New archives web pages coming!

A staff person in Design & Production reached out, they are working through the various college webpages, helping people to update and so on. He came over and we met, and the upshot is I am going to greatly simply the page, pointing instead to a number of sources not present when I originally created a lot of that web material - some almost 20 years ago!

Update: Anthony Arnone did a great job, here is the updated, streamlined archives page:
https://brockport.edu/about/archives/

   Next I need to take materials I pulled from the old page, the history sports, histories of buildings etc. and get them on Digital Commons, and linked in the libguide.

Other than the archives...

I am busy at times monitoring and supporting the Digital Commons with Kim Myers having retired. Checking the email for it, making sure a thesis is uploaded etc...

Henry Selden

Someone is researching a book on this local lawyer and inventor who lived in Clarkson. One area of interest was Selden's involvement in a major NY state constitutional revision of 1846. Another area is that of some notable court cases Selden was involved in. Quite a bit of digging here, in NY archives, Westlaw...!

Genealogy request

Myra Broadwell Collins...? Yes, Class of 1898, found a listing for her in the 1917 alumni directory, and a mention or two in the old Brockport Republic. Passed that information on to the inquirer.

Want yearbooks?

Grad of '73 called asking if I want old Sagas, 1970-1973. Called back, said I'd especially like the '71, since I only have two. She will get them to me one way or another this summer, via mail, or may come out. We discussed the logistics, I said whatever is convenient for her...

Biographical info on Joe Winnick and Ira Geer

Advancement staffer looking for bio info on these two leading Brockport faculty members. Off to RG26, Stylus online etc to double check on what I have, and then will need to find out more about what they need. A lot of these queries do involve those reference interview skills built up over the years at the reference desk! Below is what I found to send at first look:

Ira Geer was a 1957 grad, yes. He got his masters from Univ. of North Carolina, and PhD from University of PA. Before coming Brockport as a prof he had worked as a teacher at Byron-Bergen and Greece Schools. 

   I believe his research interests were in climate science and meteorology. He was at one time the director of the National School Weather Project, an NSF funded outreach to school teachers. Interestingly enough I found a photo in his file of him on the roof of Lennon Hall in 1974 working on a solar energy panel! I'll have to do a Daily Eagle post on that...

   Joe Winnick has his PhD from Temple University. He established the first master's degree concentration in adapted physical education in the country here at Brockport in 1968. Coming here as he did in 1965 I have to wonder if he is not now the longest serving faculty member on staff...?

   His textbook, "Adapted Physical Education and Sport," is truly a classic. It is a standard in the field, and has been translated into many languages. 

Alternate College & Delta College

Question of was the Alternate College the predecessor to Delta? Yes, it was, started in 1973. Sent a couple Stylus articles from that year. Rich Fenton, Business/Economics emeriti, was active in that early time frame for Alternate College. It combined aspects of today's Delta with an experiment in freeing students up from the traditional 4 year model.

Erie Canal photos

Made a connection with staff at the Erie Canal Nat'l Heritage center and am sharing some of the Guelf photos of the canal around Brockport at the time of the last expansion, c1913.

Genesee Brewery

Student asking if I had anything in the archives. No, but recommended NYS Historic Newspapers, Rochester History etc.

Faculty code of conduct

VP asking if there was ever a faculty code of conduct, perhaps in the old FSA handbooks...? I had initially thought they wanted student code, and found that, faculty is something else. I do not recall anything like that off hand, will search through the archives when I work this Saturday.


Update: a fellow librarian who follows this blog shared something from Faculty Senate (thanks!) and then I found some material in a 1966 faculty handbook. An intriguing bit was the mention of a "loyalty oath," and how one needed to sign a form, attesting that you were not a member of any of a list of proscribed groups. That would be something interesting to research further, a good student research project maybe.

Mother at BSNS...?

Someone called asking if their mother had gone here c1920. I searched the name in the old directories from that era, but did not see her. Perhaps one of those cases where someone attended here a term or two, but didn't actually finish, and the archives doesn't have the student registers for much after 1900.

First Sankofa concert?

Good question! I looked at the Stylus and found the following, documented in filecity2, projects, Sankofa:

 I took a look at the Stylus, and while there was an African Dance Troupe back in the '70s, with connections to both the Dance Department and OSAD's predecessor, the Black Student Liberation Front, the first mention of a Sankofa concert is in 1989, as shown in the attached. 

List of Commencement Speakers

Advancement asked for a list of commencement speakers. Spent a few hours going through programs, made a list that goes back to 1942, the beginning of the Teachers College era. I may go back farther another time, but this list is a good start.

From 1985 on there are two ceremonies, one for Graduate, one for Undergraduate commencement, so two speakers. Prior to that it was all one ceremony with one speaker.

Stylus - women's lacrosse

Responded to a call from the Stylus re womens lacrosse, what championships they have won. Apparently an alum from the '70s indicated to them that the team had won a championship in that era, and on researching the question I found that they had, but it was a different title than the contemporary one. One of those things that comes up archivally from time to time, the context of a team for example was different in different eras, different athletic groupings and so on.

Pan Hellenic Society of Rochester

Did a "magic lantern" slide show for this group at Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox church in Rochester this past Saturday evening. A very enjoyable bit of community outreach and service, there was a good crowd, 30 or so people, and it was a very interactive program with much commenting and reminiscing by those gathered on the various slides.