Altgeld Hall, The Card, and the University of Illinois Centennial
“In our opinion, the Tower of Altgeld Hall has served as the image of the University for most of the 20th century. Certainly, it is more photographed, and various pictorial studies of it have appeared more frequently in the Illio than any other building. And with the moving of Lorado Taft’s ‘Alma Mater’ to a plaza before the Tower, this claim seems even more valid.”
~The Turners
Fred and Betty Turner’s 1967 offering returned to Champaign County for the first time since the Stone Arch Bridge was featured way back in 1951. The Turners’ were drawn to the local landmarks featured on this card because the University of Illinois celebrated its centennial that year. The main frontispiece was a stark black and white print of the Romanesque tower of the former University library known today as Altgeld Hall.
Inside the card, recipients found small images of the old University Hall and the north clock tower of the Illini Union. The Turner’s selected these three images for their card because they felt the buildings best defined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The centennial celebration was particularly important for the Turners for a few reasons. Fred dedicated almost his entire life to the University as the Dean of Men and then Dean of Students. Through his tenure at the University, he eventually became a historian of all things UIUC.
Fred’s penchant for University history along with his long term as University employee led to his selection as chairman of the UI Centennial Committee on Sunday, December 8, 1963 by University President David D. Henry.
Dean of Library Administration Robert B. Downs was the selected as vice chairman. As chairman, Fred was in charge of Centennial celebration aided by a Centennial committee that represented the three University of Illinois campuses.
The celebration began on February 28, 1967 in Springfield, IL with an event that featured Governor Otto Kerner. The celebration itself last from February 28 through March 2 of 1968. These dates commemorated the signing of the Act of the Illinois General Assembly by Gov. Richard J. Oglesby that established the University (February 28, 1867) and the formal opening of the University itself (March 2, 1868).
The theme of the entire celebration was “From a distinguished past… a promising future”, a sentiment certainly echoed in the Turners’ image selection and historical insert content for their ’67 Christmas card.
Other aspects of the Centennial celebration included the Centennial Trees Project as a “growing” tribute to honor the University, a weeklong Liberal Arts and Sciences symposium with invited lecturers, and a contemporary arts festival. A young Roger Ebert was commissioned by the University Board of Trustees in 1964 to write a book for the centennial. His work An Illini Century offered a history of UIUC’s first 100 years from a student perspective.
The Turner card itself was printed from three blocks. One for the front image of Altgeld, one for the interior text, and one for the Union tower and University Hall. Like previous works, these blocks were carved from locally sourced tulip-wood, as their supply of wood from the shelving at old University Hall was exhausted by this point. The number of recipients for this card was less than previous years, which were typically around 270-300 people.
The detail in carving is very impressive with Altgeld Hall. The scale and attention to the smallest elements of the real building are well executed. The only noticeable difference is the absence of a chimney.
A closer examination of the Union Tower, and especially old University Hall, prints reveals that the ink dried with an almost pointillism mosaic-like appearance. This may be due to the small scale the Turners’ had to work with to fit both images on the page along with the text.
