The Institute Archives and Special Collections is located in the Fixman Room on the third floor of Folsom Library. The department collects, preserves and provides access to a variety of materials which fall into two major categories:
Institute Archives – The archives are the official records of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. They document the administration, curriculum, and programs of the Institute and its schools and departments. Materials include: Records of the presidents and senior administrators; Board of Trustee minutes; department files; campus publications and artifacts. Extensive photograph, biographical and subject files document the history of the Institute and its people.
Special Collections – Our Special Collections are composed of manuscript collections, rare books, and pamphlets focusing on nineteenth and twentieth century science and technology. Some of our most popular collections are the Roebling Collection, George M. Low Collection, Horsford Family Papers and Skilton Family Papers.
I am trying to establish the chronology, and life story, of a man – LeGrand Bouton Cannon. He was raised in Troy, attended “The Institute” sometime in 1828-1830 (did not graduate) and was a Trustee of RPI, 1849-1864. He died a very wealthy man in Burlington, Vermont in 1906. He was an officer of many companies, and was the president of the Champlain Transportation Company for more than thirty years. I know, and have seen them, that some of his papers are in the Rauner Library at Dartmouth. I also know that the Transportation Company archives are at UVM. But, there has to be more material on him someplace else. RPI? He died at age 91 (and two days) but the first half of his life is a mystery. The mystery starts with his birth in 1815—and his attendance at “The Institute” in, or before 1830. That makes no apparent sense. Any ideas? Thanks!
Carl, there is no manuscript material regarding LeGrand B. Cannon here at RPI. We don’t even have a biographical file on him. There is a brief biography in the Biographical Record, published in 1887, which states that He received his early education in the select schools of
Troy, and at the Rensselaer Institute. After leaving school he
went into the store of his father, and afterwards became a partner
in the dry goods business. Later he was connected with the
rolling mills and iron works in Troy. He moved to New York
city in 1850, and has since been actively and largely interested in
manufacturing, mining, railroad and other business enterprises.
He attended the Rensselaer Institute in 1829 and I believe it is quite possible that he was in the “Junior Branch,” which accepted “those who are too young to take a part with those of mature years.” The ages of the students ranged from 13 to 16 years so Cannon at 14 yrs. would have fit the demographic of this particular class. The junior branch was taught in a separate building on the property of the Old Bank Place.
Can I send you pictures from the 60′s ? I was a Glee Club member and have several pictures of the “boys” in that era.
I also have a review of our performance at Town Hall in New York by the New York Times and a letter from a board member of some significance regarding our performance and ou professionalism on stage
Carl,
LeGrand Bouton Cannon is a member of my Cannon family from Staten Island, NY.
I would be more than hapy to share what I have on him including pictures etc.
Amy
I am a member of the Olmstead Family Association, and request your permission to use your article about Aaron Olmstead for our Family Association Newsletter. I have the birth, marriage and death information for Aaron, and can add my information to yours to make a very nice article.
Carlton Olmsted Hommel
MS Chemistry, 1957
Carlton,
Please feel free to use the information in my blog post for your article. I would appreciate it if you would credit the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Archives and Special Collections as a source. Could you also send me a copy of the newsletter for our files? Thank you.
Amy & others,
I acquired from a former roommate an LP record of RPI Glee Club songs, “Songs of Rensselaer”, directed by Joel Dolven. It’s a custom stamping, limited production, produced and pressed on translucent red vinyl by RCA Victor. Bob basically inherited it from his father, now deceased.
The record is in its original cardboard sleeve. Unfortunately there was a flood at some time in its life and much of the print on the sleeve, and on the paper label of the record itself, was obliterated. What I can read indicates that Dolven directed the Glee Club since 1947 so I would guess – based on that, as well as the style of the cover’s graphics and printed title – that it dates from sometime in the mid-1950′s.
The song titles are hard to read, but this is best-guess on the tracks on the record:
Side One:
– Steven Van Rensselaer
– When Evening Shades are Falling
– Son of Old RPI
– Drink a Highball
– How Do You Spell Rensselaer
– (can’t read)
Side Two:
– Loyal to Rensselaer
– Old Rensselaer
– The Hills of Troy
– Now and Forever
– Hail, Dear Old Rensselaer
– Alma Mater
Some of the (lyrics, tune) authors’ names are readable but I won’t list them here.
