It's that time of the semester when students focus on intense study and face their final examinations.  Professors (and/or TAs) will then spend hours grading the exams and recording final grades.  In the early years of the Institute, final examinations were not evaluated by professors, but by a board of examiners.  The Board of Examiners was composed of several "literary, scientific and practical men" not associated with the Institute.  The examiners were appointed by Stephen Van Rensselaer himself for several years and then by the Board of Trustees.  A public exami

This weekend the Rensselaer community will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson's tenure as president as well as commemorate the first decade of the Rensselaer Plan and completion of the Renaissance at Rensselaer capital campaign.  Dr.

The area referred to lately as "Science Quad North" (the location of the three tiered platform sometimes referred to as the "wedding cake," walkways to the library, VCC, Amos Eaton, etc.) is currently being re-landscaped.  If you haven't been on campus lately, the "wedding cake" is gone. I thought it would be interesting to show the evolution of this area of campus through a quick photomontage.  I'll let the pictures do the talking!

This is a photo of an athletic team, but I'm not sure which one or when it was taken (1960s?).  I think it may be the tennis team, because I've seen the coach in other pictures.  Do you know?  Can you identify the coach or any of the team members?

It is not surprising to find that flu pandemics have impacted the RPI community in the past.  In 1918, the Spanish flu hit campus at a most inopportune time.  It was October and 650 students conscripted into the Student Army Training Corp were about to move into temporary barracks on campus.  The flu ripped through the SATC and by the end of October, six men had died of pneumonia.  Nearly 200,000 people in the U.S.

It's busy here on campus with Reunion & Homecoming in full swing. Here are a few old reunion photographs to mark the occasion. Enjoy!

Reunion & Homecoming weekend is coming up, and sports will be a hot topic with all the excitement surrounding the dedication of the new East Campus Athletic Village.  With this in mind, I've prepared a little trivia quiz to engage you in some sports history.  I'll post the answers on Thursday, October 1st [check the comments]. Feel free to post your answers in a comment -- I'll give you a virtual award if they are all correct.  Have fun!  :)

If you're new to this blog, let me explain what the mystery images are all about.  We have a large photograph collection that contains images of RPI people, subjects and events.  When photographs arrive in the Archives from various sources, we file them into the collection.  This all works great -- when the photos are identified!  If the photos are not marked in any way, then it's up to me or other Archives staff to figure out who, what or when.  If we draw a blank, the photos go into a stack of "unidentified photos" until we get some helpful information.

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 until 1983, obstructed the view from some sections.  In 1972, about 900 seats in sections H and K were sold on a first come, first served basis.  The remaining sections continued to rotate.  Students lined up in the Rathskellar about 12 hours in advance to purchase thes

Getting students to college usually involves parents with cars packed to capacity.  The cars line up in front of residence halls and multiple trips are made to haul in the accoutrements that make a dorm room comfy.  The admissions process and student orientation sessions are in the past; room assignments, mea