Bring Chatham to Your Zoom Room
In case you hadn’t already heard, Zoom backgrounds are all the rage in our newly virtual way of working, learning, and socializing, and Chatham Archivist, Molly Tighe, is leading the charge at Chatham. Molly recently created a collection of archival Chatham images that students, faculty, and staff can download and use as their background in Zoom meetings—she was even featured in Bloomberg for it.
“I had been thinking, when pulling together the images, that it could be fun for students who are connecting to each other socially on Zoom to feel like they’re in a slightly different version of campus or for alums to reconnect with each other in a setting that draws upon their shared experience as students.”
We asked Molly to take us on a deeper dive into some history behind five of these historic Chatham shots. Read on for Molly’s wide-ranging Chatham history lesson (and potentially your new Zoom background)—
Old Berry Hall Dormitory (1885-1886)
This Old Berry Hall room was occupied for the 1885-1886 academic year by Martha Fergus O'Neil (vocals), Mary Wolverton Arthurs, Jean W. Acheson (piano), and Jane C. McDonald. At the time of their attendance, the music program at the Pennsylvania Female College was gaining local and national recognition. Jean Acheson, who hailed from Denison, Texas, was particularly well-known for her virtuosity on the piano.
Outdoor Class at Library (c. 1982-1983)
Emily Cohen, Assistant Professor of Communications, leads an outdoor class on the sunlit quad. The study of communications expanded at Chatham in the early 1970s, with new courses that examined the history of media communications and emphasized the role of television in politics.
May Day (1907)
A composite photograph overlooking the annual May Day festivities. The school magazine, The Sorosis, described the planned activities: "The exercises are to be opened by the grand march from the chapel to the campus, ending with the crowning of the May Queen, Cornelia Bullock. Among the other features of interest are various songs by the school, the May Pole dances of the College and Dilworth Hall girls… conducted by fairies."
Lindsay Hall (c. 1911)
The Board of Trustees voted to build Lindsay House on Woodland Road for President Lindsay and his family in 1909. The Lindsay family moved into the house in 1910 and paid a rent of 5% the cost and insurance on the house. It served as the house of the College President until 1945 and was called “Coolidge Hall” for a number of years. According to the student newspaper, the Board of Trustees once decided to destroy the house, but a campus nurse petitioned to save it for use as an infirmary.
Berry Hall Science Lab (c. 1915-1916)
Mary Bidwell Breed, class of 1889, wrote of her time as a science faculty member, “The chemistry and physics laboratory work was comparatively easy to handle, as there was already a fair supply of apparatus, but I recall how I ransacked Squirrel Hill for biological specimens, toiling around on a bicycle on what was then open country up there, with ponds and swamps, where the rich now have their mansions.”
Special thanks to Molly Tighe and the Chatham University Archives & Special Collections.
To see all of the backgrounds and download your favorite, check out the Chatham History Virtual Meeting Collection. Do you have an idea for a Chatham scene or setting that you don’t see there? Molly is open to suggestions from the Chatham community, just let her know!
