Stylus editor

She emailed, wants to meet and discuss some of college history, look for some information re logo, college titles, e.g. "SUC Brockport..." Have responded and am waiting reply as to when she wants to meet.

Who was campus photographer certain date...?

Dance student, doing project, downloaded photos of dance c2016-2018, needed to credit the photographer. I said Matt Yeoman was campus photographer those years.

Field Hockey

Linda Arena '69, who was a big field hockey star here, and coached here as well, was at the 50th reunion for her class this year. I met her, she said she had archival materials she'd send me, and the first package has come already.

Recruitment

A new graphic designer here emailed inquiring about old recruitment materials, yearbooks, logos etc. Shared some initial things already digitized and am working on arranging a visit.

Campus Security Badge

Interesting, received a query from someone who collects police badges. They had recently bought a Brockport "Campus Security" badge on eBay, and wanted to date it. Archive records show that the force was called "Campus Security" from 1973-1977, at which time it changed name to "Public Safety."

Rathskeller

Was asked when the Rathskeller on campus, which had been in the basement of Seymour, had closed. Looking at articles on it in the Stylus in nyshistoricnewspapers.org it appears to have closed between 1983 and 1985. It was at this time the drinking age in NY was being raised, first to 19 in December 1982, then to 21 in December 1985.


The "Rathskeller," or student bar, was a common institution in colleges for many years. I remember there being one at SUNY Albany in the 1970s for example. Alcohol use, policy, the Rathskellers etc. across SUNY would be an interesting research topic!

Daniel Velte

Had a request for photos of this alum who played baseball here 1999-2001. Searched the Jim D negatives, found some after awhile, scanned, and sent to staff person who requested them. Luckily they knew what his team number was! Even so I could only find a few, it's really hard skimming those small 35mm negatives trying to see if it has someone you want.

Digital Commons

Removing an item, another such request. This time using the "remove ir..." command and burying the pdf, leaving only the metadata, wasn't enough, the author replied back and said they wanted the whole record deleted. I have asked Angeline at BePress how to do that.


We are talking internally, Pam and I, about this. Pam suggested we need to establish a policy and she's right, we do. I suspect this will continue and be a small but occasional thing. There's a lot of content in there now, many items have been there a few years and more, and there are a few authors noticing that their items are being viewed, downloaded etc. and for various reasons become uncomfortable with that.

Bio info for John Collins

Someone researching an early '70s basketball player from here contacted athletics asking for info, what high school did he come from etc. They said he was '72, but all I saw was a John Collins '74 in alum directories. Were a number of mentions in Stylus of a John Collins as playing basketball '70-72, not after. None mentioned his background. Shared what I had with athletics, suggested a person in advancement who is good at search the back part of Banner for old student records.

Martin "Marty" Rogers

Had a request via email asking about his "memoirs." I'd forgot we had this, but we do have 2 copies of "Grandpa Stories, The Life and Times of Martin H. Rogers," as told to Susan E. Edmunds. She was the daughter of James Edmunds, English, and family friend of Rogers. She taught in the Music Department here 1963-1983. One copy is in the stacks, one in the RG26 bio files.

Writers Forum

Very interesting meeting with Jim Wharton, English, prof who is in charge of Writers Forum, and John Schroth, owner of Media Transfer Service in East Rochester. John's company has done the digitization of a number of our WF tapes. Jim wants to step up the pace and get a CLIR Mellon Foundation grant to start doing much larger numbers of the tapes.


John's comments lent much support to the concerns for digitization and digital preservation. For example, not only is the life span of many video tape and audio tape formats limited, we are nearing the end of their lifespans at this point. The machines to run them are becoming old and worn out too, and the companies making them, or parts for them, have mostly gone out of business or into other lines of manufacturing. In other words, if one wishes to digitize old VHS, Betamax, reel to reels and so forth, it would be smart to do it sooner than later.


As for digital preservation, the grants specifically asks by what means will the digitized versions of the materials be maintained. John spoke at length about options, he is currently working with Geneseo for example, they got a grant from this fund and are maintaining the digital material on a set of LTO tape drives, as well as using cloud storage. We need something more than a RAID drive sitting on a back office PC where it is never checked...

1992 Wrestling Team

Advancement looking for team photo of this Nat'l Championship level team. Found one, scanned, and emailed to them.

