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.

We recently received an item that is part of an interesting story with a connection to an important alum.  The item is a zither -- yes, a zither.  It's a complex musical instrument that was quite familiar a hundred years ago.  This was the first time I had seen one outside of a museum.  The zither was donated by an RPI alum who grew up in Troy.  Here is his story:

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:

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 paraphernalia is that it came from the pub in the Union.  It looks like they are taking inventory of the items.  Can you identify the students or the room?  If I could get the name of one or more of the individuals, I may be able to conta