St. Joseph County Public Library, Main Library Community Learning Center
Meet authors Charles Lamb, Fighting Irish Media, and Elizabeth Hogan, University of Notre Dame Archives, at the St. Joseph County Public Library as they share stories from their recent book on the history of Notre Dame football. Fighting Irish Football: The Notre Dame Tradition in Photographs spans the history of college football’s most storied program, featuring many never-before-seen photos from the vaults of the University’s archives.
Read more and register at the St. Joseph County Public Library website.
Charles Lamb is currently semi-retired, working as media assistant for Fighting Irish Media. From 1984 to 2018, he was assistant director and senior archivist for photographic and audio/visual collections at the University of Notre Dame Archives. Elizabeth Hogan is senior archivist for photographs at the University of Notre Dame Archives. She has curated exhibits for Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Libraries, including Daughters of Our Lady and Touchdowns and Technology.
Together, they previously authored Notre Dame at 175: A Visual History. The University of Notre Dame Press is thrilled to publish their newest book, Fighting Irish Football: The Notre Dame Tradition in Photographs (August 2024). They recently answered some of our questions about their research and writing processes.
When did you first get the idea for this book?
As photograph archivists, we see hundreds, if not thousands, of photographs on a daily basis as we catalog new collections and assist patrons with their research. The photographs held by the Notre Dame Archives generally fall within our two primary collecting scopes—the history of Notre Dame and the Catholic experience in the United States. The photographs cover a variety of subjects and reflect the history of photography from the mid-nineteenth century.
Patrons usually request photographs as supplemental illustrations, whether in publications or hanging on the wall. When selecting artwork for their offices, many Notre Dame departments shy away from choosing sports-related photographs because there is so much more to life at this university than football. While that is completely true, we recognized that there is a lot of good sports photography held by the University Archives.
We have long thought about creating a book focusing on the football photography held by the University of Notre Dame Archives. After completing the 175 book, we felt that there was room for a book specifically about football. What makes this book different is that we examine the actual photography, which is often an afterthought in history books. It took a long time for photography to be recognized as an art, and it’s been even longer for sports photography to get similar recognition.
Read the full interview at the Notre Dame Press blog.
Produced by Notre Dame Press