm voting music, but only because i don't remember staring at dancer babes in that building. i stared at (insert discipline/major here) babes a lot -- lots of staring, very little touching.

talbot, originally uploaded by pr9000.

there is something called the " Samson Talbot Hall of Biological Science" but this ain't that ... at least, i don't think. there was a bunch of work done in that area between the west quad and the academic quad not long after i graduated. at one time, building 12 was woods and a few parking spots.

isn't it sad how little i remember of campus? it's only been a decade.