AT A GLANCE
“Find Yourself in the 1970s: Snapshots of Life at Bridgewater College”
When: On display Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024–Monday, March 31, 2025.
Where: Robert R. Newlen ’75 & John C. Bradford Special Collections, lower level of the John Kenny Forrer Learning Commons
Hours: The exhibition is open from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays; 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays; and noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays.
Cost: Free and open to the public.
The Robert R. Newlen ’75 & John C. Bradford Special Collections at Bridgewater College will display an exhibition highlighting life at the College throughout the 1970s from Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, to Monday, March 31, 2025.
Curated by Special Collections Librarian Stephanie Gardner and Special Collections intern Alex Thompson ’25, the exhibition, “Find Yourself in the 1970s: Snapshots of Life at Bridgewater College,” will include archival photographs, artifacts and interpretive text, which all tell the story of life as a BC student during the ’70s. Visitors will explore the decade’s fads, fashions and College traditions like Homecoming and May Day, the latter of which has evolved into SpringFest today.
“For our alumni, it will be an enjoyable experience, a trip down memory lane,” Gardner says.
There will also be an opportunity for more thoughtful reflection as visitors learn about BC’s connections to some of the decade’s prominent social topics like racial diversity, feminism and the Vietnam War.
“It is a challenge to interpret an entire era,” Gardner says. “But, by representing what [Thompson and I] see while working in the College archives, I hope viewers will be able to connect with larger themes, some of which are still relevant today.”
To honor Bridgewater students who lost their lives fighting in the Vietnam War, Gardner and Thompson will create an abridged interpretation of the Missing Man Table, which is also known as the Fallen Comrade Table, for display in the exhibition. Other notable exhibits include photographs of Carlyle Whitelow ’59, a beloved BC professor and coach and the College’s first Black faculty member; papers of Dr. Beth Glick-Rieman ’44, a former Church of the Brethren minister who, as Person Awareness Coordinator, presented a feminist perspective within the Church; and campaign buttons for Richard D. Obenshain, a 1956 alumnus who died in a plane crash while campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat.
The exhibition is free to the public and will show on the lower level of the John Kenny Forrer Learning Commons during the hours that the building is open to the public: 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays; and noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays. Check the Forrer Learning Commons website before visiting for campus holidays and weather-related closures.
Media Contact:
Eli Quay ’20
Communications and Media Relations Specialist
equay3@bridgewater.edu
(540) 828-5486
09/30/2024
