Items in this collection have been transferred to the Alumni Association of the University at Albany, SUNY for the past 100 years. The collection consists of autograph books, broken runs of bulletins, catalogues, and commencement exercises; the correspondence of alumni, faculty and students; newspaper clippings; photographs of alumni, faculty, students, student events and buildings; programs for student and local plays; programs of college and student events, scrap books, song books, student literary publications and yearbooks. The collection documents the day-to-day student life at the University at Albany and its predecessor institutions: the State Normal School, 1844-1890; the New York State Normal College, 1890-1914; the New York State College for Teachers, 1914-1959; the State University of New York College of Education at Albany, 1959-61; the State University of New York College at Albany, 1961-62; and the State University of New York at Albany, 1962-1986.

Though the span date of the collection is 1844 through 1991, there are few items before 1860. The nineteenth century materials consist primarily of formal portrait photographs of students and faculty; autograph books from 1860, 1861, and 1889 (autograph books were the forerunners of college yearbooks--see the University Archives Autograph Book Collection for more extensive examples of the genre); scattered commencement exercises and diplomas (see the University Archives Diploma Collection and Commencement Series for other examples); the correspondence of Anna E. Pierce, a graduate of the Class of 1884, and future Dean of Women; and the papers of Carolyn Mayhew, a graduate of the Class of 1892, and assistant school principal in New York City (including her essays and an autobiographical bookLife on A Diary Farm in the Nineteenth Century).

The twentieth century holdings of the collection are much richer, consisting, in addition to the usual commencement programs and photographs, of a variety of regalia including athletic letters from 1927; womens basketball memorabilia donated by Lorna Shafer including a list of rules of personal conduct of women athletes; candle holders used on Torch Night and Candlelight Ceremony; dance cards; felt arm bands from the classes of 1913, 1918, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1935, 1937, 1949; play programs, particularly from the period when Agnes Futterer lead theatrical programming (1918-1956), as well as programs for events held at local and New York City theaters; school pins from fraternities, sororities, and MYSKANIA (the student honorary and guardian of traditions); scrap books from members of the class of 1923, 1926, 1929, 1933, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1949; song books; student literary and humor magazines; tea pots from Syddum Hall; women's gym rompers dating from 1927 and 1937.

The collection is strongest in the period from 1920 through the mid-1950s and weakest before and after those dates. With notable exceptions, primarily scattered copies of student publications, the Alumni Memorabilia Collection contains few items from the 1960s on.

The Alumni Memorabilia Collection exists 1) to provide a repository for items which can be exhibited at Alumni Reunions, Homecoming and in the wider University community, and 2) to provide a mechanism by which the University Archives can document student life at the University and its predecessor institutions. To achieve these goals we solicit donations which are attractive, colorful and/or informative, and at the same time we collect materials which will give us insight into student life, both in and outside of classes.

University Archives plans to add new class memorabilia to this finding aid on an annual basis.