Thursday, May 19, 2016

Campus woodlots

Chris Norment from Env Sci emailed asking about the woods and land in between Commencement Dr and Redman Rd. I answered that a grad student named Kira Hansen had contacted me about that in February, but after a couple emails I never heard back.


Anyway, emailed him the 1974 Stylus article I sent her, had info on that area. Some was purchased by the college, some donated by Prof. Swartout. They were talking then about creating an environmental science center in those woods, but never happened. Also sent Chris some scans of old plat maps, Bob Hellman's contact info etc.


The Stylus article is in the buildings folder in filecity2.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Roland "Sandy" Sandberg '59

His widow, Doris (Collins '59,) contacted me telling how he had died quite young, in 1963, and she wanted to see if I had any photos etc. of him. He had played on the soccer team in college, and I did find some photos, Stylus articles, and Saga materials I could scan, edit, merge etc. to send her. She was very happy to get them and looking forward to sharing them with their adult children.


Update: after I'd sent two batches of photos etc., I got the following note from Doris Collins, a nice part of this job, to be able to help like this:




Dear Mr. Cowling,
    You have been wonderful and thank you so much for all the pictures and articles you sent.  I've been sharing them with the family and they sure brought lots of happiness to all of us and to Me.  Doris

Don Nasca-Nelson

Had a surprise visitor the other day, Don Nasca Nelson, who taught in the campus school and eduction departments for many years, c1955-1995. I have photos of him shooting off Estes rockets on the lawn of Hartwell in the 1950s! He also started the Office of Sponsored Research, forerunner of todays grants and development office.


He is interested in researching the history of the campus school, and the office. I showed him some materials I have here, and have shared more via email. We had quite a long visit, and I want to get together with him again this summer to do an oral history interview.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Digital Commons vs. ContentDM

I've gotten this question 2 or 3 times now, fellow archivist/librarians, debating over whether to go with Digital Commons or ContentDM. My answer in brief is that I went with Digital Commons because it is so much easier to work with. ContentDM is quite labor intensive, you have to do things just so, per the thesaurus etc. Digital Commons does what we need to do, and does it easier... (This most recent query was from someone at University of the Pacific.)

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Special Olympics Fountains

Query from admin and facilities, they're reworking the water spray set up in that fountain. It was originally a copper ring, that started to fail, they added some sprayers, which now need some work, and they are trying to ascertain the original plans. Tough question, I do not have actual plans for that or the Prometheus statue, I assume those went back to the Soviet Union with the sculptor. I might have some images that show some detail, maybe something about it in the Stylus, newsletters etc.


Update: after a lot of digging, found some photos that may help. There were two key events. First, the "Happiness..." statues and fountain were constructed, like Prometheus, the summer of '79, completed just before the Special Olympics. Then later, a senior grounds man here, William Minoia, proposed a landscaping plan that was accepted, funded by the Brockport Foundation, and dedicated in 1982. That was the paving block walk ways, the bushes, benches etc. Prior to that the statues and fountain had simply sat in a bed of grass.


Also discovered that Tsereteli is still alive, so just for fun emailed to two links for him, asking about his vision or intentions re that fountain. No answer yet...

Issue of Stylus

Brockport alum, now a grad student elsewhere, looking for the 10/3/2012 issue of the Stylus, said it wasn't online in NYS Historic Newspapers. It isn't, I checked, and that's because it isn't in the microfilm copy. I also do not have a print copy. Darn, I think I missed a couple issues that year, there were some problems with its distribution etc.


So emailed back and explained that just do not have it...