Detail of “The Battle,” Homer’s Iliad, XVI.565-566 from the University Commons dining room (Scan #4707). Historical Photograph Collection, Box 177 folder 4, Columbia University Archives
The University Archives exhibition cube currently features some photographs of the University Commons, the on-campus dining room in the old University Hall located behind Low Library. The Commons had served as a highly-efficient cafeteria while the student-soldiers of the Student Army Training Corps (SATC) were on campus in 1918-1919. With the end of World War I, a committee was tasked with devising a plan to make the unattractive and previously barely-used University Commons more appealing to the students and staff. Management was placed in the hands of University officials who had known success at Teachers College and during the SATC days. In the weeks following the Summer Session of 1919 the entire look of the room was transformed: paintings were placed on the walls featuring scenes from Greek vases, surrounded by verses from Homer and Hesiod, and even the rafters were decorated. The changes were a huge success.
