Historical Image Bank Eindhoven University of Technology

Gemini-south building is to undergo an extensive transition through 2025 and the time thereafter. The images selected here prelude to that transition.

On 19 September 1957 the Dutch royal couple, H.M. Queen Juliana and H.R.H. Prince Bernhard, visited Eindhoven for the official opening of Eindhoven University of Technology. By signing the charter of foundation the queen officially confirmed the establishment of the new university a year earlier. During the following decades members of the royal house visited TU/e regularly. For example to mark foundation days or the opening of new buildings. Also when the city of Eindhoven as a whole was the destination of royal visitors, TU/e contributed to giving them a worthy reception. This could be in the form of presenting important research results or remarkable innovations. These visits were laid down in an extensive photographic record. This selection shows part of all those images. Most of them are on display also in an exhibition in the university library in spring and summer of 2022.

During the nineteen nineties and around the turn of the century photographer Bram Saeys fulfilled many assignments from Cursor, the TU/e university news journal. In early 2021 he transferred the extensive image archive that resulted from this work to TU/e Data Management and Library. Digitized files from this largely still analog record will in time be added to TU/e in the Picture. Presented in this special is a first selection.

The TU/e Students' Sports Center was inaugurated in 1967. Professor Jack van Lint, an avid sportsman and deeply convinced of the value of physical fitness for students and other members of the university community, played an instrumental part in making the SSC into a reality. The famous architect and industrial designer Gerrit Rietveld made the original plans for the new facility. The Sports Center was developed further as time passed by, partly to the detriment of the original, characteristic design. The SSC became a venue for a wide variety of sports and of sports events that became part of university tradition, like the Hajraa volleyball tournament. In 2023-2024 the SSC underwent major refurbishment and redesign. A series of photographs on display in the renovated building gives an impression of TU/e sports life through the decades. Some of the images selected also feature in this special. (Reference: De Kleine TU/encyclopedie)

About buildings and some of the art works on the TU/e campus, with some historic backgrounds

In the years following World War 2 the Dutch government decided to establish a second university of technology in the country. Eindhoven, with its highly developed electronic and automotive industries, was a main contender to become the location for the new institution from the outset. Nevertheless, the city made every effort it could to put forward its case. These efforts also resulted in the bidbook, a package of documents, maps and images providing a wealth of information on the city and its prospects for the future. This special contains selected maps from the bidbook. The original bidbook has meanwhile been transferred to the Brabant Historic Information Center at Den Bosch.