A photographer and a scholar

When Biology Professor Arthur P. Mange joined the faculty of UMass Amherst in 1964, he didn’t just bring his commitment to teaching and an impressive scholarly background. He also brought a penchant for photography and a couple of single-lens reflex cameras and some 35MM black-and-white film. Over the following six decades, Mange shot all over the Northeast—and beyond. He did all of this while teaching multiple classes, including genetics, and writing several human genetics textbooks with his wife. After a 31-year tenure in the Zoology department, Mange spent his non-photography time serving on a number of committees, which included chairing the Conservation Commission and serving on the Committee for the Burnett Gallery at the Jones Library in Amherst. His photos, now housed in the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center (SCUA), have been showcased in many art exhibitions at the Burnett Gallery and the Hitchcock Center. His images capture a changing region through the 1960s into the 2010s.

Though obviously artistically talented, Mange always kept his focus on faithfully recording all that he saw and preferred to offer his photos in support of causes he believed in instead of monetizing them for himself. That is why Mange donated several pieces over the years to help raise funds for New York University, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center, the Amherst Historical Society, and the Jones Library.

“[H]is interest in photography […] and his coverage across time and geography have provided us with an incredibly rich collection featuring representation of plants, landscapes, architecture, and many features of the area around Amherst,” says Libby Coyner, university archivist for SCUA.