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Old Tarble

Old Tarble, exterior. Lancet window detail.

Old Tarble, exterior. Lancet window detail.

Built in 1928, this building once an extension of the campus’ Carnegie Library. At the completion of McCabe Library in 1967, the college renovated the structure, creating the student center that included the student café, Paces, and communal space for students and faculty. In 1983 a fire devastated the French Gothic style building.

Old Tarble’s original section of the Carnegie Library withstood the fire and was later renovated to become the permanent home for the Art program’s Photography Digital Lab and the Connie Hungerford Art Studio.

Connie Hungerford Art Studio


The Connie Hungerford Art Studio is located on the first floor of Old Tarble.  The room’s expansive ceiling height and magnificent lancet windows creates beautiful light and shadows, lending to an ideal painting space on campus.  Adjacent to the painting studio is a painting prep space that includes grinding stations.  The Painting Studio is now the new home to James D. Egelson’s fresco cycle.  The mural was originally created by Egleson in Hicks Hall ca. 1937-1938.  When Hicks Hall was slated for demolition, select fresco pieces were meticulously removed, framed, and installed in Old Tarble’s painting studio.  A great source of inspiration for our Art students, you can read more details on the work, removal and installation process here.
https://magazine.swarthmore.edu/issue/winter-2021/moving-a-mural/

View the original Hicks Hall site here:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/echeeve1/Ref/HicksMural/hicks_mural_update/Hicks_Mural_2014.html

Photography Lab


The photography classroom allows students to work with 35mm film, 4 x 5 large format film, alternative processes and digital photography.  The space includes various SLR cameras, large format cameras, stations for each student that includes a Mac desktop, flatbed scanner, and access to a large-scale printer.  Attached to the digital lab space is a darkroom equipped with an enlarger and all the chemicals and equipment to process and develop 35mm and 4x5 film.
 

Old Tarble Studios and Mural