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From the State College News, February 23, 1951

While writing those end of semester papers and preparing for finals current students might find some truth in Carrie J. Goddard's 1894 notes on Professor James Wetmore's class in Sanitary Science at the New York State Normal College (reproduced below). The title of the lecture, or at least of Goddard's notes on the lecture, was "Dangers of School Life to the Brain." According to Goddard's notes below, Wetmore told the class that "impure air, over study, examinations, punishments" could lead to diseases of the brain such as "St. Vitas' Dance, epilepsy, brain fever, [or] nervous prostration," or simply to "insanity." Pictured below is Professor Wetmore with his Natural Science Class in our Willett Street Building, ca. 1890. No picture of Goddard exists. For the original 1894 notebook and photos of our school, at the time the State Normal College, in the 1890 consult the University Archivist Geoffrey Williams in the...

This exhibition, originally mounted in conjunction with the publication of Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children’s Literature by Leonard Marcus, will remain on display here in the M.E. Grenander Special Collections Department through Friday January 16th, 2009.

The Department of Special Collections announces the completion of the finding aid for the Paul Leser Papers. Leser held positions at the Frankfurter Bund für Volksbildung and at the Ethnological Museum in Frankfurt, Germany before becoming a Privatdozent for Ethnology at the Darmstadt Institute of Technology. During this time period he became involved in the case against Dr. Julius Lips of the Raustenstrauch-Joest Museum, who was accused by Leser and others of plagiarizing from the works of Graebner, Schmidt, and Koppers. The case dragged on until 1933, when many of the participants were removed from their positions by the Nazis. Though the case took up much of his time in the early 1930's, his main interest was his own work on the history of the plow. In 1931, his most renowned work Entstehunq und Verbreitung des Pfluges was published (it was eventually reprinted in Denmark in 1971). In 1936, because...

The Department of Special Collections announces the completion of the finding aid for the Hugo A. Bedau Papers which are part of the National Death Penalty Archive. Bedau is a commentator, scholar, and activist for the abolition of capital punishment. This collection reflects Bedau’s commitment as an activist who has challenged the fundamental legality of the death penalty and as a prominent spokesperson known for his scholarship and writing concerning the death penalty. In 1966, Bedau was hired as Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University where spent the next thirty-three years as he helped found the Center for the Study of Decision Making. Among his other scholarly work, Bedau is the author of: The Death Penalty in America: An Anthology (1962), that is currently in its 4th edition; co-editor, Capital Punishment in the United States (1976); Courts, the Constitution and Capital Punishment (1977); Death is Different (1987); editor, Civil Disobedience...

Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children' Literature Where: Standish Room, Third floor Science Library, University at Albany, SUNY When: October 23, 2008, 4:00 PM Leonard Marcus, one of the foremost authorities on the history of children' literature, will discuss and sign his new book, Minders of Make-Believe (2008, Houghton Mifflin), an animated first-time history of the visionary editors, authors, librarians, booksellers, and others whose passion for books has transformed American childhood and American culture. What should children read? Marcus tackles this three-hundred-year-old question that sparked the creation of a rambunctious children' book publishing scene in Colonial times. And it' the urgent issue that went on to fuel the transformation of twentieth-century children' book publishing from a genteel backwater to big business. Marcus delivers a provocative look at the fierce turf wars fought among pioneering editors, progressive educators, and librarians - most of them women -...

Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children’s Literature Where: Standish Room, Third floor Science Library, University at Albany, SUNY When: October 23, 2008, 4:00 PM Leonard Marcus, one of the foremost authorities on the history of children’s literature, will discuss and sign his new book, Minders of Make-Believe (2008, Houghton Mifflin), an animated first-time history of the visionary editors, authors, librarians, booksellers, and others whose passion for books has transformed American childhood and American culture. </img> What should children read? Marcus tackles this three-hundred-year-old question that sparked the creation of a rambunctious children’s book publishing scene in Colonial times. And it’s the urgent issue that went on to fuel the transformation of twentieth-century children’s book publishing from a genteel backwater to big business. Marcus delivers a provocative look at the fierce turf wars fought among pioneering editors, progressive educators, and librarians - most of them women...

The cover of the November 1939 issue of The Statesman (right) was illustrated by Marcia Brown, class of 1940, New York State College for Teachers (NYSCT), whose career in the field of children' literature is one of great distinction. While at NYSCT, her writing and artistic abilities blossomed, as she contributed to the school's literary and humor magazines. She worked on the art and editorial staff of the State Lion and served as editor-in-chief of The Statesman. Her sketches of mice, lions and other illustrations can be seen in the pages of these publications which are preserved at the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives. These early illustrations provide a strong indication of Brown' future abilities as an illustrator and author, a career that includes being honored as the only three-time Caldecott Medal winner and six-time Caldecott Honor. The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives, University...

The cover of the November 1939 issue of The Statesman (right) was illustrated by Marcia Brown, class of 1940, New York State College for Teachers (NYSCT), whose career in the field of children’s literature is one of great distinction. While at NYSCT, her writing and artistic abilities blossomed, as she contributed to the school's literary and humor magazines. She worked on the art and editorial staff of the State Lion and served as editor-in-chief of The Statesman. Her sketches of mice, lions and other illustrations can be seen in the pages of these publications which are preserved at the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives. These early illustrations provide a strong indication of Brown’s future abilities as an illustrator and author, a career that includes being honored as the only three-time Caldecott Medal winner and six-time Caldecott Honor. </img> The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives,...

The cover of the November 1939 issue of The Statesman (right) was illustrated by Marcia Brown, class of 1940, New York State College for Teachers (NYSCT), whose career in the field of children' literature is one of great distinction. While at NYSCT, her writing and artistic abilities blossomed, as she contributed to the school's literary and humor magazines. She worked on the art and editorial staff of the State Lion and served as editor-in-chief of The Statesman. Her sketches of mice, lions and other illustrations can be seen in the pages of these publications (excerpts below) which are preserved at the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives. These early illustrations provide a strong indication of Brown' future abilities as an illustrator and author, a career that includes being honored as the only three-time Caldecott Medal winner and six-time Caldecott Honor. The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections &...