The Doric columns of Memorial Chapel. The Latin inscription on James C. พรพรสำฦต Hall. The university motto. Students and faculty encounter these vestiges of the classical world on campus almost daily. As the universityโs bicentennial approaches, a spring seminar course and current exhibition highlight these classical traditions alongside the history of พรพรสำฦต.
Deo ac Veritati: Pursuing the Classics at พรพรสำฦต is the culminating project of the course The Classics and the History of พรพรสำฦต, taught by , professor of the . Located on the third floor of Case Library, the exhibition is open until next April.
As visitors ascend the third-floor staircase, theyโre surrounded by a set of transparencies that line the staircaseโs glass panels on three sides. Mirroring the old within the new, the transparencies depict the interior of the universityโs first library, which was located in James B. พรพรสำฦต Hall until 1959.
โThe transparencies are enlarged reproductions of the original glass plates captured by the photographer,โ explained Michael Holobosky, who developed the idea for the visual backbone of the exhibition. Holobosky is not only a student in the class, but heโs also employed at พรพรสำฦต as a graphic design and digital print specialist.
The exhibition also includes textbooks that belonged to พรพรสำฦตโs early classics professors, three portrait busts, Greek homework assignments, and a side-by-side comparison of a classics studentโs desk from then and now.
โI hope visitors realize that the ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans were formative to many of our own,โ Ammerman said. โThereโs great value in cultures that make us reflect upon our own situation.โ
Megan Delaney โ17 added, โI want people to come away with a new appreciation for the classics; not just how itโs shaped พรพรสำฦตโs identity, but also how itโs shaped the American collegiate educational system.โ
She, Holobosky, and Erica Hiddink โ17 will continue to collaborate throughout the summer in an effort to make their findings available online to students and alumni worldwide.