Friday, September 29, 2017

Bob Hellman manuscripts

Bob Hellman, botanist emeriti, came today with two manuscripts. Very enjoyable experience meeting him! He had two manuscripts, one a memoir of his life as a naturalist, one on evolution, that he wanted to see about publishing. After discussion with Kim Myers and I, he decided to work with us. We'll digitize his typed manuscripts, place on Digital Commons, link to Creat Space & Amazon etc.

Class of '93 Stylus writer

Alum from '93 asking about where to access the Stylus, if is online... Answered that it is, 1928-2014, gave her the link, explained how to search, browse by issue...

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Ghosts and Strasser

Some pieces and info needed for The Port. One was a piece on Rose Strasser, the other was about the ghosts of Hartwell. Ran across a ghost thing I'd forgot, the photo a student sent me c2000 or earlier of a "ghost" she saw in the fountain by the library!

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Trees on campus

Jason Dauehhauer from Social Work stopped by, he is involved with a lot of local/college history efforts, and is part of the planning for the renovations at Alumni House. They are cutting some trees down, and then going to have them milled into planks. He wanted to know if I had any information on the trees in between Alumni House and Hartwell.


I found some documents, including an 1894 Brockport Republic piece that mentioned a number of trees being planted on campus by a local landscaper, and another by Dobson from 1954 reminiscing about the trees around campus pre WWII. Some older aerial shots were of interest too.

Hickerson questions

Doug emailed with some college history questions for a project he is doing, e.g. when was the old Normal torn down etc. Emailed back the answers.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Erie Canal "Lab"

The recent meeting about the Erie Canal "lab" or interdisciplinary group led to contact with a new botany prof in Environmental Science and her grad student, who were interested to hear about the 1899 herbarium in the archives. Perhaps it will lead to a project sometime, comparing plants now and then...

Campus school reunion - Plattsburgh

Interesting, a couple from Plattsburgh, contacting me re doing a campus school reunion there. They wanted to know if there was a SUNY central archives that might have materials. I said there wasn't, not really (not that is staffed and accessible anyway.) Suggested they contact the folks at Plattsburgh State, see what they have, also put out calls in local media for info, old lists, class photos etc. If Plattsburgh is like Brockport, I imagine there are many campus school alumni in the area there.

Robert Tuttle 1938

His son contacted me, re donating his dad's old yearbooks. Said would be glad to have them, and also took the opportunity to see if he is related to the Ray Tuttle whose local history columns I put online recently.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Knapp Museum scanning

Sue Savard from the local Knapp Museum brought over a folder of fragile newspaper articles etc. she wanted scanned. Some interesting materials, especially the one on Mary Jane Holmes. One had to do with the Cornes family, prominent here in the 19th century. One member of the family wrote a series of articles reminiscing about Brockport in the antebellum era, which I have only seen quotes from, they may have been run in the Democrat. Sue has a typed set of the original articles, am going to borrow from her, scan, and add to Digital Commons. Great engagement with the community stuff!

Monday, September 18, 2017

President Brown memorabilia

Some memorabilia of President Brown (recently deceased,) is coming to campus, given by the family to Advancement. They have asked if I can house it until decisions are made as to what to do with it. His uniform from military service, Special Olympics medals...

History of History Department

Jamie Spiller called, is bringing over an intern of theirs who is to work on a history of the department, especially the last 50 years since we became a comprehensive liberal arts college. Have pulled some materials to show them, will work with her...

Bob Hellman

Was contacted by the Provost, who had met up with Hellman (Biology-Botany) at an emeriti event recently. Bob was a botanist in Biology 1960s-1980s. He developed the arboretum at the Fancher campus among other activities. He is 87 now, and has some materials he wants to give to the archives, and also has a book he is interested in publishing. The Provost thought it would be something Kim Myers and I could help with. I am going to contact Bob asap.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Class of 1967

They're up for Hartwell Society induction this year. Just started researching for slideshow and talk which will be on 10/20.

Mortimer and Gay Freedom League & Fiction

Spent time with each of three current interns today. Lyndsey is turning up some very interesting material on the 1970s Gay Freedom League, Samantha found a neat point in Mortimer's career I wasn't aware of, namely that she had taught at Elmira College when it started in the 1850s for a year or two, so she was involved in several start ups of higher ed for women. Brittany has been making some good discoveries in Doris Bird's student teaching notes, so good work all around!

Hickerson update

Doug and his wife Diane stopped by, to collect his scrapbooks of Suburban News articles, which I've digitized, they are a treasure of local history, personalities, scenes... They will be uploaded to Digital Commons soon. I gave them a flash drive of the jpgs of all the scans and helped Diane load onto her laptop, showed her how to edit in Photoshop, insert into Powerpoint for a talk Doug is giving... Great community engagement opportunity!

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Intern update

Right now have three interns, each doing a 3 credit internship. Have spent a fair bit of time with them this last week, getting them situated and started on their respective projects. Great topics, all of them, Mary Mortimer bio, creative fiction based on Doris Bird '39, and the Gay Freedom League of the 1970s.


Update to the update, am adding a 4th intern, a 3 credit one also.

Bruce Biondi

Star wrestler in early '70s, going into Hall of Fame, athletics staff wanted some info on him. Found several articles in Stylus that were helpful, saved pdfs, edited in Photoshop etc. and sent to them. Update: turned out they wanted a photo too, which was tough, since photos from the early '70s are few in number, mostly lacking ID etc. Yearbooks weren't much help either, but found a halfway decent headshot online, from a SUNY Farmingdale student paper article on him (he later transferred here.) Edited and cropped that for Athletics to use.

Friday, September 1, 2017

Name for new dorm

Got a call  re building names, they are thinking about possible names for the new dorm being constructed on the west side of the Allen-Drake complex. I listed some of the names that have been "retired" so to speak, Reynolds, Chriswell, Vanderhoof..., and then suggested as another option the new building be named after Fannie Barrier 1870.