Sig Synnestvedt

Was asked about this fellow, who was chair of history c1969-1974. A bit of a spotty period for photos, but I did have some bio information. There was a nice piece on him actually in the Huffington Post in 2017.

Henry Spencer

Matt Ballard, Orleans County Historian, sent an email asking about a Henry A. Spencer, Class of 1880. It's an interesting query, I was not familiar with this man. Apparently he was African American, from the Albion area, and was in fact an 1880 grad of Brockport, the "Classical Course." He then went on to get a bachelors from Univ. of Rochester, and had an active career, including serving in the NY Assembly, and on a Frederick Douglass Memorial committee. He was also supposed to have been a Gamma Sigma member while here.

Intriguing stuff, I sent Matt some information, and will continue to search for more!

Saga yearbooks

A question re the early '70s yearbooks. The answer was that no, there just isn't a '74, and being yearbooks, not everyone necessarily showed up to get their senior photo taken.

Boozer and Joe Bellanca '59

Photos needed for these two football stalwarts. Bellanca was on the '57 team that was the first winning team in "modern" history here. Boozer was the coach and prof who was tasked with starting up football at Brockport after a hiatus of many years (the previous team was c1890-1910.) Had photos for Boozer, had to dig for Bellanca, but found some, a Saga shot and a nice group shot in the 1950s 4x5 negatives.

Public Safety annual reports

Archivists love emails like this one, the secretary in Public Safety asking if I'd like their run of annual reports 1970s - 1990s. Boy would I ever! Short of a formal mechanism to have things sent here this sort of random "donation" is how a lot of materials come here.

Library intern success

It's so nice to be able to write that two of the library school interns who were here in the last few years have gotten jobs. Andrea Leasure who was here this fall got a job at the Strong Museum as a cataloger, and Paul Chasse who was here a couple years ago (his father is emeriti, Business,) had had a couple temp positions and has now gotten a job at a special library, one for the EPA in Oregon.

Fannier Barrier

A 5th grade teacher was here researching Fannie Barrier for a presentation at Morgan Manning House.It will be him and 3 students recounting her life. Shared some scanned docs, images, locations of her house, two books etc. and discussed the background and context to her life as I know of it.

Dr. Spiller's Public History

This class was in last night, a great group, some excellent questions. Hopefully they learned something about what an archives is, how it is organized and what some of the challenges and opportunities are.

Professional roles report

Was asked for a report that was done by a faculty senate committee on professional roles and rewards in '98 (they also did one on faculty.) We have a pretty complete run of senate materials now from its beginnings c1967 to recent years, found it in there, scanned and sent to them.

1840s Brockport genealogy..

Someone messaged me on the Rose Archives page on Facebook and I asked them to email, I find FB messenger inconvenient and awkward. They are researching a couple who lived in Brockport c1841. I had to tell them that that period is a tough one, the village newspapers of the day have not survived, the Brockport Republic starts in late 1850s. Not much in the way of directories etc either. I did see if any mentions in latter years, but weren't, and I asked if she had contacted the Brockport United Methodist (she has a wedding certificate for 1841 from there) although unlikely they would have such records. Also connected her with the village museum.

Adam Lazarre marker missing

This is a shame, a commemorative tree marker honoring Adam Lazarre of Theatre from 1991 has apparently gone missing. I didn't actually have a photo of it, but luckily Bud Meade did, and that supplies the needed information to replace it.

Boozer Golf Tournament

Alum who played in one of the tournaments c2002-06 emailed advancement looking for photos of the event. So far have found '05 & '06, will contact him and see what we can do.

1978 Saga

The secretary for the school of education and health emailed, they had got a request from a '78 grad for a copy of the yearbook. The grad was from Kenya, and went back there after school here, such a long distance connection! I had an extra copy and brought it over to her.

Pan Hellenic Society

My wife goes to a Greek Orthodox church, and while visiting there with her one Sunday I told someone about the lantern slides we are digitizing, that include slides of Greece. He is a member of the local Pan Hellenic Society and they are interested in me coming to do a presentation of the slides sometime this coming spring.

143 average

Happened to notice that there have been 1073 posts in here since starting this log in late August 2011. If you call it 7.5 years and divide, you get an average of 143 posts per year. Frankly, not all queries make it in here, and many that do are revisited multiple times due to expanding lines of inquiry etc., but 143 is a respectable number considering the amount of time typically involved...

Mary Mortimer

John Maier, English, who has been writing about Caroline Parker, a Seneca who was here in the early 1840s as a student, came looking for information about Mary Mortimer, who was an instructor here then. I shared some information and let him check out the 19thc bio of her from local history, which has a good bit of material on her Collegiate Institute years.

Rochester area school desegregation and campus school

Had a visitor yesterday, a reporter for the D&C, who has an independent project, he is writing a book about school desegregation in the area and was interested in the part our campus school played. We have some records and documents here that he reviewed, and I am trying to connect him with Jeanette Banker, who is likely one of the last people around who would have been here c1970 in Education/Campus School and know something about all that.

Clara Stratemeyer

Got an email query about her, she was here 1936-1946. Apparently she had been president of the Association of  Teachers Educators in 1938, and the association is celebrating its centennial this year and wanted info about her. I searched her file, the Brockport Republic, and yearbooks. Interesting, she got a PhD in '42, at a time when not so many Teachers College faculty had that. She was instrumental in starting the Newman Club as well. Got a nice email back from the woman who contacted me too!

Oh, this is fabulous!  Thank you, Charlie…you’re the perfect archivist!

Board of Athletic Control

An email query came about this body, which was here many years ago. I don't have a distinct file on it in the archives, but there were a number of articles on in the Stylus from the '70s and '80s. It was a board whose members were appointed by President Brown and whose charge seems to have been to oversee the athletic programs, make recommendations on team retention and creation and so forth.

Tom Nugent, asssistant football coach

A couple of emeriti inquired about this fellow, who was in Academic Advisement c1970-1990s. He was an assistant coach for football in the '80s, and they want to get a locker named after him. The football files are pretty extensive, but what each year has is mostly player rosters, game stats etc. It's hard to find listings of the assistant coaches for most years. I need to dig more, but so far he seems to have been 1984-1989, maybe a year or two later.

Archives consultation

Staff person in Enrollment emailed asking about setting up an archives for their professional organization. Shared a few thoughts, and said am more than willing to get together and discuss.

Wrestling team rosters

Advancement staff need some wrestling team rosters from 4 different years, 1980, 1982, 1983, and 1992. I found three in the wrestling files, and am checking the Stylus next, the one relevant yearbook didn't have a name roster, just a photo.

Unabomber coverage in Stylus?

Student asking if the Stylus covered the Unabomber story in the '90s. I said they had, she could search it in NYS Historic Newspapers, explained how to use...

