This is the first in a series of “year in review” posts about what we’ve been up to in Special Collections in 2022-2023. Forthcoming posts will highlight newly-available archival collections and recent acquisitions.
Class Visits
It was another busy year for Special Collections instruction sessions! The following courses each had at least one class with us:
ARTH 481/581: Picturing Knowledge: Art & Science in Early Modernity (Katherine Reinhart)
ARTS 310: Graphic Design II (Alexandros Skouras)
ARTS 315: Communicating with Type (Alessandro Segalini)
ARTS 360: Intermediate Photography (Kari Varner)
ENG 580: Haiti in African American Literature (Mary Grace Albanese)
ENVI 105: People, Politics and the Environment (Sean Cummings)
FREN 481J: Censorship and Controversy (Jeanette Patterson)
GERM 180G: German Culture, A History: 1871-1989 (Neil Christian Pages)
HIST 257: History Methods and Practices (Elizabeth Casteen)
HIST 381J: Martyrs to Monks (Meg Leja)
HIST 480A: Gender in the Cold War (Hannah Ontiveros)
HIST 591: Teaching College History (Kent Schull and Zeynep Dursun)
MDVL 380A: Beer in Early Modern Europe (Sean Dunwoody)
MDVL 380O: Reimagining the Bible (Jeanette Patterson)
MUS 301: History of Western Music I (Paul Schleuse)
SCHL 280P: History of Conservation: Parks (Ben Andrus)
UNIV 101: History of the National Parks (Ben Andrus)
UNIV 180s1: Critical Research Skills (Megan Benson)
To schedule an in-person or virtual instruction session for the fall 2023 semester, please submit this form.
Workshops
We also hosted a Lyceum class this year, “Illustrating the Birds of America,” and conducted a workshop for the Retiree Services Program, “Genealogy: A Librarian’s Carpetbag of Tips and Tricks.”
Open Houses and Events
Additional Special Collections events this year included:
Two open houses for our Fall 2022 exhibits “Farming Empire: Agriculture and Related Industries in Upstate New York” and “The Power and the Principle: 50 Years Ago at SUNY Binghamton.” As a reminder, our Spring 2023 exhibit “Curtain Call: Selections from the Theatre History Collection” remains on display through early August 2023.
Other open houses this year highlighted Petrarch and Dante materials in Special Collections in conjunction with the annual Bernardo Lecture and to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the acquisition of our first early modern manuscript, and displayed the entries to our first annual Student Book Arts Competition.
Our #BingCollects pop-up project in collaboration with the University Art Museum launched this year, based around the theme of “Identity.” Six pop-up exhibits were held between October 2022 and April 2023, at various locations around campus. See the blog post for more details.
We also welcomed the campus student Audubon group and the staff of the Libraries for events showcasing materials from our collections during the year.