CMU Regressions

During her last year at Carnegie Mellon, Nancy Zuo stumbled into the University Archives and became fascinated by the history of the university. Every week, she picked the brain of her drawing professor Mark Mentzer, book-binding professor Joe Dicey, and retired computer science professor James Morris, hearing their stories and learning everything she could about the university. Collaborating with Professor Stephan Caspar, she learned how to condense her learnings into a series of short videos.

Over the course of a year, she created short documentaries cataloging and inspired by snippets found in the archives:
1) What are the CMU Archives? (1:31) – Introduction to the archives
2) CMU Regressions (0:55) – Archival footage montage
3) Andrew Carnegie Didn’t Like to Work (0:57) – Restored footage of Andrew Carnegie visiting campus
4) The Thistle (1:02) – Copy of the censored CMU Yearbook
5) What Do You Think of the Men at CMU? (3:10) – Inspired by a copy of the yearbook where they asked students on campus what they think of the men at CMU

In an invitation to student researchers following in her footsteps, she writes…

“There were so many more stories I didn’t get a chance to document and tell, and I really hope to do those one day. These include Lobster Man, the now-defunct Beaux Arts Ball, the secret room buried under the cut, the mysterious secret floor of Wean, the story of the Entertainment Technology Center, and so many more.”

This project was made possible with support from Frank-Ratchy Further Fund Microgrant #2024-022.

Collaborators / mentors:

Stephan Caspar (Associate Teaching Professor in Media Creation and Multicultural Studies
Director of The Kenner Room)
Emily Davis (CMU Archives)
Kathleen Donahoe (CMU Archives)
Crystal Johnson (CMU Archives)
James Morris (Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University)