Hartwell Hall

Secretary to the Dean of Business emailed asking about the history of the building. They have a nice print they framed of Hartwell, and they want to put together some sort of text document to put up with the photo. Supplied with links to a couple online things, like the 1940 Saga spread on the "new building," and shared some photos too, as well as some historical context.

Edward Stephany

Edward Stephany taught mathematics here 1947-1980. He has passed away, but his wife Arline is turning 100 soon, and a party is planned for her. Advancement wanted some info on them, have sent some, will look for a little more. It was a good question, I didn't happen to have a file on them!

Taking down a thesis

Someone who had an English thesis that was a creative writing piece emailed and was concerned that their thesis was being downloaded, possibly to pirate and sell. After thinking about it and looking through the DC blog etc., I decided to take it down for the time being.


For future reference if you being up a file and go to revise it, there is an option to only show the metadata, not the pdf itself. The pdf is still there, and to have it show again you would just check the appropriate box. The other option, to "remove" the item, doesn't actually delete it, but it does store in the "back end," and if ever wanted to repost it would have to ask BePress staff to do it for you.

Tracing a birth mother

I spent an hour or so helping a patron trace their birth mother. The mother was a grad, but the patron was unclear about the year of graduation, the alum directory was incorrect, but we found her in the 1966 yearbook. (The birth mother is deceased.) I also found some images of the mother in clubs she was in etc. Scanned the various pages and have emailed them to the patron.

Interns

Have been getting a second intern started this week. She is working on the history of the History Department. Gave her a general orientation to the archives, then to those materials more closely related to her work, e.g. faculty directories, catalogs, yearbooks, the department's files... The goal is for her to produce a digital exhibit on the department's history that likely will be housed in the Digital Commons.

Talon TV (Brockport TV)

I was interviewed today by a student from Talon TV (the current name for Brockport TV.) The interview focused on the International Special Olympics held here in 1979.

Processing

In between other things I have spent time processing some of the back log of materials from various offices in Allen that came to me during the times their offices were being rehabbed. While it takes time to go through, 2/3 probably is recycled, but the remaining 1/3 often fills gaps, supplies information not held before etc.

Digital Commons

Kim emailed from retirement to say she had noticed were several theses awaiting posting. This is something I and Pam and Mary Jo will need to talk about. Kim had various procedures in place, and periodically spent a fair bit of time working through them to ensure each thesis had the advisors approval and so on. Each department has different policy, and it is all listed in her blog.

https://brockportdc.blogspot.com/

There is a lot to it, and it will be challenge to carry these policies out. We'll have to discuss and see how we can best do this until such a time as we are able to get her position replaced.

New history professor

Met the new history professor today who is a specialist in digital humanities, very active seeming person who will be great to work with I am sure.

Residential Life presentation

Met with 20+ residential life staff yesterday and gave them a simple overview of how students lived here over the years, from the academy days to Normal and beyond to Stage XVI. They seemed interested and it went well.

Political Science APT bylaws c1980

The dept contacted me, they want to gather all the various iterations of their APT documents from over the years, and did not have the older ones. There happens to be several thick folders of minutes etc for the department from the '70s and '80s, and in them I found a document with a 1980 memo on the cover from Harold Rakov. The file gave what I assume were the then APT bylaws etc. as written at varying dates. Scanned, merged and sent to the PoliSci folks.

Upcoming presentations, meetings

Emeriti reception tomorrow, Residential Life staff the 17th, slideshow for Friends First Friday 10/4...

Don Murray portrait

Had to dig for a portrait shot, or shot of Don Murray by himself. Took some digging, he is in lots of photos but with wrestlers, other staff etc. I did find a nice portrait shot from about 1990 and sent to Athletics. As an aside the new Sports Information person is looking into the question of whether Murray might currently be the longest serving coach of any sport in any of the collegiate divisions! He has 50 years this fall which is quite a record.

Washington Semester

The question of how long the Washington Semester arose at a recent meeting of The Port board, of which I am a member. I checked once back in the archives, and like I thought, it is 50 years old, it launched in the spring of 1969. I shared that and some related information with a staffer in the Int'l Ed office which administers this.

History department archives

Met with the student this am. The department itself does not actually have an archives, they are looking to what we have here. The idea is for the student intern to work up a sort of digital archives of the history department. So we talked about how that could work, a quick overview of sources in archives, suggestion that Digital Commons would be the place to house it, or at least the place I can provide.