(Note, this and previous post had accidently been placed in FODL blog, the requests were from last week...)

ee cummings paintings

Someone from Advancement wanted a photo of a particular Cummings painting we have. They had been told by the retired campus photographer he'd shot some digital of those paintings. After hours of looking through photo CDs was able to find some Cummings ones, including the image sought after. My student assistant's new project is to work on sorting out that photo CD collection!

Alum drop-ins

Once in awhile alumni just drop in, and a couple came by today, Class of '74 & '75 respectively. They were up from Long Island, wanted to see old yearbooks, and they had a nice visit, the wife wanted to see field hockey and gymnastics photos too. Turned out the husband had been as assistant manager in the old Rathskeller!

Rochester Birding Association

The lantern slides event I did for the Friends group this month prompted an attendee to suggest to folks at the RBA that they invite me to do a presentation for them. They did contact me, and I am scheduled to do it this coming February.

Harrison Hall

Two students needed history of Harrison Hall, and who it is named for. I shared some links and information with them.

Hot Tuna

Got a question about when they played here in the '70s. Used Stylus in NYS Newspapers. They played in '73, some other articles, sent link to the one, explaining how to use etc.

Mary Jane Holmes

Two students researching Mary Jane Holmes for an ENG485 contacted me. I emailed back with links to the Mary Jane Holmes material online in Digital Commons, mentioned the Knapp Museum where they have a room on her, and offered further help as needed.

History of Alpha Phi Alpha

Student research request, isn't anything here, but Stylus online has some info, am sending link to NYS Historic Newspapers, how to search etc. The archives has very little on the modern day Greek societies unfortunately...

Alternate College

Interesting, an alum, who is in that Brockport History Club, and was a student here in Alternate (now Delta) graduating in '78. She is writing a paper on it for the club. I sent her some info and links, and she is coming to visit next week, it will be informative to speak with her.


Update: she did come in, spending the afternoon today in the archives, going over some of the records of the Alternate college, especially the 1971 proposal and so on. Am going to scan and email me her a couple documents tomorrow.

Women's Rugby

The current president of the Women's Rugby team contacted me, wanting to research their history. Like the men's club, I have very little, since they are clubs, not "regular" teams like gymnastics or basketball. Told her about the Stylus online, where I see the women's club as starting in '79, not '89 like she thought. Perhaps the earlier start didn't last and was revived later...? Will meet with her soon and am looking forward to building up the record on this and men's rugby.

Lauren Gildemeyer 2010

Star on gymnastics team, I was asked for photos. Hadn't had to look for a gymnastics person before, sure wish they had numbers on their leotards, lol. I found a portrait shot of her, but it's very hard to tell if one of the various event shots is her or not, they all have their hair tied back, are photographed at different angles etc. Sent the portrait shot, said if they wanted were welcome to come over and try their luck with the game photos, someone from athletics might recognize her better than me.

Fannie Barrier Williams

Advancement staff looking for basic bio info on her, and a photo, to use in Alumni House. Supplied same.

The Port, Hartwell Hall

Wrote a piece for The Port on where Hartwell Hall gets its name from, and that reminded me that I'd once scanned a spread in the 1940 Saga on the "new building," nice feature, photos of interior and exterior, text descriptions... I'd never gotten it into Digital Commons however, so while I was at it uploaded it in there.


 (Hartwell was built in 1938-1939, replacing the old Normal building which had been in approximately the same location - they took down the Normal in sections, replacing with the new building. Hartwell was originally just "the building," as the old one had been, until after WWII we were always a one building school. Hartwell was named after Ernest Hartwell died in 1965.)

Underground RR

Interesting, a faculty member with a house on Chappell St sent photos of some sort of hidden space in the building, wondering if it could have been a stop for the Underground RR. The house was built in the 1850s. Some other local historians are looking into it, they may know more, I am not sure I do, but will see what I can piece together.

Special Olympics memoribilia

A staff person called, has some Special Olympics memorabilia from '79, I will go pick it up soon.

Faculty Emeritus List

We had a faculty bio list or spreadsheet before, that came from a different area, but unfortunately it was riddled with errors. My student assistant started this fall redoing a faculty emeritus list from scratch, and currently has a little over 400 entries: name, department and dates of service. It's seemingly simple things like this that make a lot of archives work and research possible! I know folks in advancement will like it too.

Lantern slide presentation

This presentation is scheduled for 10/2 and have been working on the powerpoint, researching some aspects of birding & ornithology history etc. I did take a trip to the Yates County Historical Society museum in Penn Yan where they have an extensive collection of papers and photographs of Verdi Burtch, one of the photographers.


As a result of this research am considering writing a book or biographical dictionary of pioneer birders and ornithologists of upstate NY, something that could go in Digital Commons.

Advancement planning

Had phone conversation with Advancement VP re some projects he would like me to take part in, e.g. emeriti dinners they want to start running this coming spring etc. Good opportunities to present the college history and to learn from those who made it.

1957 Saga

A department secretary emailed to say the widow of a 1957 grad had contacted her asking if we'd want her husband's yearbook. I said of course, we have a number of them, but I'll take it. It's important to take things like that, to show respect for people's time here.

Meeting with Class of '68

Met with the Class today, as part of their 50th reunion weekend. I really enjoy this opportunity to speak with people and share some of not only their class history, but the bigger history of the school with them. We had a pretty lively exchange about the history of the old collegiate institute for example, they were very interested by that period.

Education Dept 50th

Dawn Jones of Education has contacted me, they are interested in the history of their department!

Book scanner & DS Morgan Papers

The new historian at the Morgan Manning House is coming over to use the book scanner, which is great, we specifically stated when getting it we wanted to share it with community people. She is also coming to look at the Morgan papers we have here, which I have suggested they might want to have at the MM House, which would seem a more appropriate home for them.

History of dorms

Someone is writing an article for The Port on the history of dorms here. Quite a big topic actually, I will work with them to see how much depth they need, find photos etc.

History 50th

Last minute, needed a photo of a '69 grad, which I was able to find and scan for them.

Special Olympics

Student researching the Special Olympics is coming in to look over materials in the archives.

Tree sections

Four trees were felled when working on new space behind Alumni House. Most of the wood will be milled and used to make benches and chairs, but Jason Dauenhauer has 4 sections of trunks in the basement of the house. The idea is to use one or two as a prop to illustrate the history of the college, "This ring corresponds to the establishment of the Normal school..." sort of thing. One might be used for village history, I suggested that and have shared the idea with the Community Museum group.


Update: the community museum board is interested, and a tree section is now at a board members barn to be used to present village history. Another section is at Jason's home and that one will be used for college history.

Game shots 2008-09 women's basketball

For athletics, picked out 6 or 7 from two different games that season and sent to them.

Another grandparent

Another staff person looking for info on their grandparent, in this case Emma Mitchell. She turns out to have been one of those student's who did both high school and normal school here, '24 & '27. Scanned pics from the commencement issues of Stylus for those years and sent to him.

