Then & Now, #6: Fifty Years to the Day

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 08:51:43 -0400

by David Hoffman and Craig Berger

Fifty years ago today (also a Monday), UMBC opened its doors. At the first Commencement in 1970, graduating senior Diane Juknelis described that moment this way:

"On September 19, 1966, while work continued on partially completed structures on a large tract of land between the communities of CatonsviIle and Arbutus, people and events began their work on an identity for UMBC. A named, but as yet faceless institution of higher learning waited motionlessly for the element of humanity that would shape its inner structure and give it a true direction and scope."

The element of humanity. The first of us.

The first photo below was taken on a stairwell in what was then called the Academic Building, on that very first day; the second, fifty years later (in what is now called the Biological Sciences Building). The difference in the views out that window tells a small part of a great story still being written.

1966 (Source: UMBC's Skipjack yearbook, 1968, in the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery Digital Collections).

2016

Then & Now, #1: 1968 & 2016

Then & Now, #2: First Day of Classes, 1966 & 2016

Then & Now, #3: Albin O. Kuhn Library & Plaza, 1974 & 2016

Then & Now, #4: The Original Breezeway, 1969 & 2016

Then & Now, #5: PAHB in Progress, 2011 & 2016

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