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The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives will be closed Wednesday, December 21, 2016 through Tuesday, January 2, 2017. The Department will reopen on Wednesday, January 3, 2017, and resume regular reference hours from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. The Department's complete reference hours can be found here.

On January 30th, 1979, just three months after winning the world heavyweight championship for an unprecedented third time, Muhammad Ali made his way onto a stage at the University at Albany. To read more of the press release:[Link].

Several images from the University have been showcased in a photo essay documenting the growth of UAlbany. Check it our for yourself! [Link] More photographs from the digital collections can be found here. [Link]

Sharon Wolff is pictured on the right receiving the Alice Hastings Murphy Scholarship at the 2016 University Libraries Recognition Luncheon with Interim Dean and Director of the Libraries, Rebecca Mugridge. Sharon is currently enrolled in the Information Studies graduate program (archives track) and will graduate in May. She has worked in the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives since June 2014, processing the radio programs of WAMC (Northeast Public Radio) and the paper collection of Elisabeth Semel, an important collection in our National Death Penalty Archive. Sharon recently completed an internship at the National Portrait Gallery during the winter intersession. Alice Hastings Murphy Scholarships, granted to staff employees or student employees who wish to become librarians and who are enrolled in or accepted in an American Library Association accredited library and information science degree program.</img>

Supervisory Archivist, Jodi Boyle teaches a class of IELP students about the collections and how to use primary resources.

Friday, April 8, 2016, 2:00 - 5:00PM Patricia and J. Spencer Standish Room University at Albany Science Library Video of the event Please join us to celebrate the life of Marcia Brown, New York State College for Teachers Class of 1940, an internationally renowned illustrator and author of children's books. She was a three-time winner of the Caldecott Medal, the American Library Association's highest award for excellence in children's' book illustrations, for three of her books: Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper (1954); Once a Mouse (1961); and Shadow (1982), and six more of her books are Caldecott Honor Books. Speakers confirmed include: Anita Silvey, author and former editor of The Horn Book Jeanne Lamb, New York Public Library Dr. Kendra Howard Smith, Associate Professor, University at Albany David Mitchell, Curator, Miriam Snow Mathes Historical Children's Literature John Solum, Music Teacher and Friend of Marcia Brown More speakers to be...

Dr. Smith-Howard introduces, (HIS 277) The Culture and History of Food students to primary documents. Students pour over City of Albany directories, identifying food related businesses.

Communities of New York November 19 & 20, 2015 University at Albany - SUNY Albany, New York Celebrate New York History Month at Researching New York! More than 20 sessions explore New York State history from a wide variety of perspectives. Some offer a response to the call to examine understandings of community--whether based on geographic or physical location or drawn together by shared cultural, political, religious, ethnic, racial, or gender identities and common experiences. How do these understandings tell the stories of the past, but also help to engage with New York communities of today? For more information about registration and program, follow this [link].

Three new collections have recently been completed as part of the Building New Access Tools for the National Death Penalty Archive project and are available to researchers. The ongoing project to process and make available 10 collections from the National Death Penalty Archives is funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) as part of its Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program. Finding aids to the Bill Pelke Papers, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation Records, and the Victor Streib Papers can now be found on the M.E. Grenander Special Collections and Archives webpage. Visitors may now request to see any part of these collections in the Marcia Brown Reading Room on the third floor of the Science Library. The Bill Pelke Papers contain the records of political activist Bill Pelke and document his efforts toward the abolition of the death penalty in the United States from the...

E.L. Doctorow, author of the bestselling Ragtime and more than a dozen other novels and short story collections, died on July 21 in New York City. The William Kennedy Papers at the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives contain nearly twenty years of correspondence between the two award-winning authors. In this April 27, 1978 letter, Doctorow provides critical feedback of Kennedy's third published novel Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, the second in his Albany Cycle of novels. Doctorow refers to Albany as "Kennedy's Yoknapatawpha," the fictional county William Faulkner created and utilized as the setting for the majority of his novels. Doctorow also predicts great literary achievement for Kennedy in "another book, or possibly two," accurately anticipating the success of Kennedy's 1983 novel Ironweed. The Kennedy Papers contain correspondence sent to Kennedy from fellow authors, journalists, politicians, and members of the film industry, especially his mentor Saul Bellow and...