Illini 411: What happened to the alumni portraits displayed at the Illini Union?
Featuring interactive exhibits about the past, present, and future of the University, the Richmond Family Welcome Gallery at Alice Campbell Alumni Center is a showcase for the heritage and global impact of the University of Illinois. (Image by Jeff Dahlgren) A: The portrait gallery in the Union’s east corridor honored recipients of the Alumni Achievement Award, which the Alumni Association has sponsored since 1957. A few years ago, the gallery ran out of wall space, and the UIAA and the Union began removing the earliest portraits to make room for the newest honorees. The UIAA recognized that was not an ideal solution, and in 2018, it created a digital exhibit in the university’s heritage museum, the Richmond Family Welcome Gallery at Alice Campbell Alumni Center, which includes all of the portraits, as well as short biographies of the recipients. In 2025, the Union installed a duplicate exhibit and removed the physical portraits, which the Alumni Association will donate to the recipients’ families. Please stop by the Welcome Gallery or the Union to check out the digital exhibit!
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