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Dear Marquette

By April Beane

A wave of nostalgia for the college he will soon call his alma mater and a stumbled upon website inspired Josh Arter, an advertising senior in the Diederich College of Communication, to start a new project — one that allows him and others of the Marquette community to share their college memories and pride for the university in a unique way.

Arter launched the Dear Marquette project. The Tumblr site, inspired by dearphotograph.com, encourages people to document their memories of Marquette by taking a picture of an old photograph in its identical setting today. Together, the two contrasting images illustrate how places change over time but the memories last a lifetime.

Arter hopes more people will help build this legacy by capturing and sharing their own Marquette memories on the Dear Marquette site.

He shares more about his inspiration for the project and what he hopes to accomplish in a Marquette Magazine interview.

When did you get the idea for the Dear Marquette project?

The idea came to me when I realized I would be entering my senior year. I think there are a lot of students that spend their four years here and just graduate. I thought about everything I had done the past three years and what mark I would leave on campus and at this university.

What motivated you to pursue the idea?

I wanted to look back at what campus had been like and what the classes before me had accomplished. At the same time, I wanted to convey what our generation has accomplished. I remembered how neat the dearphotograph.com concept was, so I figured I would look into some old photographs of campus and work out a project.

How did you find historic images to use as contrasts?

I contacted University Archives and went over some of the archive and digital files. I narrowed it down to 44 images. I wouldn't really say "narrowed" down, I mean, I went through only 1,200 (of who knows how many) photos. From those 44 images, I selected 20-some. I think the Dear Marquette site started out with 14 images or so that I took.

How did the launch go?

The day the Dear Marquette site went public, the university and I pushed it fairly heavily through Facebook and Twitter. It was a huge success.

How many other people have submitted photos?

Since the launch, there have been 10 submissions. It’s been pretty exciting. It’s had a bunch of hits, and it was retweeted by a Marquette alumnus to his 90-some thousand followers.

What's your favorite photo mashup?

I would have to say my favorite mashup is a toss-up between the carillon bells (because of the yellow trees), the front steps of O’Donnell Hall, the entrance to Marquette Hall and the one of Lalumiere Hall. Those four really stand out to me.

Any scenes you'd really love to add to the site?

I still hope to crawl through the archives and continue to find great pictures to use. I want to get a couple of the actual dorm rooms. I think it would be hilarious to see just how students have changed over time.

What do you hope for the future of the project?

I’m just happy it turned out great, and I’m even happier it has created such a buzz. It’s definitely one of my greatest projects, and it is definitely not complete. It might not ever be! Who knows, maybe future students will continue to submit new photos.