Rugby 50th

Spent much of the afternoon yesterday with some current and former rugby players at Alumni House. Got some great photos of some memorabilia, which was shared on Instagram. Much discussion and planning. I need to do more re the history. They want to do a memory book etc. One challenge I am having aside from generally being very busy is that some of the indexing in the NYS Historic Newspapers is off. So an article is said to be a certain date and page #, but when I look at the bound print copy I have a hard time finding it to scan. (I sometimes scan from the print to get a cleaner sharper copy.)

Threatre - posters etc c1965-1969???

Request from an alum of '69. Unfortunately this is a pretty blank era. The files mostly have programs etc. 1980s - early 2000s. The period she wants is pretty limited for photos too. Probably best I can do is scan old Stylus articles re specific productions, crop, clean up for her.

School colors

For a piece in the May issue of The Port I wrote about the history of the school colors. Had to dig a little in the old Normalia, but that and the Stylus gave me what I had thought was the story.

According the January 1902 Normalia, forerunner to the Stylus, "A short time ago a committee of students was appointed in conjunction with Prof. McFarlane to choose colors for the school. They finally decided on olive and yellow. The colors were worn for the first time on Dedication Day, when they adorned the speakers and faculty, and blossomed out in brilliancy on our loyal alumni." 

   The colors were highlighted in an annual event which launched in 1902, that of "Color Day." After initially refering to the colors as olive and yellow, by May 1902 the report on the first Color Day noted thatthe colors were prominently display, "In the office windows were the green and gold banners. The faculty and students appeared in chapel wearing the school ribbons..."

   In a 1932 Stylus article reference was made to the long standing tradition that "...the green of the grass and the yellow of the dandelion constitute the school colors..." 

George Lee, BCI

Family history request for this fellow. Yes, he was here in 1852, in the "collegiate" program. Interesting, when I checked the 1852 catalog, he turned out to have also been in that "Euglossian Society," an early literary society. He was from Twinsburg OH, rather unusual to have someone from such a distance attend here back then.

Carillion

Was asked for some info on the history of this for remarks the President is preparing. What I had covered the history of it 1955-1993. It was originally a memorial to war service and veterans. In the 1990s somewhere the original mechanical chimes died, and were replaced by a digital/electronic setup. The original chimes, or what is left of them, are in a storage room here in the library. I wish I had more hard info about the chimes after '93 but I don't at this point...

Update: another staff person called on this, and reminded me of the Ron Watts memorial effort, after he died in 1987, that resulted in a rebuilt carillon. I found an article in the old AlumNews from '88 and added that to the file and sent that to the folks who had inquired about it.

Frank E. Smith

Genealogy request, was this fellow here, he was born c1880. I didn't see him in the list of grads, nor in the old register.

Millard Street - College expansion - acqusition of property

This was west of Kenyon, part of that whole neighborhood taken by the college as it expanded in the 1950s and '60s. Someone posted in "Remembering Brockport" in Facebook about visiting Brockport with her mother, who had lived there, contacted me... I have replied and asked her parents names and street number, so I can see what I have. There are a number of files re house/property acquisitions, but at a glance I only see one Millard St. file.

As I looked through the files in RG20/1 I was struck by the fact that there were several college people who had their homes acquired. Wolf, library secretary, McCrory, librarian, several others..

Update: there is only one file for Millard St., #22. There were at one time, c1945, 7 or 8 houses on there. The files we have on property acquisition seem to be late '50s, early - mid '60s. Some of Millard had already been acquired by then, but the records are not in the archives

Raj Madan Cafe

The Aerie Café, which was established in the library in the fall of 1999, is going to be renamed at the end of this month in honor of Raj Madan. She was here 1965-2002, and from 1987-2002 was the director. I supplied bio information on Raj, the start of the café etc.

Course descriptions

Haven't had a request like this in quite awhile, used to be a real staple. Inquirer had 6 courses he'd taken c1980, needed course descriptions. Found 5, but the one I couldn't find, there was no REL410 in that year, nor in the previous or subsequent catalog. Scanned pages and emailed to him.

Instagram: brockportcollegearchives

Met with the college social media person and communications head, re social media. Shared what have been doing on Facebook, and have now expanded to Instagram, as "brockportcollegearchives."

Department founding dates

A dean asked about start dates for some departments. Some, like Nursing, are relatively easy, just go through the catalogs. Others though have changed since the catalog ended, 2007, and those are taking more research. This would be a good student/intern project: a spreadsheet with all departments since, say, 1965 (when the shift to a comprehensive liberal arts school began,) to date. Date of founding, original chair... I'll start one myself actually...

Update: I just got another such request. This is really a big research project, to ID departments, their founding dates, chair persons etc. One should really start with the transition to being a comprehensive liberal arts school c1966 and work forward. I started a spreadsheet, I will also look at org charts, Middle States etc., on my own and using student help before semester ends. A lot of digging to do, but it would be a very good file to have on hand.

Victor Rojas

He was here in Foreign Languages from 1971 - c2005. I was asked for photos and information about him by someone in Advancement, who had been contacted by an emeriti (Jim Horn) writing about the history of the college program in Cuernavaca. Found some photos, will scan and send, and also will ask for a link to this blog history he is doing.

Special Olympics 40th

This year is the 40th anniversary of the holding of the International Special Olympics at Brockport in 1979. I have started a Digital Commons page, with photos and documents, and am part of a planning committee which met last week for the first time. By coincidence there was a post in "Remembering Brockport" on Facebook over the weekend about the Special Olympics and the upcoming anniversary!

1989 - 1990 Basketball (Men)

Had a request for team photos for this year. Found two and scanned, including backs with the names, and sent to the requestor.