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September 14, 2021 | Campus

The Globe and Mail remembers Robert Lansdale, known as 'the U of T photographer' from the '60s to the '80s

Robert Lansdale stands in shadow on a stone balcony, looking out at the light and holding a camera.

(Photo by Jack Marshall)


Robert Lansdale, a press and commercial photographer who often shot pictures for the University of Toronto, died on July 13 at age 90, the Globe and Mail reports.

Born in Etobicoke, Lansdale began his career at Federal Newsphotos of Canada. He photographed John F. Kennedy and John Diefenbaker, royal visits and Canadian swimmer Marilyn Bell after crossing the English Channel. 

Later in his career, he joined a commercial photo studio and took on U of T as a client. He documented decades of university life, from convocations to classes with famed media theorist and U of T professor Marshall McLuhan (Hon DLitt 1977). Beginning in the early 1960s, Mr. Lansdale was hired so regularly by the University of Toronto that he was unofficially recognized by the University community as the “U of T photographer,” according to the Globe.

At U of T, he also photographed Margaret Atwood (BA 1961 VIC, Hon DLitt 1983, Hon DSacLitt 1987 VIC), a young Bob Rae (BA 1969 UC, LLB 1977, Hon LLD 1999) as a student activist and interior and exterior views of the changing St. George, Erindale College (now U of T Mississauga) and U of T Scarborough campuses. The Robert Lansdale fonds in the U of T Archives comprise 50,000 photographs from the mid-1960s to mid-1980s. About 25,000 of his scanned negatives are available online through the archives' Campus Photographers collection

Read more about Robert Lansdale in the Globe and Mail


 

 

Remember those days? Browse 10 of Lansdale’s images of U of T through the years:

Students laugh as they look in a mirror at themselves wearing mortarboards. On a blackboard: Please return gowns by 4:30 pm.
University College during convocation in 1970.
A grand piano fills the floor at Convocation Hall. Oscar Peterson, in robes, is playing while a packed house listens.
Honorary degree recipient and jazz virtuoso Oscar Peterson plays for a packed Convocation Hall in June 1985.
A choir stands on steps behind a dozen musicians at one end of Hart House Great Hall. A conductor gestures energetically.
The glee club and orchestra perform in the Great Hall of Hart House on Nov. 9, 1969 as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations.
Seen from directly above, six women in bathing suits and swim caps float in a star shape with feet touching in the centre.
The women's synchronized swimming team trains in 1970.
Marshall McLuhan, holding a cigar and a glass of wine, faces a semi-circle of students. The air is very smoky.
McLuhan hosts one of his famous evening seminars with students and faculty in a smoky classroom on April 15, 1973.
Northrop Frye stands with his back to a huge, crowded bookshelf. In front of him is a desk piled with books and papers.
Northrop Frye, literary critic and professor of English at Victoria College, poses for a portrait behind a paper-strewn desk on April 15, 1981.
A student paints a Madonna and Child on an easel. Behind her, other students paint copies of great artworks.
Students in the department of fine art work in studio on Jan. 9, 1974.
All over the grass of Back Campus, football players sit with legs stretched in a V-shape and touch their toes.
U of T's Varsity Blues football team warm up on the back campus before a game Aug. 29, 1974.
Eric Arthur smiles as he stands on a staircase and pets the carved wooden dragon that is coiled on top of the newel post.
Canadian architect and professor Eric Arthur in University College in 1970.
Ceta Ramkhalawansingh gestures as she speaks to a semicircle of women in comfy chairs.
Graduate student Ceta Ramkhalawansingh leading an early women's studies class in 1975.

 

Originally published by U of T News

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