Harvard University. News Office

The Harvard University News Office was established in 1919.

Paul Julius Weber, a well-known architectural photographer, was born on April 3, 1881 in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was married to Florence A. Weber, and the couple had two daughters. Weber worked in the Boston area during the first half of the twentieth century.

In 1929, Paul J. Weber was hired by the University to take a series of 150 photographs of the University’s buildings and grounds for the News Office. The photographs were intended as a permanent historical record of the University in 1929. In October of that year, exhibitions of some of the photographs were held in the Harvard Union and the Fogg Museum.

While the bulk of the photographs must, then, have been taken in 1929, it is clear from the buildings pictured in the photographs that more photographs must have been taken as late as 1931. In addition, expense records from the University News Office indicate that Weber was asked on at least one occasion to take additional photographs, including photographs of Littauer Center and the new Hemenway Gymnasium in 1939.