Exterieur van White Hall van Yale University te New Haven before 1895

This anonymous photograph shows the exterior of White Hall at Yale University in New Haven. We can see the architecture of White Hall, likely built in the late 19th or early 20th century, reflecting the Collegiate Gothic style favored by many elite American universities at the time. This architectural style evokes the prestigious universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The photograph seems to be a deliberate attempt to project an image of tradition, prestige, and academic rigor associated with institutions like Yale. The horse and buggy and sparsely populated street also emphasize the tranquility and exclusiveness of this space of learning. Photographs like this one can be interpreted as visual documents of institutional self-representation. To fully understand the meaning of images like this, we need to draw on archival research into the history of American universities and photography. By looking into old catalogs, campus publications, and photographic collections, we can reveal the social and institutional contexts that shaped their creation.