Located on the third floor of Folsom Library, the Institute Archives & Special Collections at Rensselaer houses thousands of collections. 

Among the department’s collections are materials relating to the Brooklyn Bridge, George Low’s tenure at NASA, and other acclaimed engineering feats documenting the institution's bold legacy of changing the world. 

Latest Blog Posts

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, Revealed

Posted by Kelsey O'Brien on April 29, 2022

Upon helping a researcher based in Shelter Island, New York, last month, I had to peruse the Institute Archives’ expansive Horsford collection, which I hadn’t done before. Among fun items, such as colonial currency dated to 1775, an 1839 newspaper story of a young girl becoming a pirate, and a lady throwing a summer party in the Roaring Twenties, where attendees had to dress up as Colonial Quakers, something else caught my eye: wax seals.

Women's History Month: Those Who Led the Way

Posted by Jenifer Monger on March 8, 2021
For the month of March, in honor of Women's history, the Institute Archives and Special Collections celebrates the history of women at Rensselaer. This post highlights Those Who Led the Way and covers 1834 through the 1980's. At the end of March we’ll highlight the countless achievements of women (faculty, staff, students, alumnae) from the 1900s to the present.  
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