Aerial view, April 1989

Wheaton College Historical Photos

I never thought, as an incoming freshman back in August 1985, that I would one day take more pictures of Wheaton College than anyone else in the history of the college. But if you consider that I’ve been taking thousands of pictures there each year, every year, for the past forty years, that’s a lot of pictures… in fact, I estimate I’ve taken almost a million photos on film and digitally.

I’ve been hired by almost every department on campus at some time or another, but as the official photographer for Wheaton Thunder sports teams, I’ve taken more pictures for the Athletics Department than all others combined.

I was also one of the main photographers for the Wheaton Magazine for over thirty years, where I would shoot some of Wheaton’s best known alumni and professors, as well as some of the lesser known ones (such as the alumnus from the 1960s who sang backup for Elvis), and four of the last eight presidents. I loved magazine assignments because they not only introduced me to some interesting people, but they gave me free rein to be creative on assignments and to take some really memorable pictures.

I shot my first graduation (my sister’s) in May 1986, for the Tower yearbook. I missed the ‘87 graduation, but then shot every one after that until 2023 (including the 2021 “garbage bag” graduation on the football field)- a run of thirty-six straight commencements, not to mention a dozen or more graduate school graduations over that time too.

My favorite Wheaton College images are the ones I took as a student from 1985-89. I was just learning photography and taking pictures of friends, teachers, sports and the campus. As a Record and Tower photo editor and photography contributor for four years, I was granted access to almost any event on campus and became known as Wheaton’s photographer, even back then. I was rarely without a camera in my hand; during my year as the Tower Photo Editor (1987-88), I always carried two cameras everywhere I went- one loaded with black and white film and one with color slide film. I got to shoot in areas no one else was allowed access to- inside historic Blanchard Tower as well as BGC’s fiberglass tower, in Fischer and Edman Chapel basements, inside the Edman clock tower, down in the mysterious Blanchard tunnel and inside Blanchard Hall when it was almost entirely gutted from floor to roof during the renovations from 1989-90. I loved exploring the campus with my camera.

I’ve always been very organized and never got rid of any of my photos– negatives, slides and prints– I still have them all and have scanned all the film from those early days and turned them into high resolution digital images that can now be widely shared for the first time ever. College Union concerts, Men’s Glee Club singing at Soldier Field, the Ice Cream Socialist furor, President Liftin’s inauguration, Homecoming parades, Scott and Carolyn, the Revival of ‘95, Billy Graham’s return to campus in 1985 and his last visit in 1995, streakers at soccer games in the early 2000’s (yes, it really happened at Wheaton and more than once), and beloved teachers like Beatrice Batson, Joe McClatchey, Lyle Dorsett and Arthur Holmes. I’ve photographed them all, and have enjoyed documenting the history of the college for forty years.

Over the past five years, I’ve already scanned about 38,000 color and black and white negatives, saving them for history, and adding captions and keywords, figuring out the dates they were all taken, etc. And I’m in the process of digitizing thousands more. Usage fees will depend on how the photos are used, what medium they’re used in, etc. If you’re looking for that special image for a magazine article or to use on the website, or to promote Homecoming or Alumni Weekend, please contact me and we’ll get the process started. All images will be cleaned up, color corrected, with dust or scratches removed, and a high resolution image will be sent out to you.

Any questions? Email me for a prompt response.

Please note- all the images displayed here are low resolution and for portfolio purposes only; contact me before using any of my images. Thanks for respecting my copyright.

All images © 1985-2025, Michael Hudson, All Rights Reserved

Sample Images

(These are just a representative sampling of some of the images available to search.)