You can find selected digitized photographs and other visual materials in the library's Online Archive. By using the filters on the left-hand side under "Narrow your search" you can limit your results to specific formats of materials.

Online Archive

This is just a selection of materials from the archives. Contact us at archives@calpoly.edu if you don't find what you are looking for online, there may be items in the archives that we haven't digitized yet.

You can limit your search to "Still Image" to search images (versus text or audiovisual). However, there are additional images that may be included in "Text"-classified documents, such as the El Rodeo yearbooks. It's always easier to start with a broad search and then narrow down your results as needed.

Selected photo-rich collections:

• University Archives Photo Collection: https://digital.lib.calpoly.edu/rekl-ua0099
• Student Newspaper: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/studentnewspaper/   Some of these newspaper scans are poor (they come from the microfilm copies of the newspaper), the archives staff can rescan these pages at a higher quality when needed.
• Student Yearbooks: https://digital.lib.calpoly.edu/rekl-uaybk  These show up as "text" files, but there are many photos located in the yearbooks. They are especially strong in student club photos, department photos, and senior portraits.

Some audiovisual materials are digitized in the archives as well. This includes oral histories, VHS tapes of campus events, KCPR student radio, and Music Department LPs.

• Browse digitized film/moving images from the University Archives

When the fledgling California Polytechnic School was founded on the outskirts of San Luis Obispo in 1901, school administrators emphasized two courses of study: agriculture and mechanics. After nearly six years of operation, local photographer Frank Aston was hired to photograph students at work and play. There are more 200 photographic images of Cal Poly and its environs, including ranches, buildings, views of the campus, livestock, special events, and athletics from those early days included in this collection, offering a rich visual record of life at this rural vocational school.

• Browse the Aston Postcard collection subject headings at the University Archives Photograph Collection finding aid
• The collection is fully digitized and can be explored at the Online Archive

Links to the Land Sponsors

The Aston Postcard Collection is part of our Links to the Land: San Luis Obispo County Environmental Archives. The development of the Links to the Land archive has been made possible through the generous gifts from the James and Norma Sinton family.