Schaffer, Alan

This collection was acquired through the provisions of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act by Dr. Alan Schaffer, a history professor at Clemson University, in 1988.

In 1985, the Clemson University Centennial Committee identified the creation of a pictorial history of Clemson as the most widely supported proposal to emerge during its planning process (Clemson University Centennial Committee. Report of the Study Phase pp. 1-14). Clemson University History Professor Alan Schaffer created the Visions photograph collection between 1987-1989. As author of Visions: Clemson's Yesteryears, 1880s-1960s (Louisville, KY: Harmony House, 1990) he had copies made of several hundred photographs from the holdings of Special Collections as well as of photos from private sources. The approximately 1150 images served as the basis for selecting about 450 images which were published in Visions. During the 1990s, Dr. Schaffer transferred to Special Collections additional material including original photographs, accession numbers 96-127, 98-102, 98-113, 98-145 and 99-133. These accessions were integrated into the collection. In a few cases, there are prints without negatives, two different negative numbers for the same print, or items whose provenance is unknown.