RPI History Unfolds

We present to our faithful blog followers a different kind of post today, the unveiling of history in an unusual sort of way! We have a flurry of things to share with everyone. First, we’re introducing our new Assistant Institute Archivist, and second, we have just unveiled a new interface for users to connect with our institute records and manuscript collections via a slick new database.

Hello everyone, my name is Jenifer Kuba, the new Assistant Institute Archivist. I began working at the Archives in March 2011 as Project Archivist. My work here, until recently, focused on implementing a new database for the Archives collection guides (all the really cool stuff RPI archives is made of!).  I was enthusiastically immersed in all the collections, swimming in a sea of Institute history and manuscript collections while riding the wave of open source technology to get our collections revved up for users to enjoy.

This Institution has been an enigma since I was a little girl. To my little eyes, RPI was a mysterious, illustrious Institute sitting high up on a hill. I didn’t know much about it but the words Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute always rolled right off my tongue! The first time I stepped foot on campus I was a teenager. I tagged along with my sister and some friends to one of those 1980′s rock concerts here at the Fieldhouse. Ha!

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is an amazing place. From my perspective here at the archives, the collections are remarkable: science, technology, engineering, faculty and alumni who have done outstanding things throughout the world. I couldn’t ask to be immersed in a better repository!

 So after 14 months of diligent work on our new database, we present to our researchers the new interface. The database enables researchers to view, browse and search across some of the department’s most heavily used collections. Many thanks go to our team of experts for their support: Tammy Gobert, Automation Archivist, Katie Dunn, Technology and Metadata Librarian, Arlen Johnson, Senior Web Producer, George Biggar, Systems Administrator. As I sit here thanking everyone for their help, I sadly recall the day I said goodbye to my predecessor, Amy Rupert (wonderful mentor/great blogger), she was the one who brought Archon into our lives. And lastly, RPI history unfolds another year as we see students leave and move on to great new exciting lives. I want to thank Irene G (aka “speedy”) ’12. The collections in our new database could not have been completed without her dedicated service to the Archives (4 years total, but 1 one year with our database) while she focused her studies on BioChemistry and BioPhysics. Good luck Irene!

The ’87 Gym Goes Up

Rendering of proposed gymnasium as it appeared in the 1912 Transit.

As we noted in our Commencement 1912 post, the ’87 Gymnasium was dedicated in June 1912. Planning for the new facility went back a couple of years earlier to 1910 when a Board of Trustees committee was established to investigate the feasibility of developing a department of physical culture at the Institute. The committee concluded that a completely equipped modern gymnasium was necessary if such a department was to be established. In June 1911 Stewart Johnson, Class of ’87 and a member of the Board of Trustees, announced that his class would finance the construction and equipping of the building.

Architect’s drawing, front elevation as built.

Lawlor & Haase, the architects of the Walker Chemical Laboratory and Russell Sage Laboratory, were retained as architects. Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent of Harvard University, an eminent authority on college gymnasiums, was hired as project consultant. The construction contract was awarded to the Whitney-Steen Company of New York City. According to The Polytechnic, “The gymnasium is designed in the current American classical style. It primarily is colonial of the Georgian period and detailed in classical Italian.” It was built of Harvard brick, laid in Flemish bond style with limestone trim and a copper roof. The swimming pool was to be a duplicate of the Carnegie pool at Yale. Total cost of constructing and equipping the building was $150,000. Ground was broken for the building on September 12, 1911 and work was completed in November 1912. 

View of the newly completed ’87 Gymnasium from east end of ’86 Athletic Field.

Work on the building was closely monitored by the student body, most of whom were civil engineering majors and no doubt enthusiastic sidewalk superintendents. The Polytechnic featured almost monthly progress reports, including photographs that have left us with a diary of the building’s construction.

Here, with excerpts of the accompanying text, are the photos from The Polytechnic:  

 

December 1911 “The excavation has been completed and concrete placed in footings of the outside walls and partially placed for interior walls. The brickwork has been carried to ground level along the west wall.”

 

January 1912 “The brick work has been carried above ground on all sides, and much of the steel set for the first floor. The excavation for the pool has been completed and from its size, it gives promise of much enjoyment.”

 

February 1912 “Work has been temporarily suspended on account of severe existing weather.”

 

March 1912 “The new gymnasium is progressing favorably, although cold weather has hampered the work to some extent. The brick work has been completed up to the second floor.”

  

April 1912 “The masonry has been completed as far as the second story and the girders for the second floor are now in place.”

 

May 1912 “Things are taking shape now and there is great promise of the pleasure and benefit that will be derived from the new building with its opportunity for gymnastic work, swimming pool exercise and various indoor sports.”

 

 

 

 

Commencement 1912

Rensselaer’s 86^th annual commencement exercises were held in the Troy Music Hall on Wednesday June 12, 1912. Institute President Palmer C. Ricketts presented diplomas to 118 graduating seniors. The Class of 1912 was the largest class to date to graduate from the Institute. Ninety six of the degrees awarded were in Civil Engineering, thirteen in Electrical Engineering, and nine in Mechanical Engineering.

