William B. Hemmer

Advancement staff asked about him. Was a professor here 1970-90, started in "Curriculum and Instruction," then when Health Science became a dept was part of that, not sure on the dates for that. Not much else, no bio file in RG26, I got the above from the directories and catalogs, the latter also giving his credentials.

President's house or Burlingame House

Interesting, a professor emailed asking about the Burlingame House, saying that he knew someone once whose wife's family had lived there. I answered as follows:

...that is interesting about your friend's connection to the Burlingame House, now the president's house. Below is a link to a digitized edition of an old book from 1940; on p80 there is a piece about the house. Herman Burlingame, whose name denotes the house nowadays, was a professor of mathematics like you and served here at the college c1868-1890. 

https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/local_books/2/

   I am also attaching an article from the Stylus of 1969 that gives some background. The timeline is that for many years the principal, as the head of the school was called then, lived in an apartment in the building (the predecessor building to Hartwell Hall.) Then c1890 the school bought the Harrison House, now Alumni House, and the head of the school lived there up through President Tower's time. When he retired in 1964, the building was converted from a dwelling place into a sort of office space/faculty lounge.

   President Brown at first lived in a home he purchased himself, and then in 1969 the college bought the Burlingame place on Holley Street. At the time the thought was that that was temporary, and a new house would be built on the outskirts of the village, but in the end the Burlingame House remained the home of the president until this day. 

Rosie LaSorte Rich

Student from HST390, Martin's class, is going to be interviewing Rosie (one of our emeriti,) and came to the archives to research her time here (c1955-65.) Shared some student papers, yearbooks, Stylus...

Gwendolyn Brooks - Writers Forum

Student was interested in this, but not digitized, and only exists as a reel to reel tape. I worked with Ken Wierzbowski to use the reel to reel player in archives, but that machine seems to need some adjustment. Ken had a personal reel to reel and he hooked to one of our digital recorders to digitize it.

More donations

Got a big box from Allen this am, and then an email just now asking if I wanted some things. The flow of materials from Allen as people move out for renovations is pretty hard to keep up with!

Special Olympics 40th

Mike Andriatch emailed myself and several others re the fact that it is the 40th anniversary this summer for when the college hosted the Int'l Special Olympics here. It was a tremendous occasion and event in so many ways, it will be exciting to work on it. A group is being formed and will meet soon.

Update: the first meeting is 3/29. I found a wonderful article written by Nick Mascari in 2009 for the old Kaleidoscope for the 30 anniversary of the event, and scanned and sent it to all on the committee. A great capture of the event, I will put it up in the Special Olympics community I am going to make in Digital Commons.

GAR records

Had a call from an '04 alum who had heard from his mother, who worked with Ken O'Brien when the county historian materials were here in the early '90s, that there was a set of GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) books here. I told him I was here then, but didn't recall those in that collection, and anyway, when the county historian office moved back to Rochester the materials went there. Also mentioned Bill Andrews Brockport and the Civil War book, the book on the 140th etc.

Interestingly enough, the conversation then turned to the fact that this alum had done some interviews with Mirko Plyshenko c2000 about Mirko's role in bringing the Soviet sculptor Tseretelli here who crafted our Special Olympics statues. See next post!

J. F. Forbes

Archivist at Stetson University in FL inquiring if a former president of theirs had been here in the 19th century. Checked and there was a JF Forbes here from 1878-1885 as a professor of "Ancient Languages." Shared a couple bits from the Brockport Republic etc.

Blackface, minstrel shows, Saga, Stylus

The issue of blackface images in yearbooks was in the news this winter, with the case of the governor of Virginia, and a pair of local Democrat & Chronicle reporters decided to go through regional college yearbooks for the years 1975-1985. They did not find any in our Saga, but there are some, just not those years. The pictures are mostly farther back, c1960 and before. They are generally in connection with minstrel show performances.

In response to all this the president asked me to chair a working group she met with this past week. Her charge to us was to examine the materials and make recommendations to her as to how to proceed. The most likely outcome perhaps is to expand on the disclaimer I already put up on some of the archival pages. 

Interesting to explore this issue really. Blackface and minstrel shows are so little known now, almost taboo, and yet 60, 70 years ago they were such a commonplace. If you search the NYS Historic Newspapers database for example not only Brockport, but other schools like Geneseo and Oswego had these shows. The village newspapers are full of references to them as well.