All photographs courtesy of The University of Findlay archives. Special thanks to Bob Schirmer, Director of Shafer Library, who helped locate these photographs featuring campus buildings and students from 1960-1972.
Photographs used in this essay capture some of the multimodal transitions already taking place at Findlay College during the 1960s and early 1970s. Photographs include students moving books as part of the library's move from the basement of the Old Main building housing mainly print texts to the new library building on campus that included microfiche and microfilm readers (the "brand new" library can be seen in back of the Old Main building). Other photographs highlight newer venues for composition on campus such as high speed electric typewriters and audio technology. Despite these emerging alternate modes for composing, traditional methods of composing in the liberal arts, such as writing, drawing, taking photographs, and public speaking remained popular. Courses such as the drawing class featured here shared building space with “high tech” venues such as the television studio. Taken as a collage, the photographs from The University of Findlay’s history indicate that multimodal composing was already present on campus, and technological innovations added to, rather than replaced, the range of options and venues for students to share ideas.
