Frank Ward, Photographs of Campus and Students with Snow, February 1993, black-and-white negatives digitized positive, 35mm roll film, Amherst College Archives & Special Collections.
Item Description
This photograph was taken by Frank Ward. Ward was an official photographer for Amherst College from 1984 to 2005. This photograph, and the set of 32 from which it was taken, feature scenes of Amherst College, including Johnson Chapel and the neighboring North and South Dormitories, the Octagon, and students playing in the snow on Memorial Hill. Like most of the black-and-white photographs Ward produced, they were created using 35mm film black-and-white negatives. Technically, 35mm black-and-white photos are created by exposing light-sensitive silver halide crystals in a gelatin emulsion on a film base to light, developing the exposed silver halide into silver, and then fixing the image to create a negative, which can then be printed. These prints are then developed in a dark room.
This photograph displays students interacting with the snow on Memorial Hill. The photo was taken from the top of the hill, below the steps of the World War II Memorial and right before the beginning of the slope of the hill. There is no snow falling in the photo. Interestingly, the trees and buildings in the middle and background completely hide the sky, making it difficult to get a more complete understanding of the feeling of the day. However, the snow completely covers the ground, with no pavement, stone, or grass showing in the foreground. The snow also appears to be fresh, with few dark spots beyond those appearing to be created by the students. The snow is not yet melting. Perhaps Ward captured the scene not too long after the end of the snowfall. In the background, the stairs are visible, the bushes are lightly covered, and the trees hold little snow, suggesting that the snowfall may not have been too heavy.
In the foreground, there are four students. Three tightly pack themselves together on the sled, while the fourth pushes the furthermost rider at the shoulders. All students wear heavy coats, and two of the four students wear hats. This suggests that despite the snowfall ending, the air still remained cold in the area. All students are wearing boots in the photo, so they seem to have been prepared for the weather of the day.
Historical Background
According to historical meteorological records, 1993 was a mild winter for Amherst. Amherst did not experience much snow that winter, and such was the case in the month of February. Though it precipitated often, the snow was usually light. The heaviest snowfalls that month occurred on February 9th (0.79 in) and 11th (0.76 in).1 It is likely that Ward captured the scene shortly after one of these snow falls.
The faces of three of the four students are visible, and all three appear to be smiling in the photograph. Frank Ward spent most of his early career at Amherst College, and during his time at the College, he took various climate related photos of both campus scenes and people reacting to climate. He was also involved in the publication of Curious Footprints: Professor Hitchcock’s Dinosaur Tracks and Other Natural History Treasures at Amherst College, which featured Ward’s color photographs of the College’s natural history collections.2 As most of Ward’s career photographs focus more on capturing individuals and scenes, his work at Amherst included many depictions of weather and climate.3
As a member of the team in Amherst College’s Office of Public Affairs (now Office of Communications), it is reasonable to assume that Frank Ward sought to install a particular interpretation of Amherst College and Amherst, Massachusetts. In this photo, Ward takes stock of the snow to do so. Considering the description above, it is easy to perceive that the photo depicts students of Amherst College enjoying the snow on a brisk but beautiful day. It is unclear whether the photos are impromptu or staged, but it is safe to assume Ward sought to portray a fun and inclusive Amherst. As Margrit Prussat has argued, such photographs take on an important role in the perception of prestigious academic institutions like Amherst College.4 Frank Ward’s photographs, especially those with the fun tone captured in this scene, soften the perception of the College and expose a humanness that very few other media can.
One thing to consider is that there are many women in the photograph. After over a hundred years of advocacy, the Board of Trustees of Amherst College voted to make the College co-educational in the fall of 1975.5 The college subsequently saw its first nine women graduates in 1976. This photo was taken less than twenty years after the college made the change, which may add context to the photos. The photo demonstrates a new Amherst, one in which women are not merely allowed to exist on campus, but are encouraged to be full participants in the community and campus life. The photo is a shift from the older male dominated photos. It is likely Ward had this in mind when deciding what scenes may be of good use to the Office of Public Affairs.
Conclusion
Snow can be viewed through various lenses. Both in 1993, when Ward captured this scene, and in our current time (as well as with other weather events), that which goes on in and around the snow has a definite impact on the way one experiences the weather event. The apparent enjoyment of the students in the scene gives a positive perception of the weather event. However, these students have warm clothing, a dorm to live in, and warm food to eat. The perception of the snow would be quite different in absence of these privileges.
Attributions
As with all physical photographs belonging to the former Office of Public Affairs, this photo is held by the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections within Frost Library. The Amherst College Photographer Records contain more than 400,000 images taken by official college photographers from 1960 to 2005. The photographs have been digitized and can also be viewed online through Amherst College Digital Collections (ACDC), which holds thousands of digitized objects selected from the Department’s physical holdings.
Footnotes
- See “Weather Data Archives,” Amherst College Philip T. Ives ‘32 Weather Station, https://weather.sites.amherst.edu/archives.php. ↩︎
- Nancy Pick, Curious Footprints: Professor Hitchcock’s Dinosaur Tracks & Other Natural History Treasures at Amherst College (Amherst College Press, 2006). ↩︎
- Frank Ward, “Bio and Links,” accessed April 2025, https://fmward.com/about/. ↩︎
- Margrit Prussat, “Reflexions on the Photographic Archive in the Humanities,” in Global Photographies: Memory—History—Archives, ed. Sissy Helff and Stefanie Michels (transcript Verlag, 2018), 133–153. ↩︎
- “We’re Coed!” The Amherst Student, November 2, 1974, https://www.amherst.edu/about/history/coeducation. ↩︎