Ernest Jaqua stands poised just outside the President’s office in Sycamore Court, ready to address the class of 1939. It’s an image like many others of the first president of Scripps College—right up until he smiles and laughs at something said off-camera.
The picture is no picture at all, but candid video moments taken by Frank Parks, father of Emily Parks ’39. In the film, graciously donated by Emily’s son, Frank Saulsbury, viewers catch glimpses of Scripps of the past: the cutting garden now occupied by the Humanities Building, Denison Library without the Drake wing, and Margaret Fowler Garden’s two fountains joined by a now-hidden rill. Most of the footage is in stunning color.
More impressive is how much the campus hasn’t changed. Though more than 70 years have passed since the Parks family filmed Scripps College, today Balch Hall, Bowling Green, and the dorms look much as they did. Even the Malott Commons and Sicilian Court, which both underwent a drastic metamorphosis over the years, retain the same look and feel to today’s students as they did to the class of 1939.
“I really do enjoy looking at these films,” says Judy Harvey Sahak ’64, Sally Preston Swan Librarian at the Denison Library. She’s quick to point out Jaqua, college librarian Dorothy Drake, professors Fritz Caspari and alumna Carlotta Welles ’39 as they enter they frame, among others. “I am struck by how lush the campus looked, especially Margaret Fowler Garden, and not a cell phone in sight!”
The video was brought to Scripps’ attention through Catherine Pyke ’79, who works near Saulbury in San Francisco. The family had transferred the film stock to VHS years before, but was in the process of digitizing it and thought the Scripps community might like to take a look, particularly at the footage of the 1939 commencement ceremony. Emily is in there, walking across campus in the same green robes used today.
“I was thrilled when Frank presented me with these videos,” says Catherine. “The glamorous clothing, the colorful gardens, the flowing green gowns that link one generation of Scripps graduates to another; it shows off the campus in its glory, one seamless stream of beauty enjoyed by all.”
The film closes with a lingering black-and-white shot of Honnold Gate as it faces Columbia Avenue. A timeless vantage point, one you’ll want to see for yourself—in 2012 or 1939.