13th NY Regiment Civil War

AskDrake query, looking for info, manuscripts... I double checked the regiment on the NY military affairs page on Civil War regiments, shared that, made some other suggestions, e.g. Rundel's local history office.

Scholarship biographies

Barbara Powers from Advancement came by. She is trying to enhance the bios on scholarship givers, which currently are very basic entries. I shared some info she can use from her office, e.g. the Bud Meade Updates on Digital Commons, and showed her some resources kept her, e.g. photos, bio files in RG26... We will be working together.

Emeriti & Brockport Republic

Spent some time helping an emeriti looking for the local paper on microfilm learn how to navigate the NY Historic Newspapers site.

Gamma Sigma and its connections

Heard from a researcher of early college fraternities again, asking for some feedback on his ideas of expressing some of the interconnectedness of some of these groups. Suggested that my sense was that a key aspect of higher ed history is exactly that, the connections, a Mary Mortimer leaves Brockport in the 1840s to go on to a long career as a pioneer in higher ed for women in several institutions and states, and it would be hard to speak of one aspect of her life without at least mentioning some of the other...

Ellsworth

Spoke on phone to Dave Cohen '56 other day, part of a research thing suggested by Mike Andriatch. Dave was part of the group of friends, including Bob Bloxsom '58, the artist for Ellsworth, who came up with the idea of the mascot in 1955-56. He had some information I'd never heard before, great stuff, I did a write up for The Port, may mention it in the Daily Eagle at some point too.

Counseling Center

Sharon Belle-Render was by today, wanting to explore the origins of the counseling center for some research and reporting she is doing. I had not pursued this before, interesting starts in 1968, and found a nice Stylus article from '70 that captures the work of the center; much like the work it does today in many ways. Have sent to her, and will look for more.

1937 grad connections

This was neat, an IT staffer came by with a new hire, an IT director, and this man's grandmother was a 1937 Normal grad! I shared her yearbook info with him, and I did find her transcript/admission record which I will scan and send to him. (She is deceased, it is over 70 years ago...) He said he'd known her pretty well, she had been a math teacher and he used to call her often to talk to her about his math work in school.

Scan for village museum

Sue Savard from the village museum came by. She had a newspaper page she wanted me to scan on the book scanner, a 1927 one page spread on the closing of the W. S. Lee grocery store, for a descendant. She also brought me an 1890s class photo of the Normal school, so a good trade!

EOP 50th

Found some more EOP photos in the Jim Dusen collections, awards ceremonies in '90, '94, but that may have about tapped out what I have!

Six boxes

Got six, actually seven boxes today from the president's office. Six were various document series, and one was campus memorabilia, Ellsworth dolls, metal college seal plates... More things to process :-)

Don Askey - EOP 50th

He called and wanted to come over, said couldn't access some Saga yearbooks online. I checked and sure enough, some 2 part Sagas were only displaying pt1, not both parts. Am fixing in Digital Commons, had him come over to look at year books and will scan some pics from them. Better for individual shots anyway, than cropping out of the pdf files. He also has emailed a list of people he'd like photos for, various EOP directors etc.

Athletics photos

No luck on a team photo for 1974 Men's Soccer, not in the photos, and there's no '74 Saga, they didn't do one that year. Will look for 2 athletes they want to induct to hall of fame, but am waiting for the teams they were on and numbers, it's really the only way I can look for them.

Richard Butwell

He was a professor in Political Science here c1968-71, and his adult son contacted me asking if we had any photos of him. I looked, but unfortunately that period is poor for photos, there was a lot of turnover, not much of what was taken survives etc. The yearbooks weren't of help either.

EOP 50th

50th anniversary celebration for EOP coming up this fall and I am being asked to supply photos etc. Have said will start taking a look and see what I have.

Rugby Club (Doggies)

Great, just received an email from an alum who was in the rugby club here. He had contacted me earlier this year, inquiring what I might have in the archives on the team. Turned out I had very little, they are a club, not one of the varsity/jv college teams, so not much on them other than Stylus articles. He now has a meeting coming up with some other alum from the club and they are going to start putting together what they can for the historical record.


He wanted some suggestions and so I mentioned things I'd love to have, e.g. photos, physical or digital, flyers, newsletters...

Center for Philosophic Exchange

Joe Long from Philosophy brought over some digitized interviews from this forum. We talked a little about the history of it. I said if he had a student who was looking for an internship research project this would be a good one, and he reminded me that next year, 2019, is the 50th anniversary of its founding. It started in April 1969 after the successful International Year of Philosophy that was held here. I scanned a few pages from a 1975 history of the program to share with him, will add to my list of possible internship projects.

DCC250 Leadership

Delta faculty with a question about this course, is still on the books apparently, although not offered in some time. They are considering reviving it, and thought it started in the '80s. Searching the catalogs I found that it actually doesn't appear until the 1999-2001 catalog. (Delta didn't start till late '80s, was Alternate College before that.) Course only ran a few years, scanned the initial entry and sent to them.

Joe Kandor

He has passed away, and the dean of his school, he was Counselor Ed., wanted pictures of him. I found 2 sets of portrait shots, from '88 and '96, scanned, edited and sent to him.

Edward Stephany

Was math prof here c1946-1980. Have been asked about him by scholarship office, they want to expand and enhance their scholarship bio sections. Have supplied some bio and photo material.

Doctoral candidate

Have been contacted by a doctoral student from D'Youville in Buffalo, who needs to do substantial (200 hours) research in an academic archives to study changes over the last 30 years. Have replied, will set up a time for them to visit and take it from there.

Photos for a college publication

They need one each of Tower, Hartwell and Rose Strasser. The two presidents are easy enough, but I only have a limited number of shots of Strasser, am scanning a couple more.

Class of 1968

Recently began scanning, cleaning up and assembling a stock of images for the upcoming 50th reunion of this class, for their memory book, slide shows...

Brockport streets

For a Brockport Community Museum project of mapping and noting all village streets, past and present, have helped in part by supplying a 1949 map of the campus that shows where Millard and West College Streets were. (They were off Kenyon, where the mall and Lennon-Smith are today.)

Jeanette De Smet 1939

Had an email from someone today about their grandmother, who has just died at 99. She was a 1939 grad of the school, and they were looking for something about her time here. Scanned some pieces from the yearbook, the Stylus, and sent to them, along with some explanation of what a "Normal" school was etc. Would have been interesting to speak with her, she was in that last year the old sororities were here, she was Arethusa.


Just heard back from the grandson, it is notes like this that make the work rewarding!


This is amazing!  I can’t thank you enough. Sorry for all my grammatical errors I was running through the airport while emailing you. Also, I clearly gave you her married name and not maiden name!  Thank you for putting this together for us, it means a lot. 

Metro Center photos

An intern at Metro Center emailed asking about "historic photos" there that they are not bringing to the new site. Answered that if they are related to the college's time there then I would be interested, but if they are of earlier eras it might be best for them to go to Rundel Local History or the city historian...

