Clarkson Academy

Question from an emeriti who is part of the Clarkson Historical Society. They want to get a historic marker for the building and he's trying to verify dates. Did some poking around, Clarkson is not that well documented in general, and that academy in particular is a bit fugitive. Helen Hastings history of local schools has some info, and then NY Historic Newspapers etc. Have made some suggestions, offered to get together... Wish I knew more, there a connections between this academy and our BCI, Charles MacLean was a grad of the Clarkson academy and then taught there before coming to Brockport for example.


Update: a member of the society came by today and I spent an hour or so going over sources, especially the ins and outs of using NY Historic Newspapers, which, while extremely useful, is a bit clunky and not particularly user friendly.

50th anniversaries

Chemistry and Theatre are set, and were happy with what I did for them, now am working on history. They wanted scans of the department entries from the old catalogs, I showed their grad student assistant how to do the scanning, then I merged the files and just sent to them. Much more to come, especially digging for photos.

Old yearbook seekers

A couple stopped by and were hoping they could get a '64 and a '67 yearbook. I had extras and gave them copies, they were very happy to see them. They were both '67 grads; the husband was the brother of Wayne Arnold, who used to be head of local history at Rundel, I knew him when I was getting started here.

Community engagement - local history

Have been working with local history folks to craft a libguide that will have information about and links to the various webpages, finding aids I am adding to the Digital Commons etc. Just this morning I uploaded a finding aid to local history collections at the Seymour Library.

Wrestling video

'63 grad inquiring about film footage of a wrestling tournament in the mid-60s. I didn't find it unfortunately. The problem is that much of the film, video and other footage that was shot in the '60s,'70s and '80s did not survive the dissolution of the former "ECC," the Educational Communications Center. It was the big umbrella organization that held Brockport TV, AV etc., and when it was broken up into its various components in the early '90s a lot of material was just thrown out...

Class of 1918

The post in the Daily Eagle about the graduating class of a century ago, the Class of 1918, was popular, I got 5 or 6 emails about it. One was from a woman who works at the college, and her grandmother was in that class, from Pittsford. I emailed her the full class photo with her grandmother (Cecelia Kates) in it. I also mentioned that NY Historic Newspapers had a number of mentions of her grandmother in the old Fairport Herald.

"Birds eye view" of Brockport in 1880

I scanned the 1880 "aerial" or birds eye map we have of Brockport and put in DC. Had to crop slightly, posted in FB, have someone who wants to see the sliver cut off on left, will scan and send to them.

History of Rugby team

From an alum, member of team in early years, who believes they will be coming up on a 50th anniversary in 2020 or 2021. Will dig a bit, see what I have, they want to come visit, and will share about Stylus online, see what photos I have...

Local historians

Met with several local history folks this past week, representing the Village of Brockport, Morgan Manning House, Town of Sweden and the Town of Clarkson. I did double duty, representing the Brockport Community Museum and the college special collections. I had made a libguide that all can use to make it clearer for researchers who has what, contact information etc. Will be updating per people's suggestions, and linking to some finding aids they have supplied which I am putting in Digital Commons.

Janette Reynolds tree

Sent text in this morning for a plaque to be placed with the memorial tree being planted this spring in honor of Janette Reynolds, Class of 1873, who was the first professional, full time librarian here from 1894-1924.

Rose Strasser

Advancement needed info on this pioneer of dance here at Brockport. She was the founder of the dance department, having built up a program over many years starting in the late '40s. Sent some text biographical information and a photo.

Tennis anyone?

Hah, couldn't resist. Anyway, a student has contacted me trying to research the history of tennis here. Told him was no neat paper summing it all up, but lots of primary sources, eg the Stylus, tearbooks, athletic records... Suggested some initial avenues of approach, invited him to come visit the archives...

Update: meeting with him today at 1pm...

Interns

Have been working a good bit with interns, especially with Tyler. He has finished inventorying those map cases, and we have been going through them, culling items not needed, better packaging/housing others etc.

More 50th work, Chemistry & Theatre

Lots of hunting for images and scanning of same for these upcoming celebrations. Spent some time yesterday with Emory Morris looking over the slideshow I have made for them.

Portrait photo G. D'Agostino

Request for the original of a very low quality image photo portrait of Coach D'Agostino. Have spent several hours hunting, still no luck, will continue a bit more, it is for the annual lecture in his name. All I have for sure are some c1970 images of him coaching, a couple featuring then photographer Laslo Boroshy.

Poster scan

Pat Maxwell needed a large image scanned, an artwork poster. Scanned for her today.

Donald McWherter

A librarian elsewhere looking for an obit for this person, will check obit/RG 26 files.

Honors club time capsule

The Honors Club students that visited before want to come back this evening and maybe next to assemble a time capsule of their own. Will set it up for them, place materials on black table, have someone at circ let them in... One of the challenges of being a "lone arranger," if I can't be there, which I can't because I have a community museum meeting, then either I have to make other arrangements, let people be in the archives on their own with material out for them, or say they simply have to do it another time... I tend to err on the side of making things available and taking my chances, these students were here before, they should be ok on their own.

Chemistry 50th

I need to get on the Chemistry 50th, have been distracted with interns, other queries, lantern slides etc. Ken Schlecht emailed about it, had a funny anecdote or two to share, plus a good suggestion re capturing the time the dept started, e.g. the Rathskeller, Spring In, construction....

Special Olympics time capsule

Contacted by a staff person asking about this, I will double check, but my recollection is that there was a time capsule placed, I think in the area of the stadium, but the record of the location is now lost. This is the problem with time capsules, the locations are forgotten, or if they are known, the contents get water damage etc... Many advise it is best to place such an item in your archives, in sealed boxes, which is what I did for that Black Student Liberation Front reunion of a couple summers ago.


Update: I looked into this, found and downloaded two Stylus articles that were pertinent. In 1979, at the close of the Special Olympics, a number of items were collected to be put in a time capsule and placed at "Special Olympic Park," that is the part on the east side of Drake Library, with the fountain and the Happiness to the World statues. If the capsule was placed there,  the location is not on record, and it may well have been covered over in 1982 when the park as we know it today, with the walks, benches, walls etc. was constructed. (Originally it was just the fountain and the statues.) So as of the time of writing this I do not know for sure if the capsule was ever actually placed there, or if it was, where, and if placed elsewhere I have no record of that. The 1982 article lists a number of people involved in constructing and planning the park, I suggested they might try contacting some of them and see if they know anything. I was told once or twice over the years that the location of the capsule was lost...