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UAlbany TV interviews University Archivist, Geoff Williams, and he tells the history of the statue of Minerva: http://www.albany.edu/news/21489.php?WT.svl=image

The ME Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives announces the opening of a new exhibit entitled It Happens Every Four Years: U.S. Presidential Election Campaigns from the Archives of Public Affairs and Policy. As 2012 will witness a U.S. presidential election, the media, political observers and commentators, academic analysts and ordinary Americans will focus on the election at key points throughout the year. This includes the primaries and caucuses, the campaign trail for the general election, the nominating conventions, and the election in November. Presented in this exhibit are political photographs, correspondence, books, pamphlets, research, memorabilia, and other archival materials from more than a dozen collections. These items document the many facets of U.S. presidential elections during the past century. Some are well-known, like trade union outreach on behalf of candidates, cultivating media endorsements or ongoing campaign appearances to shake hands with potential voters. Other materials highlight less familiar...

The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives will be closed Thursday, November 24th and Friday, November 25th.

This September the University at Albany Libraries’ M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives is spotlighting the recently digitized publications of the Civil Service Employees Association, Inc., or CSEA, from the fall of 2001 which focused upon the aftermath of the events of September 11. The department holds the records of the CSEA, Local 1000, AFSCME, AFL-CIO. CSEA is the largest public employees' union in New York State with over 260,000 members. This substantial collection documents the organization’s 100 year-old history with administrative files, subject files, photographs, audio/video materials, scrapbooks, and publications. The official CSEA magazine The Work Force, published from 1978 through today, is just one highlight of the collection. The commemorative November 2001 issue of The Work Force mourns the 42 state workers, 39 from the Department of Taxation and Finance and three from the Department of Transportation, lost in the tragedy at the World Trade Center....

The two display cases near the entrance to the University Library contain items from Special Collections and Archives about the University at Albany's Past Commencements. The New York State Normal School, as the University at Albany was originally known, was founded in 1844 and held its first graduation ceremony on August 27, 1845. The Normal School awarded diplomas to thirty-four students, who are listed in the Executive Committee Annual Report to the New York State Legislature, January. 27, 1846. The New York State Legislature created the State Normal School to train teachers for the common schools of New York State. It was the fourth state normal school in the country, the first in New York and the first outside of Massachusetts. On January 23, 1885, U. S. President elect and New York State Governor Grover Cleveland presents degrees at Commencement for the New York State Normal School in Albany, N.Y....

The University at Albany Libraries’ M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives has made the State College News, 1916-1962, and the Albany Student Press, 1963-1986 available online. The search box below allows for keyword searching of the student newspapers. The Libraries is currently developing advanced search techniques, such as by date, and is working on digitizing the student newspaper from 1900-1916 and 1985-2008. If you want to search keywords in the Albany Student Press, click here: Search the Albany Student Press</img>

The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives is pleased to announce the completed archival processing and new online finding aids for the records of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Local 1104, Telephone Operator’s Division and Education Division. With over 10,000 members in New York State, CWA 1104’s organizational history traces a union that grew over the years to protect the interests of a large variety of professions. The CWA, 1104 Operator’s Division records consist of a variety of documents illustrating the union’s evolution from its origin as the Telephone Traffic Union Upstate (TTUU) founded in Albany in 1945 and later affiliated as the Telecommunications International Union (TIU), Local 1112. Industry changes and the legendary 1984 AT&T breakup led Local 1112 to merge with CWA and was renamed the Telephone Traffic Union Upstate, CWA Local 1112. As the telephone industry privatized and became more automated, operators relied heavily...

The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives will be closed Friday, December 23, 2011 through Monday, January 2, 2012. The Department will reopen on Tuesday, January 3, 2012, and resume regular reference hours from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. The Department's complete reference hours can be found here.

The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives Presents: Following the Yellow Brick Road: Imitation and Influence in Children’s Literature Classic children’s books endure for their originality and timeless value to generations of young (and older) readers. A handful of these books distinguish themselves as exemplars and definers of entire genres. Six such examples are presented in this exhibit. They are: The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678); Robinson Crusoe (1719); Gulliver’s Travels (1726); Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865); The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900); and The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902). Presented here are small selections of books, some classics in their own right, which take influence from their groundbreaking predecessors in a broad variety of ways. Some are explicit sequels or pastiches, while others borrow structural, stylistic, or symbolic elements, but are otherwise independent entities. Some are written by associates of the influencing novel’s author, and some even share visual...

The Capital Region Archives Dinner Committee, in co-operation with the Archives Partnership Trust and the Capital Area Archivists, is proud to present the Fifteenth Annual Capital Region Archives Dinner at the Edison Club in Rexford, NY on Wednesday, October 6, 2010. The evening begins with a cash bar & hors d’oeuvres at 6:00 pm and the dinner and program at 7:00 pm. The keynote speaker is Dr. Gerald Zahavi, professor of History and Director of the Documentary Studies Program at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and noted expert on the history of General Electric. Focusing on an important aspect of GE’s social life, Association Island, a corporate summer recreation retreat and conference center owned by GE for half a century, Dr. Zahavi will explore the usefulness of utilizing non-textual sources to interpret the often hidden social and cultural dimensions of economic history and demonstrate the value...