More History Dept 50th

Intern contacted me, asking about department annual reports, Middle States docs etc. Double checked what we have, then got back to her, she will come to see them...

Audio cassettes - oral histories

Received 15 cassette tapes of interviews with 10 or so individuals, faculty etc., done c1998. They are new, not held in archives before. They need to be digitized and added to the filecity2 folder. Will mean hooking back up cassette tape converter unit, seeing if Audacity or whatever it was I used last is still on PC etc. Then it means baby sitting the tapes while they are run, editing, saving... Will have to see if have time this summer, may need to wait and be done as a student intern project.

2008 Womens Basketball team photo

A request came for this photo, found in Dusen photo CDs, emailed 2 shots to the requester in Athletics.

Alum info request

Have a question re Florence S. Brown, whom a school is named for in Rochester. She is said to be a Brockport alum. Am not finding her in print alumni directories, someone else is looking in Banner. Tried the Stylus online but is some weird thing going on where it isn't searchable right now in NYS Historic Newspapers. Have contacted someone at RRLC about that.

Football photo

Someone wanting a photo of a football player c1993. There's not a lot in the Jim Dusen notebooks, since a lot of sports photography then was being done by some local freelancers. I have some of their prints, but they're mostly unlabeled, no dates, names... It would be a herculean task to go thru them and try to date etc.! Spent an hour or so, did find a '93 team photo at least.

Archives stats July 2017 - June 2018

Some numbers from another busy and productive year:

• 180 plus requests for information, many of them of an ongoing or intensive nature.
• Six students completed a 3 credit internship each, three in the fall, three in the spring.
• In Digital Commons the "College Archives" section had 6, 174 downloads, and the "Special Collections" section had 3, 932 downloads.
• 20+ boxes worth of materials were received from various offices and processed.

Photos from recent years

Was asked for a shot of a woman soccer player from 2012. The photos here peter out around 2011-12. I could not find what they wanted, and referred them to Matt Yeoman, current campus photographer, he has whatever exists from c2011 or so to present. Good reminder of a job for Lyndsey when she starts as a student assistant in the fall, to go through the notebooks of photo cd's, check labels, organize, make more notebooks for the many loose in the one box...

Be careful what you ask for...

You may get it! I have been telling people, including at a public meeting on the Allen Building rehab, that I would be happy to take files they no longer want. Well, so far, have received 10+ plus boxes of files, and one 2 drawer cabinet, stuffed full!

Photos for new locker room

Athletics, looking for photos of three players from early 2000s for newly refurbished locker room. Will have to dive into the old Jim D. photos and see what I can find. Luckily he gave me their team #s!

Hamlin CCC/POW

Have been contacted re doing a joint talk with a local expert on the former CCC & POW camps at what is now Hamlin Beach Park. The married vets temporary housing buildings once near Hartwell c1950 were structures from the camp that were moved here. Will be working with this fellow to do a Mornings With Professors in Spring '19.

Intern recommendations

Was able to serve as a recommendation for a student who did an internship with me a couple years ago. One of the enjoyable things about having interns is the chance to get to know students on a more extensive basis than the one time encounters at the reference desk. Sometimes later I am able to be a recommendation and assist them in getting their career underway, a great feeling.

Genealogy requests

Have had a couple genealogy request the last week or so. Summer is the time for it I guess! For both I shared the link to and an explanation of how to use NYS Historic Newspapers. One woman wrote back, said that was helpful, she was asking about further genealogical resources, and I recommended the Rochester Genealogical Society web page and Facebook group.

Google Doodles

Just a fun idea thing, it occurred to me to see if I could get Fannie Barrier Williams in as a Google Doodle, that rotating image of a famous/significant person when Google launches. Found address to submit, and as part of the effort uploaded a better pic of her to wiki commons and added to her Wikipedia entry before submitting her nomination. See what happens!

Alumni Association files

Received 6 boxes of materials from Alumni Association office. Am going through as I can, have made a few interesting discoveries, e.g. a photocopy of a 1941 doc showing a map of campus and location of all plantings done when they landscaped the newly built Normal school building (Hartwell Hall that is.) Nice list of plants too.

NBA aka Noontime Basketball Association

This group was started by Dick Mancuso, Physics, about 1980. It was a group of faculty and staff who played basketball, pretty competitively too, noontimes 2 or 3 days a week. The league died out in the latter '90s. May 2018 there was a reunion of a number of players at Bill Grey's in Brockport. I attended and was given two artifacts for the archives, the MVP trophy cup they gave each year, and a piece of plank from the old Tuttle north gymn floor where they used to play!

Dates for incoming frosh weekend Fall 1985?

Heh, advancement staff who got this thought it was a tricky one, but thanks to the Statements and Stylus, was able to answer the question from an alum. Scanned and sent the relevant cover pages along with my answer.

Summer internship

Library school student (at Univ BC in Vancouver!) home for summer, looking for internship. I spent an hour or so with her talking about archives, libraries, open access, Digital Commons... She'll start in a couple weeks, working with me in archives and Kim on various aspects of Scholarly Communications.

Fancher - Hickory Ridge CC

The Boozer golf open competition is there this weekend, was asked for some info re the history of the site, dates... Sent a scan of the '65 Alumni News article on the camp, and a Stylus article from '86, from the Fancher folder in filecity2. Those and some added narrative from me were what they needed.

History - 50th - faculty photos

Got a 5 page list of history faculty asking about photos of them from their grad student working on this. I emailed her back and asked if she could revise so it is last name first, A-Z, it will just make it so much easier to search and keep track. Some I'll have scanned already, some there may be negatives or prints I can use, or may have to hunt the yearbooks for a decent one, and some may just not be found...

Brockport clock dedication photo

Have helped with research on this, the clock installed in the Methodist church tower in 1914. It has now been fully restored to original working mechanical condition (yay, they were going to electrify it but didn't!) There will be a rededication of it this June. Doug Hickerson brought me a photo of the original 1914 dedication, which hangs in the village mayor's office, I'd never seen it, and I scanned it. Will send image to him, have posted in Facebook's "Remembering Brockport" etc.

Query re Robert Blake's books

This education prof died this past winter, and I got an email from Advancement, where they'd been contacted by his daughter wondering if we wanted his books. Replied by copying Erin Sharwell in, who handles donations, and sent the daughter a scan of a 1970s portrait shot I found in his bio file.

Charles Crawford & Ray Coley

Was asked if had images of either man. Crawford was athletics director c1976-83, no photo found. Coley was an early '70s EOP staff person, I already had a photo of him I'd scanned from the Stylus.

Summer Arts intern

Spent an hour with intern working on Summer Arts Festival giving her a refresher on scanning negatives and slides, starting with the c1960s 4x5" negatives.

Stylus reunion

Current editor stopped by, they're having a reunion - tomorrow, and she was looking for images, rosters of staff... Directed her to yearbooks, said could take pics with her phone, no way I'd be able to scan for tomorrow.