The student is going to see the prof who is initiating this and get back to me. Should be an interesting project.

Digital Commons

Lots going on here. Still working on the Public Management community, need to work up something for a History department oral history community, see about a newsletter community for Modern Languages. Also uploading synthesis projects for KSSPE...

Interns

Have one 3 credit intern currently, he'll be working on the lantern slides initially. Another student is coming by tomorrow, to see about doing some work on materials the history department has, their departmental "archives."

Photo scanning

Needed to scan some photos for Advancement staff for use in scholarship profiles.

Digital Commons support call

Had an informative support call/web chat with bepress staff today. Was reminded of a few things, and shown a number more I hadn't known about, such that I can make a start on some requests and projects. Plus got answers to some general questions, e.g. how much file space do we have, can we upload dozens of audio files etc. (The space generally is not a problem in terms of their capacity or our cost. The issue is more file size will affect uploading times for initial submission, and if we want to use the download option you don't want files too huge...)

Vistas/Jigsaw

Was contacted by college staff wanting to scan covers and perhaps some contents of this year's Jigsaw, and the first English club publication, the 1949 Vistas. I said I had them, could scan covers, there is a copyright issue with scanning contents.

Digital Commons

Still tinkering with the Public Management Program documents layout. Had a long phone chat with the grad student who is setting this up for them, or rather working with me to set it up. It's getting there, I just take much longer than Kim would have since I only half know what I am doing!

Residence Hall History

A chance encounter with a res life staffer this am led into being asked to share some of the history of the college residence halls and life with their staff in September. Looking forward to sharing some of this history, its fascinating really.

DC accounts, adding admn...

So I've reached out to bepress and have learned, or been reminded, of what I need to do to add someone as an administrator, how to get them set up so they can upload materials etc.

1930s video upload!

Very cool to be able to upload the student intern edited version of that 1930s home movie film yesterday (and today, it took a long time to upload, lol.) This new capability of Digital Commons to host film and audio is very nice.


https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/archival_videos/1/

More DC

A fair bit of back and forth via email helping someone finish uploading things into their Digital Commons.

More Digital Commons...

A student wondering where her capstone project went, working with a grad student who is tasked with setting up a new community for Public Admin...

An 1850s alumna

A researcher is writing about a Brockport area Civil War soldier who was married to a Collegiate Institute grad, Mary Allen. Tough era to research, an 1850s student. The only surviving BCI register is from the 1860s. The catalogs of the 1840s and '50s list student names, but that's it. No yearbooks etc., and the local BR only starts with late 1850s. I did see some mentions of her as Mary Cady, the local GAR Post was named after her husband.

Digital Commons

Lots of requests here lately. Someone can't find what they uploaded, I realize I don't seem to have access to all files, have emailed Bepress about that. Pub Admin wants a new community, I am working with them on that etc. Sure would be nice if we'd been given a clerk for our little unit last year...

Wrestling, scholarships...

Have been doing a lot of work on wrestling 50th lately, scanning several scrapbooks for example. Am going to set up a new section of Digital Commons soon under archives to house athletics historical stuff. Lots of requests for scholarship bio and photo materials too.

1950s Drama Club materials

Someone asking if I'd like some programs and flyers from the drama club of the old Teachers College. I said I would, waiting to hear back.

Fannie Barrier Williams

Was asked to review a bio description of her that will be used in the scholarship pages and the copy looked great to me, captured her history and connection to the school, our first African American grad (1870) etc.

Sachio Ashida

He was a long time psychology prof here, and also coached the judo club for many years. He died in 2009 and we recently had a query about him. Someone had a scan of a page of some article about him, but there was no attribution, the only citation information didn't really work, so I scanned a couple articles about him I did have in his RG 26 file and sent those to them.

Course Descriptions & Course Syllabi

Had a request for course descriptions recently, and now another one today, and both ask about course syllabi, as well as the catalog description. The archives has a pretty complete run of catalogs, from the 1840s up to about 2011, but, there is no collection of syllabi. Those are the material of whoever is teaching the class, and they keep or discard as seems best to them. Those do not come to the archives, and generally I have no idea who taught a course anyway, the catalog description does not give it, and I have only a scattered run of class schedules. Even if I found the course in the class schedule for the given year, it might have taught by multiple people, they may no longer work here etc. I also don't know that I would feel comfortable asking a faculty member if they had their syllabi from some class...

