1927 Suchy Pictorial View of Colgate University Campus, Hamilton, New York

Suchy's Earliest Work.

This is Arthur Suchy's lovely 1927 pictorial map of the campus of Colgate University, his alma mater. It captures the university in a time of transition, as it was expanding and adding new facilities. It is Suchy's first map, drawn when he was just 26, 3 years after he graduated.

A Closer Look

This whimsical pictorial map covers the campus of Colgate University and nearby affiliated features in Hamilton, New York, including fraternity houses (the school was all-male at the time) and a golf course. Although new buildings have undoubtedly been added in the decades since, this basic structure of the campus, with older class and administrative buildings in the east and fraternity (and now sorority) houses, athletic fields, and Lake Taylor on the west side of campus, remains to this day. (The larger Lake Moraine is some two miles northeast of the campus.) Buildings are labeled throughout, and notes refer to important events in the history of the university. More humorous illustrations refer to its contemporary life, such as 'the burning of the algebras,' a tradition on several campuses at the time of students' ritualistically burning their algebra textbooks after completing the course.

The university president at this time was the Canadian-born George Barton Cutten (1874 - 1962, President of the university 1922 - 1942), a Baptist minister and former football player who had previously been President of Acadia University in Nova Scotia. Cutten oversaw a significant expansion of Colgate's facilities, improvement of its finances, and an upgrade of its academic prestige. However, Cutten was also a vocal eugenicist and opponent of immigration who severely limited admission of Jewish and black students. In the latter case, an exception was made for athletes, allowing a small number of black students to matriculate. One of the few black Colgate students at the time - not an athlete - was the legendary New York City politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (class of 1930), who initially 'passed' as White (ironically, given his generally racist views, Cutten was an acquaintance of fellow Baptist minister Adam Clayton Powell Sr. and admitted his son despite a spotty academic record). Cutten's complex legacy came into focus in recent years, and following years of student protests, his name was removed from all university buildings in 2017.

Publication History and Census

This pictorial map, printed by Du Bois Press in 1927, is the earliest work by Arthur Suchy, who graduated from Colgate in 1923. The work is quite rare, being noted among the holdings of the Cleveland Public Library, Pennsylvania State University, and the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, and only occasionally appears on the market.

Cartographers

Arthur Bartholomew Suchy (1901 - 1995) was a 20th century commercial artist, illustrator, and pictorial mapmaker. Suchy was born in Cleveland, Ohio and studied at New York's Colgate University from 1919 to 1923, where he distinguished himself as a student politician, athlete, and sportsman. His career as an illustrator and commercial artist spanned more that 50 years, but he was most active as a mapmaker between 1920 and 1940. Other than his map of Colgate University, most of his work focuses either on his native Ohio or his adopted home, Florida. Suchy's corpus is small but striking. His first map depicts his alma mater, Colgate University (1927). In the same year he issued a similar map of Swarthmore College (1927). This is followed by his large map The Heart of Cleveland (1928). He seems to have taken a 6-year break from pictorial mapmaking to focusing on his commercial career, but issued a new pictorial map illustrating his adopted home, Miami, in 1935. A second map of Cleveland, intending to illustrate the city as it appeared in 1836, was issued in 1937. This was followed by a general map of Ohio,Buckeye State issued in 1939. His final map, illustrating Key West, appeared in 1940. Some of his latter maps, particularly his Key West map, appeared in both hand-colored 'limited edition' formats and uncolored editions for the mass market.   Further Details...

Du Bois Press (1895 - 1994) was a Rochester, New York based printing concern active throughout the 20th century. The firm was founded by Abraham Ford Du Bois (March 25, 1872 - July 13, 1948) in Newark, New Jersey, in 1895. It was initially an annex company to the Newark Union, a newsweekly acquired by Du Bois in 1895. In 1910, Ford Du Bois sold the Newark Union to his brother John E. Du Bois, and relocated the Du Bois Press to Rochester, expanding its printing operations considerably. In the 1920s, the firm established a strong reputation for printing college and university yearbooks. By the mid-20th century, they were among the largest printing business in Rochester. Ford Du Bois retired in 1940, passing the business to his son, Robert Du Bois. The firm was acquired in the 1980s by Omnicom Group Inc., a Manhattan-based advertising consortium. In 1994, the Du Bois press closed its doors and sold off much of its equipment. It was pushed into bankruptcy in 1995.   Further Details...

Condition

Excellent.

References

Rumsey 9078.000. OCLC 45177586.