The more things change…

The Varsity’s archives go back to our first issue in 1880. Our dusty bound volumes contain endless tall yellowing pages that tear at the corners when touched, filled with cigarette ads and columns on campus events; engineers’ pranks; and, of course, campus politics.

Somehow, it all looks cooler in black and white. Age creates legitimacy in a lot of ways. For better or for worse, things that are around for a long time achieve that most pointlessly inviolable status: tradition. We are shaped by the things we arbitrarily allow to survive for the longest time.

Campus looks different now, and so do its students. To embrace our past and our present, we recreated old photos from issues in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s with the diversity and changing architecture of U of T today.

Front gates of U of T at College Street in the 1850s, originally published in Vol. LXXV No. 44, November 29, 1955

Two students in the moonlight, originally published circa 1955-1956

Massey College quad, originally published in Vol. XC No. 10, October 15, 1969

Michael Ignatieff getting kicked while fooling around with friends, originally published in Vol. LXXV No. 17, October 31, 1969

“Some of the goils,” University College production rehearsal, recreated by the 2014 UC Follies, originally published in vol. LXIX no. 24, October 26, 1949

Pantsing a student, originally published circa 1955-1956

“Comfortable, Son?” engineering student dressed in women’s clothes sneaks into Annesley Hall all-female residence at Victoria College, originally published in Vol. LXIX No. 22, October 24,1949