This week Cranbrook Archives launched Sixty Years of Horizons-Upward Bound, 1965-2025, a virtual exhibition of HUB’s history, told primarily through photographs. While the HUB program celebrates its sixtieth anniversary this year, we’ve partnered with Amy Snyder, daughter of HUB’s founder, Ben Snyder, to select images from each decade. Those from HUB’s first five years are now available, with new images from subsequent decades slated to be revealed on a monthly basis as the HUB digitization project continues.

A Collaborative Effort

Creating captions for the exhibition coincided with efforts to describe each of the 2,200 images scanned so far. While some photographs included detailed annotations, describing persons and subjects, many did not, requiring additional research.

Images not yet identified or depicting unnamed activities have been fun and challenging. Cross-referencing photos with documents like class brochures, annual reports, and school rosters have helped with developing fuller descriptions. For instance, HUB’s annual reports detail various guests and artists that were invited to campus to inspire and entertain HUB students. But, they do not tell the full story. The following photographs feature an unnamed event and band that we hope to learn more about!

In addition to my research, HUB alumni have shared information in meetings, emails, and in-person visits, to help describe photographs.

For our studio sessions with Barry Roberts (HUB ’77), we prepared a workspace with enlarged photocopies of group images to annotate and class brochures and annual reports to cross-reference. It’s been a joy to witness how eyes light-up when alumni like Roberts remember people and places depicted in images. We are grateful for the stories they share because they essentially enrich the HUB collection with personal narrative.

More From the 1960s

I have really enjoyed reviewing the program’s visual history. Since only a small number of images from the 1960s are featured in the exhibition, I thought I would share some others that really spoke to me.

It’s been exciting to finally see photographs for events and activities described in reports, like Theme Day, SoulFest, and other academic and extra-curricular subjects.

It’s also been interesting to see how HUB students engaged with various spaces across Cranbrook’s campus.

I especially enjoyed a small collection of images featuring art work and displays of writing, which were exhibited during Theme Day in 1969. William Washington, English teacher and Theme Day facilitator at the time, described the event’s focus as students and staff answering the question, “Where Is Love?” (HUB Annual Report, 1969). The following image features students’ responses to this prompt with creative writings entitled “What is this love that we now seek? Love is the language that every man speaks.”

This fall, all of the images digitized in year two of the digitization project will be available online, but in the meantime check back each month to see those featured in the virtual exhibition!

—Courtney Richardson, Project Archivist, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research