On April 3, Rensselaer lost a true patriot of the Institute, Carl Westerdahl.  Carl’s passing hits close to home to many in the RPI community due to his enduring relationships with students, alumni, staff, and especially those of us in the Institute Archives and Special Coll

Rendering of the proposed gymnasium as it appeared in the 1912 Transit. As we noted in our Commencement 1912 post, the ’87 Gymnasium was dedicated in June 1912.

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: