Location, Location, Location
For this special illustrated edition, we asked alumni to share reminiscences of their favorite or most memorable places at the University.
Photography by Dan Dry
“Every passing year, my memories of Chicago
center more and more around UT. The first-floor
theater in the Reynolds Club will forever bring
back nervously passing the board to see who had
been cast in upcoming shows; studying in those
(then) uncomfortable chairs waiting for my scenes;
and running past startled people waiting at Mandel
Hall intermissions during a scene change. From La
Mandragola in brutal medieval Italian my first year
to the great director of The Glass Menagerie in my
fourth, I’ll never forget the first-floor theater.”
GianCarlo Nardini, AB’91
“The place I most associate with my University
of Chicago days, 1963 to 1968, is the Oriental
Institute Library. I loved to study there because
the ceiling, beams, and carvings were so gorgeous.
I understand it houses archives now. That library
was a sacred place.”
Mary Eastman, AB’68
“The Midway in the fall playing intramural football.
For the only time in my life, I was a sports
hero, catching the winning touchdown pass on
the ground after I tripped crossing the goal line.”
Rob Kleps, SB’65
“The front porch of Alpha Delta Phi on a warm
spring day, with friends coming and going between
classes, the sun shining on your face as you flipped
on your shades, lit a cigarette, and gazed out over
the quads, laughing with your friends until it was
time for you to go, knowing that there would
always be someone there to talk to when you
returned. The porch was truly ‘where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you
came.’ It was what college was all about.”
Joseph E. Strauss, AB’91
“While I was an undergraduate I had part-time
jobs at the Oriental Institute, which became my
favorite place on campus. One day, while working
in the basement with Linda Braidwood [AM’46],
sorting hundreds of small clay objects excavated
in Iraq (we didn’t know what they were then, but
they later turned out to be the precursors of written
numbers), I saw a perfectly preserved thumbprint
on the flank of a 1.5-inch object shaped like
a four-legged animal. The objects were about
6,000 years old. It was a powerful moment of
connection with the anonymous ancient maker
that I will never forget.”
Margaret Hart Edwards, Esq., AB’72
“Dr. Rachel Fulton’s office, up in the tower of Harper, defined my fourth year. It’s an amazing space, looking down on the Midway, filled with books and full of personality—a great place to discuss anything and everything. The conversations I had there with Dr. Fulton and my fellow Class of ’05 medievalists were some of the best of my college career, and it is thanks to our Friday afternoons that the process of writing my BA was as much fun as it was.” Emily Hanson, AB’05
“The strongest association for me was the
Regenstein Library—first of all, it was completed
as I was an undergraduate, and I helped move
the books! But then it became a home away from
home, as there were lots of very comfortable seats
to study or even sleep in; one could go into the
stacks and study isolated from humanity while
surrounded by dusty volumes of books with
tantalizing titles; one could avoid studying by
reading the magazines such as Punch, or go into
the stacks for back issues; one could read and
have a handy dictionary; one could go down and
stuff one’s face with vending-machine food—not
healthy, but it kept one alive—one could meet
friends there and have short discussions—the
library was roomy enough to find a spot which
wouldn’t bother anyone—and, when I became a graduate student, I got my own locker, and it
became even more a home away from home. Not
only inside the library, but also surrounding it:
in good weather, a nice lawn to sprawl out on
to study, discuss, or sleep. A few steps away was
the gym, where one could swim at noon to stop
one’s physical constitution from dissolving into
putty across the street from the gym was a relaxed
student cafe with healthy food when one got sick
of machine food, and the library was a short walk
from classes… and oh yes, it also functioned as a
great library, with a huge collection.”
David Reid, AB’71, MAT’73