Interns for Fall 2019

One contacted me already, now a faculty member is inquiring for a second student, to work on a history of the history department. Asked if there would be enough to work with etc., have answered that I think there would be, Dedman's materials etc., plus could set up a DC page like the one for Dance archives, maybe look into some video, conversation between old timers like they did recently for Dance's 50th...

Special Olympics interpretive panel

Working busily on finding photos etc. for the folks working on the interpretive panel that will go out by the "Happiness to the World" fountain statue area this year. It is a project of the Brockport Community Museum, a local virtual museum group, which I am on. The people doing the panel are Richard Black and Norm Frisch, both retired from the college as graphic design and production staff.

Wrestling 50th

Erick Hart from Athletics asked me about the upcoming 50th for wrestling, they are having a celebration this fall. I need to look into this, one question I have isn't it a little older than 50 years? I thought Lefty McIntyre started wrestling before '69. But maybe that was more a club, not an actual team...? There is lots in the archives for sure, including scrapbooks Don Murray gave us etc.


Update: Don was over once, is coming again this afternoon with a grad student he wants to work with me, was very happy the scrapbooks are here, he had been afraid that they had been lost! This event will be a lot of work for me, but a great opportunity for the archives to help recognize Don who is a coaching legend here.

More course descriptions

Don't get so many of these anymore, but got one today, course descriptions for four courses from the early '80s. Found, scanned and emailed back.

Digital Commons - Environmental Science Dept

New chair of the department contacted me, the big thing was getting more of his papers into their DC faculty publications section, what was the procedure for that etc. I am working with him on that, and he is going to encourage other faculty in his department to post as well.

Photos for college web pages

Searched out and supplied a number of random images to be used on the college web pages, images reflecting history of the school etc.

Scholarship scans

More scanning of images for folks scholarships are named after, e.g. George Cornell... Also searching for and supplying some bio materials too.

AskDrake query

An AskDrake query re the relationship between Ted Williams, Tuscarora writer, and Peter Marchant, English professor here 1968-1992. Shared with questioner what I know, which isn't anything about their relationship, other than Williams said he had Marchant for a prof. Marchant was a very popular writing instructor, we've had different Tuscarora from the Lewiston reservation here over the years etc.

Dick Mancuso

Request from his widow for materials to use in scrapbooks to give her grandsons who were young when this physics prof died. I have some nice photos and materials, will scan and send to her.

Alumni House trees

Took a couple hours searching thru photo CDs, but found some aerial shots from a 2003 aerial shoot that showed Alumni House and the trees in back, three of which were cut down a couple years ago. This was for the project with the tree slabs etc.

Digital Commons

Contact via askdrake from faculty member wanting to add materials to DC. Have emailed him and will help as I can.

Class of 1969

Just contacted by the alum of '69 heading up their 50th reunion. Wanted to know stats for the class and school then, where the yearbook is etc. Shared all that with him, offered to scan and crop images from the Saga and Stylus if they would like, for their memory book etc.

Dance 50th - videos on Digital Commons

I helped them with their 50th anniversary of the department this past year, and recently they sent me a video they did of their history. This was a good opportunity to try out Digital Commons new capacity to host video. I uploaded the 88mb mp4 file like you would a pdf, filled in the form, and it worked pretty easily: https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/dns_archives/8/.

Stylus in '79, '80

An alum, wanting to look at the Stylus from those years. Said while they were welcome to visit, they could in fact search it online, explained how to do that.

BSG VP in 1973?

Advancement staff asked this, a little tricky, at first I went to the '73 yearbook, but in that period they started having these sort of free form yearbooks, much more random photos of campus scenes, not so much pages of this group and that. I went to the Stylus online and did find it there. Brian Petraitis was president, and Ronnie Marmo VP.

Fannie Barrier 150th

An administrator made the interesting observation that this coming year, 2020, will be the 150th anniversary of Fannie Barrier Williams graduating from the Normal school in 1870. They were wondering about commemorating the anniversary somehow, a great idea. By coincidence I was put in touch with a new person at Rochester Museum of Science and Technology, they want to do an exhibit on "Inspiring Women," and are considering including Fannie B.

Athletics - swim team member photos

They are looking for photos of Matt Panebianco, 2010-11. I'll look, they did supply a pic luckily, otherwise it would be pretty much impossible, since swimmers don't have numbers, and pics aren't ID'd for the most part...

