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!