1906 Richard Rummell View of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

A scarce 1906 photogravure bird's-eye view of Yale University drawn by Richard Rummell and published by F. D. Nichols of Boston. The view is centered on Osborne Hall (now demolished and replaced with Bingham Hall) with its distinctive chapel-like façade. Chapel Street runs in front of the hall and Temple Street can be seen running northward towards East Rock. Many of the extant buildings of the historic Old Campus, including Connecticut Hall (1752), are easily recognizable. Welch Hall and Lawrance Hall stand alongside College street, across from the New Haven Green which is complete with the three chapels that still stand today: United Church on the Green (Congregational, 1814), Center Church (Congregational, 1812), and Trinity Episcopal Church On the Green (1816). In the distance, the heights of East Rock, with its distinctive Soldiers and Sailors Monument, is clearly visible.

Rummel was an American landscape artist known for his drawings of American universities. At the turn of the century, Littig & Company commissioned Rummell (1848-1924) to prepare watercolors of some of the nation's most prestigious colleges. From these watercolors, copper-plates were engraved and a limited number of engravings were issued. Most of Rummel's university views are strikingly similar in style, reveling the entire campus in panoramic splendor. The views are uniformly issued from an altitude of about 300 feet, suggesting the Rummel most likely worked form a balloon.

Today Arader Galleries has acquired many of the original printing plates for Rummel's college views and has issued a number of restrikes, but the original printings by Elson and Company, as here, have become extremely rare.