Archives exhibit explores history of IU’s landmark Sample Gates

The history of one of IU’s most recognizable landmarks is displayed inside a glass case on the fourth floor of the Herman B Wells Library.

IU Archives’ newest exhibit, “A Coming In, Never a Going Out: The Vision of the Kirkwood Gateway,” features correspondences in typewriter font, receipts and sketches from the planning of the Sample Gates.

The gates have become one of the most recognizable places on campus, said Krista Timney, senior associate director of marketing and communications for the IU Office of Admissions.

Images of the Sample Gates appear in the main admissions brochure sent to prospective students, Timney said, as well as other pamphlets and emails.

“It’s a very popular image, and I think that’s just because it’s one of those images and one of those places on campus people just associate with IU,” Timney said. “You see a picture of the Sample Gates, and you know that’s IU.”

Carrie Schwier, an assistant archivist with IU Archives, said she first conceived the idea about two years ago, but the bulk of the work was all done in about a month.

“I came to Bloomington to come to graduate school with the image in my head that the Sample Gates had always been there,” Schwier said.

The Sample Gates were dedicated in 1987 and will have its 25th birthday this June.
 
“It’s such an iconic symbol of campus, and to realize that something so recent is so iconic, I wanted to learn about it,” Schwier said.

Initially, IU’s graduating classes of 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1902 had the idea for an entrance to campus from Kirkwood Avenue.

Originally, they wanted the entrance to be an arch, so they began a University “Arch Fund” to collect money for the proposed entrance.

The landmark wasn’t always as well-received as it is today.

Among the other documents displayed in the IU Archives’ new exhibit is a column from a 1972 issue of the Indiana Daily Student titled “I.U. needs education, not gates.”

In it, columnist Ron Sentman urged students to write to attorney Benjamin Long, who was to donate a large sum of money to the fund.

Sentman encouraged students to ask Long to use the money to fund scholarships instead of what would become the Sample Gates.

The University considered more than five different gate designs.

A proposed design from 1967 features a series of six wall-like structures.

It was a more modern take on the gates, the New York architecture firm Eggers and Higgins wrote in a report.

While Schwier said she liked the idea, she didn’t like it for the Bloomington campus.

“The part that really got me excited was the drawing that was much more modern than the other proposals, the one from 1967,” she said.
 
“It sort of floored me that it was so different from what we ended up with. We would have a dramatically different site today if that’s what they used.”

The other designs, including the one that became the Sample Gates, adhered to a more gothic design, allowing the structure to blend in with the surrounding campus.

“The Sample Gates fit seamlessly with the area, so you think it’s been there forever,” Schwier said.