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

(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:

Originally published by U of T News