Respect the “Seal”

I often browse through old issues of The Polytechnic looking for answers to burning questions. Today’s question brought me to the 1925 issues. Sometimes I happen to read headlines, articles or ads that make me smile. Allow me to share my latest find. “The Rensselaer Seal” No college can boast of an emblem more symbolic [...]

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Pushball is back!

Winter Carnival is this weekend and I’m excited to see a couple of old traditions being resurrected for the event. There have been attempts to bring back Pushball, but I think this will be the first organized game in a very long time. Since we have a good amount of snow on the ground, let’s [...]

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at the beginning of the Hockey Line

The Hockey Line is a long standing (no pun intended) tradition at RPI.  When and why did it start?  Before 1972, student tickets rotated through sections on the North and West sides during the season so that everyone had a chance to sit in the best seats on the North side.  Brace poles, in place [...]

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Winter Carnival

Mid-winter fesitivities with various names have come and gone over the years at Rensselaer. In 1949, the Junior class planned a Snowflake Saturnalia dance in lieu of the Junior Prom. The Rensselaer Outing Club (ROC) organized outdoor activities during the 24 hours leading up to Saturnalia and dubbed it “Winter Weekend.” The schedule of events [...]

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Big Red Freakout #1

The 32nd Annual Big Red Freakout is being held this weekend.  Thirty-two consecutive years of the same tradition with the same purpose is relatively rare at the ‘Tute, so I had to find out how the event got started and what it was like the first time around. Big Red Freakout was the brain child [...]

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new old stuff

I mentioned previously that we rely on donors to acquire new material for our collections.  In this post, I will highlight our latest acquisition. Recently Mr. Cox left this comment on the blog: I live in Seattle Wa. and i found an old calculus book at a garage sale. It is ” practical treatise on [...]

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memorabilia

I was recently asked a question about RPI memorabilia so I thought I would share an example of what we have in our collection. We receive donations from alums, their families and other generous people.  We also regularly troll Ebay looking for RPI related material to add to our collections. (BTW, we NEVER sell anything [...]

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Mystery Image #5 – create a caption

This photo really intrigues me! In all of my RPI history travels, which includes extensive research for exhibits on student clubs and student traditions, I haven’t found an explanation for this image. I hope I stumble across something someday that will help me identify this curiously dressed group of men! I’m dying to know what [...]

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Grand Marshal Week, 1870s

Grand Marshal Week is just ahead and the campus is covered in campaign signs. This past week, while looking through a scrapbook compiled by Dwinel French Thompson, I found a few news clippings regarding GM week during the 1870s. Before I get to that, I should tell you a little about Dwinel (interesting name isn’t [...]

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The Tute Screw

Every RPI student and alum has invariably heard the term ‘Tute Screw’ often used metaphorically and also embodied as an actual object. No one knows who coined the term or how long it has been in use, but the object itself has a documented origin. In the Fall of 1949, Sigma Phi Epsilon awarded the [...]

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