Update - think I found a few, but not 100%, the swimmers are not identified by name. Why would you do that, hah hah… Looks like might be him though. Another issue is that the photos are not our campus photographer, but some other photographer, stamped with his name. This is the case for some athletics images, and I am a little unsure of the rights here.

Morgan Manning House

The new historian from the MM House is visiting this coming Monday, to get some advice re manuscript sleeves and other archival supplies, and also to talk about and look at the lantern slide collection.

Baseball teams rosters

They want to have a reunion of baseball team members in fall for homecoming. I'm going to need to go through the materials I have, they are looking for 1972-67, 1987-91. It will take some time to go through all the folders, scan rosters or maybe simply type up a list.


Update: Just got around to doing this, took most of a morning to dig through the team folders. For the '70s teams there weren't any rosters, so had to search through the Stylus online. Not complete maybe, but best could do. For later teams there were rosters in the files.

40th Special Olympics

Had an email from College Communications, they are doing a video re the 40th of the Special Olympics. Want to come see what I have, am setting up a visit for them.

Photo scans

Have a number of photo scans to do for Advancement, for named scholarships.

Genealogy request

For info on a Julia McAllister of Clarendon, thought to have attended Brockport c1910. No McAllisters listed in the alumni directories that cover 1868-1927. Then I saw a mention in the Brockport Republic of a Julia Culhane marrying a Wm McAllister of Holley in 1905, and thought that might be her, but no Culhane either. The family member said she started teaching young, at 17 or 18, and in that era, it is possible she went to the high school department of the Normal, and that I believe would have enabled her to teach in one room elementary schools, which is what she did according to a follow up call I made. I'll check next in the high school records, the alumni listing has some high school, but not all by any means.

Clarkson Academy talk

The Clarkson Academy talk last night went well. There were 20 or so in attendance. I talked about the history of the old academies, and people had a lot of questions and enjoyed the information.

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.

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.

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.

Dei-Anang

Staff person was looking for something for social media use, and I suggested Michael Dei-Anang. He was instrumental in establishing the black studies program here, and was a noted poet, literary figure and politician from Ghana. Supplied some basic text, facts, and photos.

Follow up from Academy - Normal school presentation

Contacted by member of Clarkson Historical Society who wasn't able to attend my recent presentation, about giving a talk to them, on academies. Their building, by the Clarkson Community Church, is the building of the old Clarkson Academy, a contemporary of the our Collegiate Institute forerunner.

Athletics history

Athletics staff asked about having a student assistant come over to work on a project they have going to do with the history of college athletics. I will be meeting him today.

Update: this turned into a several page long list of photos they wanted, their student has been here quite a bit, and I've scanned easily 50 images or more for them, from yearbooks, prints etc.

Elm tree section

The elm tree section outside the archives currently is an ongoing project. It is from one of the trees cut down behind Alumni House in 2017 (?) as part of an expansion project. The wood was saved to use for lumber to build benches (which is underway as well, the Art Placement Committee has selected 7 artist's designs.) Jason Dauenhauer, Social Work, is the lead on all this. Two cross sections of an elm were cut as well. The college has one, the Brockport Community Museum the other.

The sections will be mounted and serve as timeline displays. A local man, John Rombaut, is going to build mounts for them. The location of the college one is not yet decided, the other will go in the Seymour Public Library. I will supply a timeline for ours, of notable college dates, e.g. 1942 we became a Teachers College etc.

Coach Van Gundy

Athletics, needing photos of Van Gundy in response to a request from ESPN. He was a coach here in the '70s, '80s, had some photos scanned from an earlier project and sent to them.

Alum to interview

Student from Martin's HST 390 on Oral History contacted me asking about an alum of the '60s to interview, I have contacted a possible candidate to interview.

Jigsaw

Contacted again by the current president of the English Club about their literary magazine. He wants to come in soon to look at the collection here, and also was asking about the possibility of support from the library Friends group, as apparently their sources of support aren't what they were.

Photos of Happiness Fountain statues

Researcher looking for images of the "Happiness" statues around the Special Olympics fountain on the east side of Drake. Found and sent several images.

HST390, Martin

Had this class in today, the subject is oral history. Discussed both "how to" elements, the nature of oral history, memories... Shared some of my own experiences, links to digitized interviews, the work of others like the Brockport Community Museum...

