This photo is of the First Church of Christ (the white church in the Shorpy photo) as it was burning in May of 1931. To the right in the photo of the burning church is Webster Hall, renovated in recent years thanks to the current Illinois governor's largesse to house special collections. Butterfield Hall is the brick structure to the right of the church in the Shorpy photo, which stood for I think less than three decades before being torn down after the construction of Baker Library in the late 1920s. There are still many beautiful Dutch Elm survivors dotting the Dartmouth College campus.

The trees seem to be marked with bands. Why, I wonder?

[Insecticide against borers and similar bugs. - Dave]

The elm trees appear to have been treated with the same treatment we used when we had a gypsy moth invasion in Pennsylvania in the early 1980s, rings of gum to prevent caterpillar movement from one tree to the next. Gypsy moths introduced near Boston and causing heavy infestaton by 1880s.

http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/morgantown/4557/gmoth/trouvelot/

Majority of elms in the US were destroyed by Dutch Elm Disease shortly after this photo was taken. I notice the ghost marks of tree bands; a futile attempt to save the trees?

We do a similar thing with our oaks to protect them from cankerworms here in the South. Tanglefoot has been around for over a century for such purposes, but sadly, the parent company went out of business a year or so ago, so we're all left to experiment with alternatives. I hope we have more success than those who tried in vain to stop Dutch Elm.