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McIntyre (right) with Braitsch in the Burns Library Reading Room. Photographs: Gary Wayne Gilbert; all historical photographs courtesy of the John J. Burns Library.
“Well, the man on the right is Wallace E. Carroll, after whom the Carroll School is named,” said James McIntyre ’57. “In fact, that’s a great photo of him. We don’t have many, because he was from Chicago and he just wasn’t here all that much.” The image (left) was from a stack assembled by Burns archivist Amy Braitsch from the 1960s and 1970s, mostly unlabeled. McIntyre has worked at Boston College since 1959, under four presidents. He was the first layman to join the admission staff. He became the University’s first lay vice president (of student affairs). He oversaw Boston College’s first major capital campaign as vice president for University relations. And since 1986 he has held the title of senior vice president. Soft spoken, courtly, and shrewd, he also spent some time behind the small desks at Boston College, earning more than one degree, including his Ed.D. in 1967.
Small wonder Braitsch suggested he’d “perhaps” be able to identify some people or events or places preserved in the University’s photo archives—which, McIntyre recalled, weren’t always so well maintained. He described once finding “a treasure trove”—”all kinds of index cards of alumni and public photographs and that sort of thing”—in the attic of the Philomatheia Club. The club’s lounge can be glimpsed in the second photo (right), date unknown.
The Philomatheians were “the women’s auxiliary of Boston College,” said McIntyre, and at the beginning of the 20th century they were “a very important fundraising arm.” They were a social club (whist on Wednesdays) with serious interests (bringing in academic speakers). Gabelli residence hall now occupies the site where their chalet-style clubhouse stood facing Commonwealth Avenue. “For a long time,” McIntyre recalled, “the club was headed by Mrs. Vincent P. Roberts,” who, at her death in the 1970s, bequeathed her house (across Beacon Street from Campion Hall) to the Jesuits rather than to Boston College “because she was annoyed at the student strikes.”
“The guy on the right [foreground] is George Donaldson, a long-time director of career placement. The guy on the far left is John Tevnan. I think he was part of the College of Business Administration.” Sitting with Braitsch in the Burns Library, at times wearing white cotton gloves to protect the images, McIntyre pored over the photos for more than an hour, dropping names and telling stories.
« Professor Paul Marcoux, in the 1970s
« Senior Week at the Mods, 1992
« Commencement Ball, 1963
This much is known about the photographs above. But who are the students with theater professor Marcoux? What was the occasion, and when? Who are those men savoring their last days on campus? Who are the dancers, and where are they dancing and to what tunes? Hundreds of campus scenes, digitized and posted online by Burns Library archivists, await identification. To supply information, comments, or recollections, go to the Burns Library Flickr page.