Library photos

Staffer for design office came by looking for photos of the library, especially older photos, for some promotional materials they will be working on. Showed some of what I have already digitized, sent to him via email.

Rochester Birding Assoc. presentation

Attended the RBA monthly meeting last night and presented the slide show I did here at the college for the library Friends last fall. The slide show is based on the lantern slides of birds, by regional birders and ornithologists, that we have in the archives. The power point was well received, and I did bring our 1920s Balopticon which was a big hit!

Lantern slides

Had a question from someone viewing the lantern slides in Digital Commons asking about the extent of our collection... Answered with a general overview, it is curious, I suppose a lot of the slides simply were thrown out or taken by people over the years. It seems odd that for example we have dozens of shots of rural NY, and of NYC, but almost none of Albany, or Rochester etc.

Request for student photo

Was contacted re a Myrtle Goldstein, said to be '57. There is a listing for her as '56, but didn't find a photo of her in any of the 4 relevant yearbooks. That seems a little unusual, that she would have missed all four times! Responded that couldn't find them...

Gamma Sigma - book

More working with the Gamma Sigma folks. A couple of them have asked about that "Red Manual" book, the Gamma Sigma: the first one hundred years title that we have 2 copies of in local history. I suggested that I could digitize it and put it on Digital Commons where it would be freely accessible. They're celebrating their 150th anniversary, seems like a good idea, but I want to have permission from the current fraternity leadership.

Fannie Barrier Williams

College staffer needing FBW materials to use in social media. Sent photo of her, the two Erie St houses, a copy of her autobiography article etc.

Saga Yearbooks - how many, where...

A staffer from Advancement contacted me, they had an alum looking for the '84 yearbook. The primary collection of Saga yearbooks on campus is here in the archives (other than the digitized versions online.) There used to be a lot of them in the attic of Alumni House, but those were brought here.


It is hit and miss, for some years there is a shelf full of copies, for others there are only a few. I decided to keep at least 3 copies for the archives. If there are more then those can be given out. I did have many copies of some earlier years, but decided that for classes 50 years and older there really isn't a need to keep 20 or 30 of that year, it's been 50+ years and it's unlikely that there will be a flood of people looking for a yearbook to replace one that was lost. I do keep 10 or so of older years, no more. There were some years as well in the '70s where a yearbook was not produced.

College yearbooks

A question from a reporter from the D&C, inquiring about looking at our yearbooks. Responded that they are all online, in the Digital Commons.

Rathskeller "Pink Lady"

An alum of the early '70s emailed asking if I had photos of the "Pink Lady" that was on the back wall of the Rathskeller (the campus bar that was once in the basement of Seymour Union.) I had never heard of the subject, and had to admit that the only Rathskeller photos I've seen are a couple of random shots of the bar itself, no "Pink Lady!" Will keep an eye out for that one!

Sharon Belle Render's retirement

Sharon Belle Render of the Counseling Center is retiring in March and I was asked about photos, bio information etc. as part of the event. Have supplied a couple things I had on hand in faculty bio files, will look for more.

Allan Karstetter '49

A patron came in on the weekend recently and received some help from the librarian on duty then, who referred them to me for further help. The patron was a student in the '50s, became friends with Karstetter who came back to Brockport to teach in the speech program c1955-1961. Karstetter also directed some plays. The patron is looking for photos from the plays, and we do have some for Finians Rainbow and the Death of a Salesman, and perhaps for the third, Glass Menagerie, in the unidentified group.


The patron is going to come back at some point to look at them, he wants to share some with Karstetter's widow. This is one of the more meaningful things archives can do perhaps, to add to people's memories and reminiscing as they get old, and recall their time or their spouse's time here.

Johnston Harvester

Researcher stopped by, looking for post card and other images of Johnston Harvester. That plant used to be on Main Street, north of the canal. It burned in 1882 and they moved to Batavia, later merged with Massey0Ferguson. I only have a scan of the engraving in the 1877 county history. Suggested working with the folks at the village museum, they might have something. Also made some suggestions and fielded a couple questions about powerpoint.

Walter Rodney

Interesting, he was a prominent Guayanese historian and activist, who spoke here at Brockport a few times c1978. Someone giving a talk on his contacted me today, asking about his appearances here. I shared some links from and help with using NYS Historic Newspapers.

Clarkson Bicentennial

This year is the Town of Clarkson's bicentennial, and I have volunteered to be on the committee. We meet soon, I have shared a list of links to useful information sources in the local history part of the Digital Commons, eg Hasting's "Old Houses," which includes a number of historic Clarkson homes. I also offered to set up a Facebook group for the event and Clarkson history.

ROTC

Most inquiries are via email, occasionally phone, but once in awhile I do get a drop in. Today was a ROTC student looking for historical information and photographs of that program. Let him look at the (not very extensive) files I have, checked the Jim Dusen list, there are some ROTC photos there, so I will be scanning some for him.

Education Department anniversary

Was contacted by a prof there before, but what with one thing and another they couldn't find time, but now they want to look into this. I will meet with them, replied as follows:


 Education will be an interesting one, in a real sense the whole school was an education department for decades, as a Normal school and then Teachers college, and then in '66-67 you see the school become a comprehensive liberal arts school, all the various departments. Then of course you have the 100+ year long story of the old campus school, which ran from the 1860s (or earlier,) up thru the late 1970s.

Biography information for Advancement and Scholarships

Part of an ongoing project to flesh out the donor biographies for the named scholarships, and for some other projects as well... Shared link to Bud Meade Updates, and mentioned that I would love to have the old alumni newsletters, the Brockport Statements and so on digitized commercially, I just doubt I will ever have time to do it myself. There is a wealth of information in them on all sorts of college people, but with no indexing it is a very time consuming treasure hunt to find anything, if you even do.

Florence Brown '55

I was asked about this grad awhile back, she was an African American educator of prominence in the Rochester city schools, pre-K education. Advancement is seeking to recognize her further and asked about any possible surviving relatives etc. Shared some names from her obit, a relatives I found, suggested checking with the church named in the obit in her home town, New Rochelle, where she spent her summers off etc.

Yearbooks

Someone from Advancement, asking if I had extra copies of the '69 yearbook. I answered as follows:


...the yearbooks story is as follows: they are all online, at the link below, and for print copies I have all the ones that were in Alumni House, plus some I had. Having said that, the print is hit and miss. Like 1970, I have 10 or so, but for '69 I just have 4 copies. I could give one away to them though if you want it. Let me know, I can send it in the campus mail or bring it over.

Brockport Cemetery photo

Was asked about whether I had an early photo of this cemetery, the one on High Street. I do, it is one of the George Guelf glass plate negatives that were digitized. The photo is c1910. I shared it with the person, they want to use it in the Brockport Community Museum site, and someone from the Landmark Society wanted a look at it too.


Update: One part of the query above was about a receiving vault that had been there in the cemetery, an unusual Egyptian revival style stone building. I posted about this vault in the "Remembering Brockport" group in Facebook, and got a very helpful response from someone who shared the following link. Apparently the vault was demolished in the 1990s due to "severe deterioration."


https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/places/pdfs/16000061.pdf?fbclid=IwAR26H930hWDb1L3c8OlB0IZXg6wdBgnt15PnkBQEBWwQBXPERk6JF2nkgt8

Grateful Dead

Someone working on an encyclopedic treatment of the Grateful Dead, all their concerts etc., contacted me about their appearance here in 1981. The archives doesn't have many of the things he was looking for, the contracts, film, audio etc. I did recommend using NYS Historic Newspapers for Stylus articles on the concert, how to use the database etc.

Gifford Morgan

Have been working via email a bit with the historian at the Morgan Manning House re Gifford Morgan. She is working on building up their biographical files on him, and I shared some of what I have. He had significant connections to the college, being on the board of the Normal in the '30s, and he worked closely with Hartwell to stave off the threat of closure of the school. I also had scans of several scrapbooks lent me by a Morgan family member which I emailed to her.

"Greater Rochester Climatic Data Archives"

A query about this collection, and an individual whose records are part of it, came to me. The collection apparently included 19th century weather records from Rochester, and mention an E.W. McGann, according to a 1987 D&C article the questioner had read, and shared with me. He was particularly interested in McGann.


I never heard of this collection before, it isn't something that is, or ever was, in the college archives. I'm checking with Earth Science to see if they know of it, or have it. I let the questioner know that, and also shared the link to NYS Historic Newspapers, where I did find some mentions of a "Sgt" or "Chief" McGann of the weather service in the years 1880-1890. Will be interested to hear if this collection is still here, and will update this post when I find out.

