women’s history up-close and local

March is National Women’s History Month and it seems fitting to focus some attention on the history of women at RPI.  We have a great online exhibit, Women at Rensselaer, that provides lots of information in a historical chronology.  I also created a quick slideshow of some of the “firsts” for women at the Institute [...]

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Mystery Image #12

The holidays have passed, spring semester work has commenced and winter couldn’t get any worse.  Blah.  This probably won’t cure the doldrums, but it may entertain you for a moment.  I thought of inviting captions for this one, but I don’t want to divert attention from an actual identification.  My best guess for the beer [...]

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Mystery Image #9

I don’t have much to say about this image — I’m clueless.    Can you identify the professor?  the student?  the equipment?  If so, please leave a comment!

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presidential campaign stops

On October 8, 1952, ten thousand people gathered to hear Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican candidate for president, give a campaign speech that blamed the Truman administration for leading the nation into a “policy of inflation.”  Two days later, 8,500 people gathered in the same place to hear the Democratic candidate for president, Adlai Stevenson.  Stevenson [...]

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Mystery Image #8

Bravo to our blog readers.  All of the mystery images that have been posted thus far have been identified!  So let’s move on to the next image.
This must be a very serious scholar (you’ve seen pictures of Da Vinci haven’t you??).  Can you put a name with this face?

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Student Orientation

Student orientation has taken many forms over the years with different angles on how to introduce new students to college life and unify the group as a class. For many years a Freshman Camp was held at the Silver Bay YMCA on Lake George. The new students donned their beanies, boarded buses in [...]

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Funky Names

I’m looking forward to a three-day holiday weekend and some summer fun so it’s hard to concentrate on RPI history today! I’ve been working on an inventory of faculty/alumni files and doing some organization in the collection. I frequently use information in this collection to answer questions about RPI people. [...]

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Mystery Image #7

I have two different views of this prof for you to consider and therefore two photos that need to be filed in the right place. The computer in the first view may help place him in time. I was curious about the sign below the prof in the computer picture so I [...]

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Mystery Image #6

I kind of have a feeling that I should know who this guy is — but I don’t. Architecture — got that. Professor — check. If it’s obvious to everyone but me, then so be it. Let the comments roll! How about that pointer — doesn’t it seem a [...]

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Mystery Image #4 – two for one

This is a two for one special — ID this person and two unidentified photos find a home. The first photo brings back bad memories of organic chemistry. The 3D molecules that he’s holding didn’t help me at all. There are some more clues in the second photo. We see a chemistry lab nicely staged [...]

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