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A set of Kodachrome slides depicting Maryville’s first campus in south St. Louis City were recently discovered and digitized by the University Archives. The existence of these color versions of historical campus photographs had been lost to time — until now.

In one photograph, the bright red tower of the four-story administration building looms over the campus. In another, the Mayer of Munich stained glass now installed in Huttig Chapel on Maryville’s current campus shines bright. A Mater Admirabilis statue of Mary in rose-colored garb is visible center front in the old Gothic chapel. These photographs illustrate what was only imagined by those who had never seen Maryville’s original campus.

Most of the 37 photographs in the set were taken in 1958, just a few years before the campus moved west in 1961. They encompass a special moment in Maryville’s history.

University Archives has over 14,000 slides in its collection (172 slide carousels if we are counting). While most of them aren’t treasures on this level, each slide holds a piece of Maryville history.

Several fascinating slides are among the majority yet to be digitized. For example, a 1958 photograph depicts nine sisters out in the countryside, presumably inspecting the proposed site of Maryville College’s new campus. Another depicts young women from the 1890s, with collars up to their chins, working with science lab equipment.

View other digitized photos here.