Monday, February 27, 2017

Building names

Val Dimino, editor of The Port, called Friday afternoon, their one story lead dropped out, and she wanted to know if I could do something re Reynolds Hall, building names former and present etc. Said sure, will work on it this afternoon.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Ambrose Corcoran

He was in in the old Art & Industrial Art program 1945-81. Got a call from someone who said they have an art piece of his, and wanted to know a little more about him. Very interesting, will call back today, want to ask if I could get a digital image of the art piece. Found I did not have a folder on Corcoran, so am making one up now.
Update: Brad Schrieber, Advancement, emailed me re the Daily Eagle piece I ran on this Corcoran story. C's daughter Penny has maintained some contact with the college, and he was asking about putting her in touch with the fellow who has the pastel artwork.
Latest Update: the fellow in NJ sent me some pics of the reframed piece, said is interested in talking to us about the college having it, and is happy to talk to someone from Advancement and Corcoran's daughter, so am connecting them all, see what happens.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Credit hour definitions

Peter Dowe from Registration came over. Was looking for the statement made some years ago re definition of credit hours. Found in a 1992 Faculty Handbook, was not online. Scanned and sent to him for his reference.

College Senate materials

Tracy Daniels contacted me, apparently "they," the current president of senate and some others, are wondering if I'd like to take some of their materials for the archives. I'll have to go look, see how much there is. The extra space I got in the move is going fast!


UPDATE: in emailing Tracy, current president etc., mentioned that a student intern is researching the old Student Faculty Association, that ran c1946-66. By coincidence they are looking at what they can do to increase student involvement, and were very interested to hear about this earlier incarnation of the college senate.

Gene Orbaker '53

Doug Collier contacted me about Gene, who is an alum, and taught here c1958-95, PE. Wants me to find some pics etc from Gene's days on the soccer team here. Will scan some of what I have, not sure ID on some, maybe Gene can help. Will get some Stylus articles etc. too.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Sarah C. Smith

This student came up again. She was here a term or two c1872, and then went on to become a missionary in Japan with the Presbyterian church, where she helped found Hokusei Gakuen University in Japan. Interestingly enough, Kazumi Nakano, Mathematics, who just passed away, was a graduate of that college.


A fellow there is researching the history of the school, and has asked for some more help. Will see what I can send, I don't have much, her name in register, a flyer for BSNS... Will look some more in NYS Historic Newspapers too.

Roxio, where did it go???

Had told Bill Hullfish's wife I could digitize some audio cassettes for her, for his birthday party coming up, but went to do it today and discovered that in one of the various recent tinkerings with PCs in the archives that software was removed. I do still have the CD, but not the product key, which seems to be missing... Sigh, wish when they are fiddling with PCs they would put back everything that was there, since of course I had it all there for a reason!




Well, my 6th intern is trying to chat with Roxi, also downloaded Adobe Auditions that IT said we could use, see if that works. UPDATE: Jake was able to get Adobe Auditions going, digitized one cassette, so we're up and running!

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

"Spring Day"


Query re "Spring Day," from an intern in Advancement, response below.

what you’re asking about has quite a history actually. There was a “May Day” sort of event that was very big here for years, c1902-1938, called Color Day. (See attached photo.) I even have some film footage, digitized, of several 1930s Color Days. Then later, in the ‘40s and ‘50s, they had a “Spring Day,” which was a student recruitment sort of thing. Later still, in the ‘70s, there was a spring event that was basically a big beer party with bands on the mall…

 

   Let me know more what you all need, what you’re planning, and I’ll see what I can find.

Fannie Barrier

Researcher wanting information on FB, sent her the obit, Lee's letter, the"autobiography" article...

Six interns!

Am picking up a 6th intern, Jake, who will do a 3 credit internship in the archives. He'll start by helping me digitize the Hullfish tapes, then go on to do a popular culture study by tracking student musical interests via the Stylus and Saga.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Low Bridge High Water

More canal interest; this celebration is annual, but special this year, as it is the bicentennial of the start of the canal construction. I am working with folks from the Brockport Community Museum on their contribution to this. My part will likely include sharing the Guelf images of the canal and of its expansion c1914. Someone from the Union was interested in this too.

Canal & College

VP Willis contacted me asking for a list of college connections, events etc. with the canal. Supplied a list of Stylus references c1930-1985, events along canal, activities, concerns re pollution... He replied back that the list was helpful, and related that they are looking at enhancing the college property along the canal. I had never thought of it, but we are actually the only SUNY located on the canal, we have 800' or so of frontage.


I will look for more material in old master plans etc. and share with them.

SUNY Central policies re promotion

Specifically for c1998. Good question, hard to answer. I have scattered UUP member docs in archives, Jennifer Smathers found these when she was trying to help a patron, but I also have Faculty Handbooks, which aren't for '98, but there is a '92, and online I found a '01, none of which seemed to vary much. Scanned relevant pages from the '92, emailed, noted that part of the problem is that there isn't actually a SUNY archives, for the system as a whole.


   Never has been, the materials that exist languished for years in various places, including a warehouse in the Albany area. Ken O'Brien and Bruce Leslie of our history department have pushed for years to get an archives set up for the system, and they think that there may be someone appointed in the near future. This would be wonderful, it is so unfortunate that the system has lacked in this area all these years.

Tuttle & Tuttle

A little question, but made me do some research: someone commented on the Rose Archives page on Facebook, asking about Tuttle building, was it named for their gr-uncle, Ray Tuttle, a local politician and local historian of years ago. I knew the building was named for Ernest Tuttle, PE prof here c1937-65, but found myself unsure re any connection between the two men. Long story short, after a little digging, found that Ernest Tuttle was from the Watertown area, and as far as I can tell not related to Ray Tuttle.

Bill Hullfish

His wife contacted me, they are having a birthday party the end of the month for this emeritus of the former Music Department, and she was hoping for pics, audio... I found some images I could send, both photos, Stylus articles etc., but no audio. Then she got back to me, had found some cassette tapes. So she dropped them off today, tomorrow I need to see if I remember how to run the digitization of them on the one PC!

Dorm & building names

Shared the pic of Janette Reynolds, first librarian with Dave Tyler, who posted on Facebook. That got a response from someone who said they had lived in "Reynolds Hall" in the '60s. Dave asked if I knew of that hall, and at first I was thinking it was some sort of mistake, but then found an article in the Stylus about it! The question has prompted me to revisit the issue, something that has nagged at me a few times, the issue of dorm and building names. It seemed like some names had "moved," some were dropped etc., but was never too clear about the details.


So am digging a little now, one thing I found was that they named buildings almost literally by halls, so Morgan at one time in the '50s had four names for the four "halls." One of those was Thompson, which was "moved" as it were to be the name of another building. The quad dorms of today, MacVicar etc., were once not only MacVicar, but Chriswell and Reynolds. Confusing, and a shame too, to name things, then lose those names. Reynolds should have had Drake named after her!

Update: am looking into this more, the plaque for Edwards hall came to the archives, a big bronze item, gift of Class of 1958. The original set of dorm "halls" were Edwards, Perry, Neff and Morgan, I think, I need to research to be more clear. I have 1950s photos labeled Edwards, it looks like in the section that was demolished in '90s when they extended the mall into the back of Hartwell.