Bud Meade - Veterans Project

For his project on college staff/veterans, Bud needs a number of photos, has supplied a list. Will look through the collection and see what I can find, then scan, email to him.

Freshman Record

Had a call about this, it was a short lived effort, a mini-yearbook, meet the freshman sort of thing. I only have it for 1979 - 1981, the caller thought there had been another year or two, but I don't have any. It was not digitized with the Saga, maybe I should add it in (- an intern project!) I have multiple copies, am going to mail her one each. She asked about charge, I said was none, always makes people happy to hear that :-)

Library school visitor

Someone getting their MLS from Syracuse stopped by recently, they're interested in the archives track there, and are coming in next week for a tour and talk with me. Will spend an hour or two showing them around, discussing archives basics and issues...


Update: she came, we spent a morning together, she had many good questions and comments. Part of her assignment was to make an assessment, and she will be sending me some suggestions for software to accession and create finding aids etc.

Internships

Had two before, now have four it looks like, each three credit. Topics vary: creative writing/historical about Normal era, bio of Mary Mortimer, Gay Freedom League, and another is doing a mix maybe, assisting me in various work...

Merce Cunningham Dance

Had a query from a prof at UC Irvine re this company appearing here in 1972. nyshistoricnewspapers.org to the rescue, lol. Turned out wasn't much in Stylus, but it did have brief notices, and they were here '73, not '72. However searching the whole site found some great articles from NYC papers etc.

Kerfoot - Hon112

Am in contact with Alicia Kerfoot, re bringing her class her for a visit this fall to the archives, as part of possible research projects etc. Class will be 11/2, details being worked out.

Dedman donation

Another donation, someone has a framed photo of Wayne Dedman, author of Cherishing this heritage etc., and a couple other items. They gave to someone in Advancement who is bringing them to me. Will add to the collection on him in the archives.

Sports photos

Athletics needs 4 head shots of student athletes for Hall of Fame. They gave me names, but I emailed back asking if they have their team #s. I can't find the #s here, and without those it is close to impossible to find them in the photo collections, which generally do not give individual names, simply "Fall 2000 football..."

Framed commencement photos

BASC commencement office contacted me re framed photos they have, would I like them, said sure, and am asking too about their back run of programs, as I am missing a few.

Herman Burlingame grave

Question from the president's office re the location of Herman Burlingame's grave. (He is the 19th century math prof whose former home is now the president's house.) His grave is what was originally Beach Ridge Cemetery, plot I-82. He died in 1891. (In latter years they expanded the cemetery and called the whole complex Lakeview...) Also attached his obit and photo.

Confederate statues, plaques...

Was just contacted by campus communications director, who in turn was responding to a query from SUNY Central, seeking to identify any Confederate statues, plaques etc. on SUNY campus. I replied that there are not and never have been to my knowledge. If this search turns up any I would presume that they are going to be removed given contemporary sensibilities...

Fred Hill

Query as to whether he was a local school superintendent or not. Per a 1927 Brockport Republic article he was. The local "Hill school" is named for him, he was one of those early pioneers of centralizing school districts in the state.

Summer Arts Festival

Had a voice mail from someone looking for the dates of some Summer Arts Festivals that they participated in back in the '80s. Luckily we do have some of those programs, and was able to find her name in three of them.

Caroline Parker

Interesting, had a retired prof interested in this woman, a Seneca of the 19th century, sister of Ely Parker, and now another researcher has contacted me about her for a biography she is working on. I shared what I know, plus some links to Dedman's book, Butler's thesis... It's a challenging time to research, the 1840s, the college records are limited, the village newspaper of that day no longer exists...

Jessie Hillman update

Heard back from the library assistant at the Fredonia archives who inquired about Jessie Hillman, she compared the image I sent with some they have there and is quite sure it is her! That's great, so I sent her a high res image via Dropbox, and shared some more about nyshistoricnewspapers.org which she hadn't been aware of.

Public History class

Was contacted by Jamie Spiller, he is taking over from Bruce Leslie who is stepping down on the Public History class. We're getting together, talk over the presentation I do, the internships...

Stylus online

Was told someone had called re the Stylus, accessing back issues. Called the person, got their email, sent them an email with the link to nyshistoricnewspapers.org, how to use it...

Alumni House archives committee

Met with Cathy Applebee and Karen Owen yesterday. They are the two members of the Alumni House archives group still around. (The committee was actually disbanded c2016.) The committee was started back in the very early '90s after the Alumni Association had acquired Alumni House, the former residence of the presidents thru Tower, restored it etc. I worked a lot with George Rich '54 on getting things organized, accessioned and so forth. He and I traveled together some to archives workshops being held back then by a now long defunct historical association.


Anyway, their document archives may end up coming here, as the space is wanted for other things. The house may become less of a house museum, more of a center for Advancement...

Hickerson columns

As mentioned in early June, Doug Hickerson, an emeriti, who has in retirement written many local history and feature articles for the Suburban News, brought me his files to be digitized. Four large scrapbooks, covering some 20 years, it is taking some time to scan them, then will need to merge, add a list of contents etc.., but once on Digital Commons it will be a great additional resource for local history. The Brockport Post, and it's predecessor, the Brockport Republic, are long gone, and the SN is one of the few remaining sources for local news.

Fall 2017 interns

Already had 2 interns lined up for this coming fall, may have a 3rd! All 3 credit internships, one is working on the bio of Mary Mortimer, another is a bit novel, she wants to do creative writing based on some of the student scrapbooks we have, which should be interesting.