Brockport Statements

I was asked about the old Brockport Statements, if I have them, and are they digitized. They are in the archives, but they are not digitized. One of my goals is to at some point get them and the Alumni News series digitized and into Digital Commons. It seems hard to find the time to do it myself, so what I need to do is to have my student assistant this coming fall go through and get page number estimates, so I can get a quote from Biels on pricing for them doing it. Maybe the library, or Advancement, or a grant...

Wrapping up with interns

This spring I had three interns each doing a 3 credit internship. That's 24 hours a week one or another or all three were in here, plus the student doing a 1 credit internship! It calls for a lot of engagement on my part, but it is rewarding too. Highlights for this spring were one intern doing a thorough inventory of the main photo prints collection in the file cabinets in RG29. Another student did an inventory of the map cases. Both these areas were somewhat in the way of black holes, and now I have some better information to use for myself and add to the finding aid, which, as an aside, has been downloaded from Digital Commons 723 times as of today. The third student is finishing up a comprehensive survey of the Summer Arts Festival, which should be of real use going forward.

Promethean

Honors newsletter, new, or rather resumed student done production. Very nice, will add to collection. Raises that digital preservation issue; it was sent out digitally, via email. I printed one copy to add to print files, and will store the digital on filecity2. How much else like this is floating around out there on staff PCs, various cloud folders..? Who will see to it that it will be kept and made available should, say, an alumnus want to see it 10 years from now?

Soccer, Men

Advancement wanted the names of men soccer players for 1947, 1948, 1950 and 1951. Scanned the pages of Saga, for '50, since they didn't list the names that year, had to dig, but found a hand written roster in the team files that was able to add. Merged and sent them the doc.

Clarkson Academy

Question from an emeriti who is part of the Clarkson Historical Society. They want to get a historic marker for the building and he's trying to verify dates. Did some poking around, Clarkson is not that well documented in general, and that academy in particular is a bit fugitive. Helen Hastings history of local schools has some info, and then NY Historic Newspapers etc. Have made some suggestions, offered to get together... Wish I knew more, there a connections between this academy and our BCI, Charles MacLean was a grad of the Clarkson academy and then taught there before coming to Brockport for example.


Update: a member of the society came by today and I spent an hour or so going over sources, especially the ins and outs of using NY Historic Newspapers, which, while extremely useful, is a bit clunky and not particularly user friendly.

50th anniversaries

Chemistry and Theatre are set, and were happy with what I did for them, now am working on history. They wanted scans of the department entries from the old catalogs, I showed their grad student assistant how to do the scanning, then I merged the files and just sent to them. Much more to come, especially digging for photos.

Old yearbook seekers

A couple stopped by and were hoping they could get a '64 and a '67 yearbook. I had extras and gave them copies, they were very happy to see them. They were both '67 grads; the husband was the brother of Wayne Arnold, who used to be head of local history at Rundel, I knew him when I was getting started here.

Community engagement - local history

Have been working with local history folks to craft a libguide that will have information about and links to the various webpages, finding aids I am adding to the Digital Commons etc. Just this morning I uploaded a finding aid to local history collections at the Seymour Library.

Wrestling video

'63 grad inquiring about film footage of a wrestling tournament in the mid-60s. I didn't find it unfortunately. The problem is that much of the film, video and other footage that was shot in the '60s,'70s and '80s did not survive the dissolution of the former "ECC," the Educational Communications Center. It was the big umbrella organization that held Brockport TV, AV etc., and when it was broken up into its various components in the early '90s a lot of material was just thrown out...

Class of 1918

The post in the Daily Eagle about the graduating class of a century ago, the Class of 1918, was popular, I got 5 or 6 emails about it. One was from a woman who works at the college, and her grandmother was in that class, from Pittsford. I emailed her the full class photo with her grandmother (Cecelia Kates) in it. I also mentioned that NY Historic Newspapers had a number of mentions of her grandmother in the old Fairport Herald.

"Birds eye view" of Brockport in 1880

I scanned the 1880 "aerial" or birds eye map we have of Brockport and put in DC. Had to crop slightly, posted in FB, have someone who wants to see the sliver cut off on left, will scan and send to them.

History of Rugby team

From an alum, member of team in early years, who believes they will be coming up on a 50th anniversary in 2020 or 2021. Will dig a bit, see what I have, they want to come visit, and will share about Stylus online, see what photos I have...

Local historians

Met with several local history folks this past week, representing the Village of Brockport, Morgan Manning House, Town of Sweden and the Town of Clarkson. I did double duty, representing the Brockport Community Museum and the college special collections. I had made a libguide that all can use to make it clearer for researchers who has what, contact information etc. Will be updating per people's suggestions, and linking to some finding aids they have supplied which I am putting in Digital Commons.

Janette Reynolds tree

Sent text in this morning for a plaque to be placed with the memorial tree being planted this spring in honor of Janette Reynolds, Class of 1873, who was the first professional, full time librarian here from 1894-1924.

Rose Strasser

Advancement needed info on this pioneer of dance here at Brockport. She was the founder of the dance department, having built up a program over many years starting in the late '40s. Sent some text biographical information and a photo.

Tennis anyone?

Hah, couldn't resist. Anyway, a student has contacted me trying to research the history of tennis here. Told him was no neat paper summing it all up, but lots of primary sources, eg the Stylus, tearbooks, athletic records... Suggested some initial avenues of approach, invited him to come visit the archives...

Update: meeting with him today at 1pm...

Interns

Have been working a good bit with interns, especially with Tyler. He has finished inventorying those map cases, and we have been going through them, culling items not needed, better packaging/housing others etc.

More 50th work, Chemistry & Theatre

Lots of hunting for images and scanning of same for these upcoming celebrations. Spent some time yesterday with Emory Morris looking over the slideshow I have made for them.

Portrait photo G. D'Agostino

Request for the original of a very low quality image photo portrait of Coach D'Agostino. Have spent several hours hunting, still no luck, will continue a bit more, it is for the annual lecture in his name. All I have for sure are some c1970 images of him coaching, a couple featuring then photographer Laslo Boroshy.

Poster scan

Pat Maxwell needed a large image scanned, an artwork poster. Scanned for her today.

Donald McWherter

A librarian elsewhere looking for an obit for this person, will check obit/RG 26 files.

Honors club time capsule

The Honors Club students that visited before want to come back this evening and maybe next to assemble a time capsule of their own. Will set it up for them, place materials on black table, have someone at circ let them in... One of the challenges of being a "lone arranger," if I can't be there, which I can't because I have a community museum meeting, then either I have to make other arrangements, let people be in the archives on their own with material out for them, or say they simply have to do it another time... I tend to err on the side of making things available and taking my chances, these students were here before, they should be ok on their own.