The record has had its share of scrapes and scratches but most of it is quite listenable. With headphones, one becomes aware of the excellent acoustic space in which the recording took place – one with quite long reverberation times – and the performances are of high quality. I wonder if they recorded it in the Chapel? (formerly the Library, now the Computing Center).
I digitized and did some signal processing on recorded tracks to remove the worst of the ticks, pops, and other surface noise on the record. Then I MP3-converted all the tracks at 320kbps and stored them on several computers.
If anyone is interested in hearing some of these Glee Club tracks, please let me know, and I can email them to you. File sizes are from 1.7 to 5MB.
Warm wishes,
Dick Lawrence ’72
Dick,
As a current student at RPI and member of most of the music groups here I would love to hear those recordings.
Devin Glenn ’14
Dick Lawrence: As a ’64 grad, I’d also like to hear those recordings.
Alan Silverman
alan_silverman@verizon.net
please don’t let this blog die…..
Devin Glenn and Alan Silverman,
Please send me your email address and I will attempt to email you some tracks from the Glee Club album. If you want the whole thing I can probably burn all tracks to a CD. They will be in MP3 format as I’m not certain I saved the original digital .wav files. You can reach me via my Gmail address at:
dlawrence2@gmail.com
Dick Lawrence
Hi folks-
Amy may be gone, but the blog lives on! We are short-staffed at the moment, though, so we aren’t able to write as regularly as our former colleague. But please stay tuned… there’s more to come!
Tammy (also an archivist)
Hello again-
The 1952 album “Songs of Rensselaer” is available online through Rensselaer Digital Collections, which is a component of the RPI library’s web site. You can listen to any of the twelve songs by following these steps:
1. Go to RensSearch
2. Click on the Rensselaer Digital Collections icon near the lower left corner of the page.
3. Type “songs of rensselaer” in the search box and select the Exact option.
4. Click the red button marked Go on the right side of the page.
5. Select any of the songs or the entire album by clicking on an icon on the results page.
This album was digitized by Charles Kelly (RPI Class of 1950) before he died a few years ago. Thanks, Chuck!
Tammy
My great-grandfather graduated from Rensselaer in about 1879. I have a pin from him that I believe may be related to Rensselaer. On the bottom it says “Alto Y Derecho”–meaning “straight and tall”. Can’t see a way to send a picture of it. Any help?
Hi Nancy – I am not familiar with any RPI pins with that inscription, but I’d like to take a look at it. I’ll contact you by email so you can send me a photo as an attachment. Maybe then we can figure out what you have!
Tammy
An article in The New York Times of June 8, 1939 said that John Marshall Lockhart (Class of 1887) anonymously donated several million dollars to the Institute, and that this money paid for five buildings including a gymnasium (presumably the Class of 87 Gym). It says that this was revealed by the then-Institute President William O Hotchkiss in his annual letter to the alumni. Did the letter specify the other buildings that he was responsible for funding? My guess is that one of them is the Pittsburgh Building, which was funded by alumni from Pittsburgh. Is that correct? What are the other three buildings?
Hi Dewey-
When I read your post I have to admit I found the NY Times statement rather suspect. So I checked the 1939 R.P.I. Bulletin “Letter to Alumni and Other Friends of Rensselaer.” Although John M. Lockhart is listed in the Necrology section, he is not named under Gifts and Bequests, nor anywhere else for that matter. I also looked through some of President Hotchkiss’s correspondence from that time and I found no letters to the alumni that mentioned Mr. Lockhart or his contributions to the Institute.
At any rate, I do not know which RPI building projects Mr. Lockhart funded. My former colleague Amythearchivist did some research on that topic, but I have not found the answer in her files. Perhaps she’ll read this comment and shed some light on the subject!
Tammy
Palmer Ricketts called John M. Lockhart the “Great Benefactor” and I believe he referred to him as such at the dedication of Carnegie and Walker Lab in 1907. He gave at least $5 million over a long period of time and his identity was not revealed until after his death. His donations were used to help fund Pittsburgh, Carnegie, the 87 Gym, Walker Lab and possibly Russell Sage Lab or the Student Club House.
RPI wanted to honor Lockhart in some way (possibly naming a building for him?), but his family declined. They felt that he would have preferred to remain anonymous. I tried to give Mr. Lockhart credit for his generosity during presentations about campus buildings!
~Amy
(very happy to be able to contribute to the blog again!)