Teaching with Slides: The History of the Visual Resources Collection at Yale

Faculty

The slide library was a place of shared interests and rivalries, where the faculty worked side by side preparing lectures. When this photo (below) was taken in 1959 or 1960, you can see that most of the slides were still large-format lantern slides. 

From foreground, clockwise around table: Helen Chillman (with back to camera), Carroll L. V. Meeks, John D. Hoag, Charles Seymour Jr., and Vincent Scully. Standing: Marcel Rothlisberger (back to camera), Shirley Haupt (Yale Art Gallery staff), and Phyllis Reinhardt (Helen's predecessor as Art and Architecture Librarian).

Sample art history lecture outline from 1964 focused on "Mannerist and Baroque Painting." The outline includes a list of the slides used in lecture and their presentation order, and was handed out to the students at the beginning of class. 

The primary goal of the Visual Resources Collection and slide library staff was to serve the teaching needs of faculty in the art history department. Faculty were integral to building the collection, both through donations of their own teaching materials, and providing requests for acquisitions. The evolution of the Visual Resources Collection and services mirrors the changing landscape of teaching in art history, moving away from the analog slides to digital teaching formats. 

Slide Library, Street Hall, Yale University. The slide room, with faculty working at light tables around 1973.