Chemistry 50th

I need to get on the Chemistry 50th, have been distracted with interns, other queries, lantern slides etc. Ken Schlecht emailed about it, had a funny anecdote or two to share, plus a good suggestion re capturing the time the dept started, e.g. the Rathskeller, Spring In, construction....

Special Olympics time capsule

Contacted by a staff person asking about this, I will double check, but my recollection is that there was a time capsule placed, I think in the area of the stadium, but the record of the location is now lost. This is the problem with time capsules, the locations are forgotten, or if they are known, the contents get water damage etc... Many advise it is best to place such an item in your archives, in sealed boxes, which is what I did for that Black Student Liberation Front reunion of a couple summers ago.


Update: I looked into this, found and downloaded two Stylus articles that were pertinent. In 1979, at the close of the Special Olympics, a number of items were collected to be put in a time capsule and placed at "Special Olympic Park," that is the part on the east side of Drake Library, with the fountain and the Happiness to the World statues. If the capsule was placed there,  the location is not on record, and it may well have been covered over in 1982 when the park as we know it today, with the walks, benches, walls etc. was constructed. (Originally it was just the fountain and the statues.) So as of the time of writing this I do not know for sure if the capsule was ever actually placed there, or if it was, where, and if placed elsewhere I have no record of that. The 1982 article lists a number of people involved in constructing and planning the park, I suggested they might try contacting some of them and see if they know anything. I was told once or twice over the years that the location of the capsule was lost...

Faith Prather

Is retiring end of spring, have a request for photos of her. Will search Jim D photos, I know there are some nice ones in there.

Photos of early radio station

Needed for The Port, a story they are doing on WBSU, its history... Had some scans from Saga etc., and found a neat shot c1960 of early closed loop broadcasting of a basketball game.

Gleason Cooling Board

Researcher from another college inquiring about this 19th century Brockport pioneer in the embalming and undertaking business. Had to dig some, but I was right, one of the Guelf photos is of the Hotel Brockport, which had earlier been the Getty Hotel, in which Gleason and his partner had their offices. Sent that photo, shared links and info about using NY Historic Newspapers, the local history materials I have online etc.

Erie Canal tug image

Greg L. who has been doing photo restoration work for different local groups contacted me looking for the original negative and scan of a Guelf negative. Turns out I have the original tiff scan, but the actual negative is probably at the Knapp Museum. In looking into some of the turns and twists of who has what of Guelf's, I found out that there are glass plate negatives of his at the MM House. I have asked about seeing them, I think these may be some that were not part of the original scanning done with a grant that Mary Jo G. organized some years ago.

Photo of Sara Morgan at college ?

New historian at MM House asking about this. I think she is in the shot I have from the dedication of Morgan Hall c1951, but I don't have a firm ID on any of the three ladies, so any confirmation will be great.

Spring In & Washington Semester

1975 grad emailed asking if I had photos for these. I have a few random Spring In shots which I sent her, but not for the '74 Washington Semester.

Bernie Lynch

He worked in the radio station in the late '70s, '80s, was asked if had a photo, but could not find one.

Scanning glass slides

A curator at the Bailey Herbarium at Cornell contacted me, saying he'd heard I'd been scanning glass slides! Must have been someone who'd seen my Flickr album of glass lantern slides of bird images. He wanted to know what my procedure had been, so I explained my methods to him...

1970 Barge (Erie) Canal study

1972 alum posted to Ask Drake inquiring about a 1970 undergrad study of the canal done by Biology students. There was a document, and apparently a film, supported with National Science Foundation money. Unfortunately after checking neither has survived the years, not in the archives anyway.

Campus school closing

Query from some campus school alum who run a Facebook group for campus school alum, from across SUNY I believe. Wanted to know about the closing of the school. It was in 1981, the state funding had already dried up, and the school was running on federal grants, largely on the basis of the urban-suburban integration project it was part of, but that funding dried up too. It just had run its course is probably the truth. It had been part of the school for well over a century, there was a "primary department" in the old Collegiate Institute in the 1860s and earlier.

Head shot of Walter Brautigan

For secretary in Ed/Health...Think have a few in Jim D photos, will scan and send...

Henry Gould & Francis Claffey

Advancement asking for bio info on these two science/biology teachers. Both came here in the late 1940s in that early wave of expansion, and taught into the early '70s. What changes they saw! Both have scholarships in their memory. Supplied some material, will dig for more as needed.

1974 Soccer

More needed, Stacey is coming next week to look thru soccer files.

Lantern slides

As a little fun side project have been scanning some glass lantern slides of birds. I had been explaining to interns what those slides were in the big wooden cabinet, and happening to notice the drawers labeled "birds" looked at them later. Realized that many of the photos were taken by notable pioneer birders and ornothologists like Arthur Allen a century ago. Fascinating material, great photos, and the quality of the hand coloring is astonishing. Have set up a collection in Flickr.

Hiel & Phebe Brockway

Helped Mary Lynne Turner with a little of her research into this founding couple of Brockport. Am doing one of several readings at her presentation at Morgan Manning House tonight.

Digital materials

Digital materials, so much to consider, so much to learn! To that end, am attending this upcoming RRLC day long workshop to learn more about how to:


incorporate accessioning digital materials, processing them, and planning for their long-term preservation. The focus will be on low-cost and free tools and services. 

President's office

Staff in President's office contacted me saying they are cleaning files and asking me to come over to give them some suggestions re what is worth keeping, what to send to archives etc. Am going over Th morning.


Update: meet with Nancy & Julie. There will be probably 8-10 three drawer file cabinets of material coming to me over time. Quite a bit to go through, but many good additions to the collections are there.

Honors club

Was contacted by student from honors program who was here last semester with Donna Kowal. The student is coming back this evening with the members of the Honors Club to visit the archives, learn about archives, the school history...

Gay rights history

Former intern now interning with Rochester city historian looking for info on gay rights at Brockport re gay rights. Sent her Lyndsey Richard's power point before, said would help her with more research.

Local house history

Faculty member looking for info on their house on White Road. Shared info re plat maps, Brockport Republic online etc., and they will be back later in semester.

Summer Arts Festival

Follow up query re Summer Arts, asking about famous actors etc. Here is some of what I answered:

I do know that Marc Connolly, noted playwright and actor, was here for the first summer festival in 1960. He played the stage manager in their production of "Our Town."

   In 1961 Leo Carroll, star of the TV show "Topper" was here to appear in the play "On Borrowed Time."

   In 1963 Peggy Wood, a noted actress of the day, was here to present a program entitled "Finders in the Dark," and also starred in a production of her show "I Remember Mama."

1974 Soccer Team, Men

Athletics contact, the team won the national championships that year, they are looking for a roster etc.

Greek life over the years...

Happened to notice an event of this title advertised in the Daily Eagle, and looking closer realized it only covered back to the '70s. Understandable, the previous, extensive Greek history here c1850s-1930s is little known today. Contacted the staff advisor to the Greek council and was able to secure a table at the event, which is tomorrow. Will bring some display items, make some connections...