Who has Jim Dusen's photographs? (and photographs in general?)

Had a call about this, and the answer is that the bulk of what exists is in the archives, other than the most recent years. Approximately 2013 to date is all digital, stored in a site the campus photographers office has access to. For earlier years, I have all of Jim's photos, the CDs, then all the negative notebooks etc. dating c1977-2012. Prior to those, there are some photos, but also large gaps, c1964-1977. There is an extensive collection of photo negatives covering c1950-1962. Prior to that, the photos are very limited, there was no campus photographer, and often one has to search yearbooks for images. It's a complicated set of materials to describe, but that is the gist of it.


As a note, the archives does not for the most part have originals, either negatives or prints, of photos taken for the Stylus or the Saga. Generally the Stylus photographers kept their photos themselves, and the Saga were generally shot by local commercial photographers no longer in existence.

e. e. cummings painting

Advancement contact, there's some sort of book being done about the e. e. cummings paintings we have, and they were looking for a photo of the one painting. Unfortunately I don't see it. In going through Jim Dusens photo CDs this past fall with my student we did discover several CDs of shots of the cummings paintings, but this particular shot isn't in there. It's online, in Digital Commons, but those are low res images. I presume that Jim took all those, I did find some photo CDs with high resolution images of the paintings seen on the Digital Commons, but what I have doesn't have all of them...

Not a 50th, but a 70th!

The current president of the English Club contacted me, he realized that it was the 70th anniversary of the club and wants to celebrate it. Great idea, I was glad to have Sharon Carpenter's fine study of the club history and detailed list of the various publications to send him. Have offered to host him and the club here, will be following up...

Dorm photo dating

Someone needed dating and location for an old photo of girls in a dorm for The Port. It was one of my photos, the old 4x5s, not dated, looked like c1956, and while not sure of exact "hall," it was definitely one of the halls along Kenyon, Morgan, Bramley etc. Those were all girls dorms then.

REOC (Rochester Educational Opportunity Center)

Had a call from them re their archival collections, how to maintain, what to keep etc. Shared some thoughts over the phone, will follow up with email and possibly a visit there.

Another 50th celebration - Dance Department

Was just contacted by the department as they begin to prep to celebrate their 50th. I shared the link to the dance archives online that were done a few years ago, and will look for more here...

Dei Anang

A prof contacted me asking about Michael Dei Anang and possible connections with Sankofa. I shared some basic bio information on this interesting man, that he was here 1971-78, when he died, was chair of AAS part of that time, and he definitely had literary and poetical ambitions, but I had to say I didn't know of any musical interests or connections with Sankofa.

Wrestling rosters - again

Someone from athletics looking for wrestling team rosters, same years as advancement was looking for a couple months ago. I sent them what I sent advancement, I just didn't have the one year. Like a lot of archival things I just have what I have, and there often are gaps.

Book scanner working again!!!

Hah, good news, book scanner is finally working again, after almost 2 months down. Long story, IT wanted to update PCs in archives from Win 7 to Win 10, caused many problems, especially with book scanner, for which we could not find drivers to run it in Win 10, Konica just does not support it properly. So now it's a stand alone, non-networked PC, on Win 7, so I have to move files onto flash drives to bring to other PCs to back up to the cloud, share with others...


But, it is working, and this afternoon began scanning a fascinating local history document, a paper a student named Allport wrote here in 1962 about the history of schools and education in Niagara County. I will be placing it on the Digital Commons when ready.

Ellsworth

A staff person needed some images and info on our mascot Ellsworth for some social media posting. Supplied several images and a doc on the history of Ellsworth.

Coach Panaggio

He was a prominent basketball coach here for many years starting in '68. He has since passed away, and his son is interested in researching his father, and his own time here. Have thus far shared links to the yearbooks online, nyshistoricnewspapers, made some other suggestions, and asked some questions to find out better what he is looking for.

Gamma Sigma 150th

Interesting, an ILL request came in over the holiday break for the history of the Gamma Sigma fraternity. The fraternity was started here by Charles McLean with a group of students in the early Normal era, and then spread to many other Normal schools and also high schools. It ended here when Hartwell closed out all the local fraternities and sororities c1939, but continued elsewhere into the 1970s, when I think it faded away; the requestor was a '71 member. He wants to organize a 150th anniversary, so have given one copy of the book to send him, and also emailed him myself to share the link to Dedman's book etc.