BRIDGEWATER, Va. (ROCKTOWN NOW) — The Robert R. Newlen ’75 & John C. Bradford Special Collections at Bridgewater College will display an exhibition highlighting life at the College in the 1970s.

The exhibition, “Find Yourself in the 1970s: Snapshots of Life at Bridgewater College,” will include archival photographs, artifacts and interpretive text telling the story of BC student life in the ’70s. Curated by Special Collections Librarian Stephanie Gardner and intern Alex Thompson, visitors will explore the decade’s fads, fashions and College traditions like Homecoming and May Day, which evolved into SpringFest.

“For our alumni, it will be an enjoyable experience, a trip down memory lane,” Gardner said.

Visitors can reflect on BC’s connections to prominent social topics of the decade like racial diversity, feminism and the Vietnam War.

“It is a challenge to interpret an entire era,” Gardner said. “But, by representing what [Thompson and I] see while working in the College archives, I hope viewers will be able to connect with larger themes, some of which are still relevant today.”

Gardner and Thompson will create an abridged interpretation of the Missing Man Table, also known as the Fallen Comrade Table, to honor Bridgewater students who lost their lives fighting in the Vietnam War. The interpretation will be displayed in the exhibition.

Other notable exhibits include photographs of Carlyle Whitelow ’59, a beloved BC professor and coach and the College’s first Black faculty member; papers of Dr. Beth Glick-Rieman ’44, a former Church of the Brethren minister who, as Person Awareness Coordinator, presented a feminist perspective within the Church; and campaign buttons for Richard D. Obenshain, a 1956 alumnus who died in a plane crash while campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat.

The exhibition opens on Friday, Oct. 11 and runs through Monday, March 31, 2025. It is free to the public and will be on the lower level of the John Kenny Forrer Learning Commons during the hours that the building is open to the public.

They are:

  • Mon-Thu – 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
  • Fri – 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Sat – 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Sun – noon to 9 p.m.

Check the Forrer Learning Commons website for campus holidays and weather-related closures.