Candidates for Hall of Fame

Athletics sent a list of 75+ people who are possible candidates for the hall of fame. They asked archives help to verify grad dates, sports played etc. One of my interns has begun working on this, starting with the 1992 and 2010 alumni directories, then on the Stylus...

Theatre 50th

Theatre is looking at celebrating their 50th. One initial request was for video/film of a play done in the late '70s. Unfortunately a lot of the films and videos shot here over the years like that were lost in the last years of the old Education Communications Center, or when it was dissolved in the early 1990s. I only have a handful of Brockport produced films, mostly some recruitment films.

But, have lots of still photos, Stylus etc., so will be using those to help.

AAS100

A couple students from the AAS100 class were in to research black students of yesteryear. One is looking at Robert Bray '37, the other Barb Stevens '53. Showed them yearbooks, how to search Stylus, catalogs, shared some further history of the school.

Bio info on 3 possible honorary degree candidates

Bio info needed on some candidates for honorary degrees, all of whom have some Brockport connections. Will search RG26 files, Stylus etc.

Hiel Brockway info

Local researcher working on a presentation on Hiel Brockway looking for early newspapers. Will help her, I do have print and microfilm of the one paper, 1830-33, but unfortunately most of the early newspapers were lost to fires in the 1850s. I suggested documents like the Cornes manuscript, digitized here last year, which is an extensive account of life in pre Civil War Brockport and includes a lot of anecdotal information about the Brockway family I have never seen elsewhere.
 
UPDATE: She was in today, we talked a while, I showed her some different resources and she spent time with the old newspapers.

Guerrilla Girls possible donation

A 1970s alum contacted us re a donation related to this group. The background is her involvement as a young woman c1980 with the actor William Hurt, with many connections to the "#me too" movement of today. The materials are not connected to Brockport, but relate to this group that was formed, feminist activists... I have responded to her, and hope to meet her while here in Brockport, but I do feel it might be better in a larger setting where it would get the attention it deserves. It really seems like a collection that is a little out of my league here so to speak.

UPDATE: am meeting her Th @10am.We met and had a cordial chat, and agreed that this material would be better served at some larger, better staffed and secured archives. I am going to check around and make some further suggestions, one I made already was Cornell's women's studies...

AAS100

Had Naomi Riley's AAS100 in this morning. Gave a brief presentation on general history of school, diversity here, then some students went to the main library for other research, but two groups stayed in the archives. One to research the beginnings of the AAS dept., and the other to research the history of blacks at Brockport. I had some different files, catalogs, yearbooks etc out, they seemed to enjoy the experience quite a bit, asked some good questions... Some may be back for further work.

Michael Dei Anang

A colleague referred someone to me who is researching Michael Dei Anang, a native of Ghana who was a faculty member here in the 1970s. He was a chair of AAS, and died in 1978. He had been a gov't official in Ghana, and a poet as well. I will have to look for a photo, I don't see one in his bio file from RG26. At one time some books were donated in his honor to the library and there was a collection, but that was already gone or dispersed when I came in 1990 - I think. Some research to do!

Victor Fadool

Request for info on a Victor Fadool, his son contacted athletics, thinking he'd played football here late '40s. Team records are incomplete, but have learned to search further, people are often unsure of exact dates etc. Even back then too you can't assume he graduated, people did transfer out and so on even then, he isn't listed as a grad. I did find a mention of him in Stylus 1951 as being picked for baseball, and then found a couple photos with him in them for baseball and sophomore class pic. Scanned, sent along to athletics.

HST390 - Martin

Morag Martin, History, had her HST390 in today for me to talk to them about conducting oral history interviews etc. They have a rather challenging focus, medical and health issues, but the general principles are the same.

MM House historian

MM House has a new historian, Rozenn Bailleul-LeSeur, and we spent a couple hours together this morning. Her husband is a chemistry prof here, they are relatively new in the area, so we spent some time discussing general local history. I shared a number of useful sites and books with her, as well as contacts for photos, scanning and so forth. It's great to have more going on in local history, and some good possible collaborative things can happen here, including on the Digital Commons.

Spencerport history

Student volunteering/interning with the Spencerport historical society is coming in to see some Spencerport books I have. While there isn't a Spencerport newspaper in NYS Historic Newspapers, I was curious, limited to Monroe County, just searched for Spencerport, and actually got a number of hits, largely BR, mostly brief things, but some more substantial.

Ariel - volunteer

A student who needs to do some volunteer work as part of a scholarship has started today, she is going to type up that Cornes manuscript from the pdf, then we'll have a Word doc we can edit, correct, enhance...

Education prof

An education prof stopped by, ended up showing him around, sending an email with links to things, he is interested in his social studies teacher students doing research with primary documents. We discussed a number of possible topics etc.

Eloise Wilkin

Got a request from Advancement on behalf of an alum looking for the bio of this "Golden Books" editor. We do have a copy, in JUV, The Golden Years of Eloise Wilkin. She had a Brockport connection, her mother was a Harrison, of the local merchant family who once owned Alumni House before the college bought in the late 1800s.

Social media student

Student intern from the social media folks on campus, looking for pics and stories of things about Brockport people might not know. We spent an hour talking and looking through photos. I assembled and emailed her in sections 15 or so photos, of the old Normal school building, Nellie Gansworth '44, Spring In, etc.

Knapp Museum

Emailing with Sue Savard at the museum, re the Cornes manuscript, and about my idea of making a libguide to better illuminate the local history resources available in town. She sent me a spreadsheet of their holdings there, will be interested to go thru it when have the time.

Facebook response

I often get a lot of "likes" on the "Remembering Brockport" group page in Facebook. A recent post of the 1926 high school class that was here at the old Normal got a lot of likes, and some comments. One person had had one of that class, Lois Mercer, as her teacher at Kendall as a girl, and another emailed me to ask for info and pics on her grandmother, Winifred Lee. Both students went all the way in campus school from 1-12, then into the Normal, a complete Brockport education!

Eric Steel & Gloria Mattera photos

Request from Advancement for photos of these two. Steel was a language prof here many years, 1940s - '60s, well known campus character with his dog Fen Fen, lol. Mattera was a '52 grad, and prof at Geneseo many years, instrumental in migrant ed work. Had some good shots of Steel, only an undergrad shot of Mattera, have reached out to my counterpart at Geneseo.

Team summary reports

Folks in athletics inquiring about sports materials I have. Like a library ref interview, one sometimes drills down and finds out more specifics, in this case they used to keep a paper record of each team's season, a summary, and are thinking of getting back to that, but they don't have those records anymore. I scanned and sent a few team summaries I have here, am waiting to see if that's what they need. Also outlined the holdings I have for sports and athletics records, which are pretty extensive.

