One of my primary duties is answering people's questions -- we call this reference.  They may be quick questions -- when did my great-grandfather attend RPI? -- or they may be in-depth research questions -- what were the origins of American human space flight?

Yes, that's right -- mandolins were all the rage from about 1894 to 1924.  Mandolin clubs popped up at high schools, colleges and cities all over the country.  The club at RPI evolved out of the Banjo and Guitar Club in 1892 --  it was called the Banjo, Guitar and

The Moustache Club was a student club that appeared briefly in the 1870s.  The officers consisted of president, assistant to the president, treasurer and inspector general.  Here are some excerpts from the club's constitution as detailed in the 1877 Transit:

This topic combines two of my archival curiosities -- RPI artifacts and former RPI clubs.  The artifact is a molded plastic triangle with circuit symbols in relief and a black inset triangle with the gold letters L/R/C.  The former club is LCR.

For several decades a hop (informal dance) was held right after commencement.  The hop was sponsored by the junior class in honor of the graduating seniors and it was typically held at a hall

The  "Engineers" moniker for athletic teams goes back to the 1920s. It was a good idea when the name summed up RPI quite well and an "image" of athletics was unnecessary. Marketing athletics can be tricky and fan support fickle, however, when there is no mascot to relate to. An attempt to fix this problem came about in 1953 when the Student Council announced a mascot contest. The five finalists were:  Bachelors, Scorpions, Falcons, Red Devils and Cardinals. Students voted for their favorite during the Grand Marshal Week elections. The winner?

I've mentioned my fondness for happenstance before, but I must tell you again that I get pretty excited when I stumble upon an answer! Today, I was browsing through Alumni News from 1969 and there on the front page of the February issue was Mystery Image #10!  The photo pictures the Henry Sage Estate or "Fernbrook" located in Menands, NY.

There were no Grand Marshals elected from 1890-1893 -- an unexplained gap in a long history of Grand Marshals. There were no wars, no national crises and no apparent upheavals at the Institute.  Published histories do not provide an explanation and references to it merely mention that the office was suspended during this time period.

Did you know that March 21st , 1974 was proclaimed "RPI Day" in New York State? Resolved, That Governor Malcolm Wilson be and hereby is respectfully memorialized to publish and declare by appropriate proclamation to the people of the state designating for observance this year the twenty-first day of March as "RPI Day", since it was on this day in 1826 that the Legislature passed an act incorporating what was then the Rensselaer School.

Bill Criss sent along the picture from the Troy Record that he mentioned in his comment regarding Winter Carnival.  Do you know what year this took place?