The commencement address was delivered by Henry W. Hodge, Class of 1885. Hodge (1865-1919) was one of the foremost civil engineers of the era. His works included bridges spanning the Mississippi, Ohio, and Monongahela rivers as well as some of the largest buildings constructed to date in New York City, including the Singer, Woolworth, and Cunard buildings. He was a consulting engineer to the City of New York and trustee of Rensselaer and New York University. The title of Hodge’s address  was “Qualities of Successful Engineers.” Click here to see the entire commencment address: 1912 Address to Graduating Class

At noon on the day preceding the commencement exercises members of the Class of 1887 made the formal presentation of the New Gymnasium (’87 Gymnasium) to the Board of Trustees. The presentation was followed by a lunch on campus, a baseball match between teams representing the student body and graduates, and class reunions and dinners. To finish out the day’s festivities at 9:00pm the Commencement Hop was held in the Pittsburgh Building.

Online Gallery Raises the Curtain on a New Archives Exhibit

During the construction of EMPAC, the Institute Archives and Special Collections had an exhibit in the Folsom Library lobby about performance spaces at RPI.  Now with EMPAC well into its third year as a complete and dedicated space for the performing arts at Rensselaer, I had the opportunity to create an online exhibit from materials in the archives, including items used in the original lobby exhibit.

Battle of the Bands contestants performing in the Union's McNeil Room.

It is amazing how much ingenuity has gone into appropriating a variety of spaces across campus and the community of Troy into venues for the various performing arts groups on campus over more than a century.  Everything from the cliffs above the athletic field to the various incarnations of the Playhouse has been transformed from its original purpose to suit the needs of performers of all types.

Not being a native of the Capital District or even New York State, I found I learned a great deal about RPI and Troy in the process of creating this online exhibit, particularly when seeking out new materials to add.  I flipped through decades of the Transit looking for a decent photograph taken of a performance in the McNeil Room of the Union and searched through dozens of programs and playbills for the most appropriate and beautiful examples in the collection.

Rendering of the elevation for EMPAC's south wall.

EMPAC now offers a dedicated home for the performing arts but also shares its space with other events, whether stationary exhibits or lectures.  It stands as part of the tradition of the performing arts venues at RPI in that every space welcomes the campus community to participate in a variety of ways.  And even with a dedicated home, many performances still take place in the spaces they called home prior to the completion of EMPAC, the RPI Players and the Playhouse being a notable example.

I hope that everyone enjoys browsing this exhibit and learns even a bit of what I learned in the course of designing it.

AmbertheIntern

Pup covers 1924-1951

The Rensselaer Pup has some wonderful examples of graphic design and student art from the first half of the 20th century.  As a student-generated humor magazine it possesses some questionable content as well as beautiful covers.  Often the images from the covers play toward other popular magazines or comics of the time.  A few covers sport photographs, but the majority showcase student drawing and design.

As an intern in the RPI Institute Archives and Special Collections, I proposed creating an image database of the Pup covers and making it searchable to allow RPI alumni and the campus community to enjoy these unique images.  In one of my information technology courses at the University at Albany, I had the opportunity to learn how to create such a database and make it dynamically accessible via the Web.

Visitors to the online exhibit can search the covers by month, year or subtitle, but I have also added additional information so that visitors can look for blue covers or for particular features of a cover, such as “dog” or “woman.”  I highly recommend trying out a few searches to find some of the more amusing search terms I used to describe the unusual covers.  It is actually possible to find results for terms like “dagger” or “skull” among the more typical terms.

I hope that visitors to the site will enjoy this opportunity to view the Pup covers as much as I enjoyed making it possible.

AmbertheIntern

(Amber D’Ambrosio)

AmytheArchivist was here

I started this blog, more than three years ago, to post unidentified images and share information about the history of RPI. It was kind of an experiment, but it quickly became a pet project of mine. I was thrilled when people began responding with answers, comments and memories! I hope I’ve been able to illustrate that the history of the Institute is made up of the stories of many, many incredible people.

When I started my role as archivist at Rensselaer I thought the history of an engineering and science school might be a bit dull. I was so wrong! I have thoroughly enjoyed researching and learning about the history of this great institution — all 187 years of it. I often refer to ‘six degrees of RPI’ — seemingly EVERYTHING can be connected back to the legacy of this Institute in six steps or less! I’m constantly pointing out the connections to my colleagues, friends and family (envision some eye rolling here). Here’s one example: I recently watched a PBS documentary on John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club. John Muir’s mentor was Ezra Carr (he also had a close relationship with Ezra’s wife Jeanne). Ezra Carr was one of the first students to earn a civil engineering degree from RPI in 1838! It’s important to collect and preserve these connections from the past as they inform us about our present and steer us towards the future.

This is my last post as amythearchivist aka Amy Rupert, Assistant Institute Archivist. I’m moving on to a new phase in my career and bidding farewell to RPI and the Capital District. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some amazing people and I will miss the community very much.

This blog will continue with contributions from other archivists and people who care about preservation of the historical record. Stay tuned — more RPI history will be revealed. Thanks for following me along on this journey. It’s been a blast! Here’s to Old RPI!

Mystery Image #28

We’re wrapping up our five-day mystery image blitz with an image that I find curious. There’s just something odd about the pose of the two men and the looks on their faces! I really wish I knew more about the context of this photograph. Does anyone know who they are and why they would have been pictured together?