University at Albany alum Harvey Milk (class of 1951) is the featured leader for October 10th at the GLBT History Month website. While the papers of Harvey Milk are held by the San Francisco Public Library, researchers can review the column Milk wrote for the Albany Student Press while a student at the University in the Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives.
In September 1931, the Edward E. Potter Club was formed "to keep alive the friendships made in undergraduate days, to promote the interests of State College by interesting men of character in the teaching profession, to maintain a high social standard among the men at State College, to cooperate more fully with the Alumnae Association, to keep our selves educationally alert." The Club promoted high educational and behavioral standards for the young men attending the New York State College for Teachers (as the University at Albany was then known) and encouraged its members as individuals and as a group to participate in service-related activities.
Continue reading "Edward E. Potter Club Celebrates 75th Anniversary" »
In September 1941, Sayles Hall was opened as a men's dormitory with accomodations for 134 students. The dormitory also contained a billiard room, gymnasium, and dining hall. Sayles Hall had been dedicated and formally named on Alumni Weekend, June 14, 1941. Purchase of the land and the construction of the building was funded by donations to the Alumni Association, which voted to name the building for then Acting President John M. Sayles, in recognition of his many years of service to the Association.
John M. Sayles
As the long time chairman of the Alumni Association's funding arm, the Dormitory Committee of the Benevolent Association, Sayles, with Anna E. Pierce, is widely credited with successfully guiding the fund-raising campaign that purchased the land comprising Alumni Quadrangle and built the first two dormitories on the site, Pierce and Sayles Halls.
The Dewey Graduate Library is located in Hawley Hall on the Downtown Campus of the University at Albany and has had several names during its incarnation as a library, including the Hawley Library.
Gideon Hawley
Gideon Hawley (1785-1870), is widely known as the creator of the common or public elementary schools in New York. He served as the first superintendent of the common schools in New York (1812-1821). As a member of the Regents (1842-70), Hawley is credited with helping to establish the New York State Normal School (as the University at Albany was then known). Hawley served as a member of the State Normal School’s first Executive Committee (1844-1852) which helped to win permanent state funding for the new school.
Both people who just happen to be passing by and researchers who have used the Department's collections many times often ask "Just who is this M.E. Grenander?"
and "What connection does
Marcia Brown have to the University at Albany?"
Now you know.
The Department of Special Collections and Archives holds the collections of both women and information in addition to what is on each of the above webpages is available. You only need to ask.