Spring 2018 Interns

This spring have 3 interns, a much more manageable set than the 6 I had last spring! One, Qiqian, is doing a 3 credit internship working with me on our photo collections. Yesterday for example she scanned a set of 35mm negative strips I had found in processing, a 1962 CSEA award banquet. After scanning the strips, cropping and saving individual pics, she started working trying to ID the people. I may post some on FaceBook in the Remembering Brockport page for ID as well. A lot of the attention goes to faculty, civil service staff not so much..


Another intern, Rani, is doing a 3 credit too, on some research projects, starting with the Summer Arts Festival that ran c1960-1980s. I have little organized material on that, and it will be great to pull together what can be found from the Stylus, get a timeline, list of plays, venues, photos...


Lastly Lyndsey, who has interned before, is doing a smaller, 1 credit internship, focusing on helping me with sorting, processing etc.


UPDATE: Now have a third student doing a 3 credit internship, Tyler, who did one last fall. He will be working with me to inventory and organize better some collections, starting with the map cases.

Local history: who has what...?

   An upcoming project hopefully, I think it would be a good idea:

   I was emailing with Sue Savard at the Knapp Museum in town and part of the conversation was about the question of who people should contact re local history questions, who has what information etc. It isn't clear to people, should they go to the Morgan Manning House, the Knapp Museum, contact me at the college, the Brockport Community Museum...?

 I was just thinking, it might help if I created a libguide (an online guide, we do lots of them here,) specifically for local history, and detail as much as is possible who has what, when they're open, how to contact... Below is a link to the one I have specific to the college archives as an example. So something simple, but helpful hopefully, with a tab for each of the history groups in town... Then each group could have a link on their webpage to the guide, to provide more help and information for researchers.

http://library.brockport.edu/archives

The Port

Wrote and sent in a piece for the February issue of The Port, one of a continuing series on buildings and who they are named for, in this case Lennon Hall.

Gay rights, Stonewall riots...

A student who interned with me last semester is interning in the Rochester city archives and asked about gay rights history at Brockport. Luckily Lyndsey Richards covered that in her internship Spring 2017 and was able to share that powerpoint with the other student, as well as make reference to Tony Mascioli, Evelyn Bailey...

Scholars Day presentations

Someone asking if I get all Scholars Day presentations, and the answer is no, never have. There's no mechanism in place, and while some might be good to have, relevant to the college history, so many would not be, and the logistics would be quite challenging...

Bob Hellman manuscript

Bob came by and had some corrections to make to his "Snakes, Frogs..." manuscript that we are working on to add to the Digital Commons bookshelf. Ended up giving him back his print manuscript to bring home and make any needed corrections, and said I would be happy to come to his place to pick it back up.

Interns

Spent an afternoon with the one intern, Qiqian, showing her how to scan various negative formats, use Photoshop in basic ways etc. She will be working with me to reorganize the photo collections, and will be scanning some as well. As she is interested in a career in archives or museums, I am spending time with her to educate her about the ins and outs of these things.


Lyndsey, who did a 3 credit internship twice now, is coming back for a 3rd time, a 1 credit internship. She is going to be helping me to sort and process the backlog.

Backlog, backlog, backlog

Have been spending some hours these winter weeks trying to get some of the massive backlog of materials to be processed actually processed... It's quite a challenge, there always seems to be other things that need doing, but this year, 2018, am making this a priority as much as I can, it just has to be done. Unfortunately it isn't something I can have interns do on their own, or a student worker, it really calls for my hand to be there.

Spring 2018 interns

Right now I have two students doing a 3 credit internship each, and one who is doing a smaller 1 credit thing. One of the 3 credit interns is going to research the history of Christian groups on campus. A paper was written on the Newman Center and the Catholic group in the past, but nothing on the others, e.g. the old Wesley Fellowship etc. The other is going to work with me on organizing my photo collections etc. The third is Lyndsey who has already done a couple internships, and I may have her work with me on getting some of that huge backlog processed.

1984 Commencement speaker?

Query from a 1984 grad, thinking it was someone from the NY Times, and it was, according to the program it was Abe Rosenthal, executive editor, a real newspaper legend of the day.

Althea Ceasor

Request from folks at The Port for a cover article on Althea Largie Ceasor '89 that ran in Kaleidoscope in 1988. Was a little confusing, she is Largie in the article, I was only told Ceasor, and wasn't a cover photo, was an inside article, but did find it, scan, and send to them.

History 50th event

Spent a fair bit of time with an intern from history this past spring who was researching their 50th, and now am told they will have a celebration event this coming September and am being asked for photos for a slide show. Will see what I can find, nice to have ample lead time, as finding photos can be very time consuming!

BSG history

An email from a staff person who had been looking at the archive pages re BSG and wanted to know the identity of these two men. The answer is...

...they are, left to right, Henry Laster '67 and Lyle Akens '68. The photo is from the '67 Saga yearbook in which they are labeled "BSG Judges," who "...resolve conflicts... constitutionality of legislation... advisory disciplinary body...'

   BSG was just established at that time, it's their 50th anniversary actually, more or less. Before that there was a "Faculty Student Association," which the 1966-68 era divided into two bodies, today's BSG and Faculty/College Senate.

Tony Mascioli '54 Papers

These came up this past fall. Mascioli was a grad who became a pioneer for gay rights after Brockport. He is in the Genesee Valley Gay Alliance's "Shoulders to Stand On" hall of fame. Evelyn Bailey of the Alliance had talked to me this fall, looking for the collections of his papers that she thought had come here. I had no record or memory of getting them, and neither did the staff in Advancement (Mascioli had been a big donor.)


Turns out that the papers were never given to us as had been thought, and are actually with a relative of his in the area. I will be working with Evelyn and the relatives to see who gets what. There certainly are some interesting sounding papers relating to Brockport specifically, e.g. the script of the "Hangover Breakfast" play that was rather a controversial presentation here in the early '50s!

Environmental safety office

A question from an administrator asking if I'd received much from that office in recent years, and after checking responded that I hadn't, that all I have is a small amount of random material, the most recent from 2005. I added that if they have materials they no longer want to keep that I would be happy to take them, I an guessing that this is another moving out of Allen episode where they're looking to lighten their load...


Update: heard back, this is a different problem. Turnover in the office has resulted in a lack of records, and they were hoping I had them. I don't, there never has been a college wide understanding that materials no longer wanted, and not falling under the record retention schedule, should come to the archives. It has always been a very hit and miss affair.

RG30

Among other winter projects have been sorting out the Record Group 30 shelves. This record group holds various college histories, student scrapbooks etc. The collections were in a bit of disarray, as it's all been moved a few times in recent years, and some of the group subdivisions were in need of reclassing etc. That's one of the great things about an archives, there's always something that needs a little work!

Allen Building rehab and donations

Had people from the Presidents, Provosts and Advancement offices bring me boxes yesterday, 12 or so altogether. The building is going to be rehabbed over the course of this year a floor or two at a time. The occupants of the floors will have to move everything out, so now is a time when they are starting to declutter, and that leads to me getting some extensive, and often useful, archival donations.