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Echoes of the Past
The Western Washington University community has faced extraordinary challenges in 2020. Conditions of pandemic, racial injustice and economic crisis have forced many of us to abandon long-standing plans as well as deeply held assumptions.
Part of Heritage Resources’ mission is to serve as “memory keepers” for the Western community: to empower people to draw on the lessons of the past, and to preserve the experience of this unique time for future generations. We do this through articles like “‘Contagious Vigor’: Public Health Crises in Western’s Early Years,” (Heritage Highlights, Vol. 8, Issue 1), which featured material from the 1918-1919 pandemic that halted on-campus learning, and “Telling Our Stories: Western's Response to COVID-19,” a collecting initiative to chronicle this moment through a diversity of voices.
Even in – especially in – unprecedented times, we turn to archives for wisdom and warning, insight, inspiration, and perhaps a dose of humility. In that spirit, July’s Selection of the Month is a marriage of past and present. During the spring quarter, Western Today has featured a Photoblog by Office of University Communications Visual Journalism interns Cody Clark and Hannah Gordon-Kirk, documenting the online-learning campus experience and “Western's resilience and sense of community in the face of the coronavirus crisis.”
We have paired images and captions from the Spring Quarter Photoblog with published material from Western’s past (accessible online through the MABEL platform). How do these texts speak to one another? Can the voices of the past be heard echoing in contemporary images? What might emerge out of these conversations across time?
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Western Today Spring Quarter Photoblog, April 17, 2020 In the image above by Hannah Gordon-Kirk, Carly Lant, a Multidisciplinary Studies major from Bainbridge, takes a break from rollerblading around the South Hill neighborhood. Lant is a member of the Dead Parrots Society and rows for the WWU women’s team. When she is not on stage or in a boat, Lant is blading around town. "Blading is like breathing, I can’t live without it,” she said. |
Weekly Messenger, October 12, 1918 On October 8, 1918, Normal School suspended classes to fight the spread of influenza. Then, as now, students took to the outdoors: “The scramble through the woods, and over rocks and water was immensely enjoyed. For speed in getting over rough places, Miss Cummins and Miss Earhart are the winners. Many ‘Dorm’ girls were present, as well as others from nearby houses.” |
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Western Today Spring Quarter Photoblog, April 23, 2020 In the image above by Hannah Gordon-Kirk, Max Hunt, an English major from Oakland, California, plays a morning tune on his twelve-string guitar. Hunt is taking spring quarter off to focus on his work and music. |
Weekly Messenger, November 30, 1918 The campus quarantine ended on November 18, 1918. Twelve days after classes resumed, the Weekly Messenger, forerunner of the Western Front, published this brief item— definitive evidence that Western students have been strumming on porches since at least 1918. |
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Western Today Spring Quarter Photoblog, June 4, 2020 In the photo above by Hannah Gordon-Kirk, Western students Sophia Regimbal and Claire Howerton peacefully protest on the corner of Chestnut and Railroad. |
“But two Western students who do feel the campus will be safer with armed police are Camy Broom and Lisa Crossler.” “‘Police should carry weapons because if something did arise, they should be able to protect themselves and others,’ Broom said. ‘The way society is going police need to have guns,’ Crossler said.” |
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Western Today Spring Quarter Photoblog, June 5, 2020 The photo above by Hannah Gordon-Kirk shows one of many recently painted bricks on Western’s campus; the message is in honor of Breonna Taylor, who would have turned 27 today. |
“‘Others will walk in the path you’ve created,’ Western ceramics professor Patrick McCormick told his ceramics students, as he has every quarter for the past 33 years. ‘Not only literally, but the information that you left you can pass on.’” |
Recent images from Western Today Spring Quarter Photoblog. Historical material from Western Front Historical Collection, available through MABEL.
Written by David Schlitt, Judaica Project Archivist and Interim Special Collections Manager.