"Our little untried craft"

Thus the first editorial staff of the Stylus described it in their inaugural issue of May 1914: "We are starting our little untried craft, 'The Stylus' upon its first voyage, which is always a more or less perilous one simply because of the very newness and unproven seaworthiness of the vessel. In the case of 'The Stylus' even the crew, the editiors, are as new and untested as the craft itself."

It is almost a century later now, and certainly the Stylus has proven "seaworthy," perhaps more so than the editors who launched it could ever have imagined! Pictured here are two of the original Stylus staff, Gertrude Cook '17 and Loyd Coleman '14.

"Diary of O. U. Senyor"

A little humor piece from the June 1922 commencement issue of the Stylus...

Greek Letter Societies of Yesteryear

The room shown here may look a little sparsely furnished to us, but it was one of several rooms in the old Normal School building set aside for the fraternities and sororities of the day, and undoubtedly was the setting for many lively events. (This room was for the Philalethean fraternity.) These societies were also known as "literary societies" back in the 19th century and were a part of Brockport student life from the 1860s through the 1930s. Especially in the earlier years, when there was no student government, a limited number of clubs and so on, the societies were important sources of social, intellectual and entertainment opportunities. They sponsored debates on topics of the day, held oratorical contests, hosted dances, brought noted contemporary speakers to the school and held athletic contests as well.

By the 1930s the student government had begun, and many of the functions the societies had played were picked up by other bodies or groups, and they became more purely social. Ernest Hartwell came as head of the school in the late 1930s, and planning was launched for the "new" building (today's Hartwell Hall.) Hartwell was apparently unsympathetic to the role of the societies, and did not include rooms for them in the new building, effectively ending a long standing tradition.

Camp Totem

In 1951 the college bought a camp just north of the Adirondacks near Harrisville NY, on the Oswegatchie River. It was a wonderful camp, comprised of nine log style buildings, on fourteen acres of land, and adjacent to a fifteen thousand acre forest preserve. It was used by a variety of college groups, from the campus school to to student and other groups, but its main purpose was to support a camping experience for the Health and Physical Education majors who were concentrating on recreation. As fine a facility as it was, the distance was considerable, and in the 1960s the college sold the camp and bought the property at Fancher, just a few miles away in Orleans County. Pictured here are some Camp Totem student staff in the 1950s.

Rak, kak, key, wack!

The "Class Yell" for the class of 1899:

"Rak, kak, key, wack,

Rim, ram, rine,

B.S.N.S. '99!"

It does have rather a ring to it, doesn't it? ;-) Their class motto might be a little more edifying: "Non sibi, sed aliis," or, "Not for ourselves, but for others." Pictured here is the cover of their 1899 class yearbook. It was a one time effort; in 1914 the Stylus started publication, and its June issue was for some years a commencement issue. Then the Saga yearbook began in 1929, and ran until 1996. You can find quite a bit of the college's history online by the way, at the College Archives site,  and in the new Digital Commons  where the college archives section is being built up, including this 1899 yearbook in digital form. Visit soon!

Far flung Brockport alumni of yesteryear

The college has a new "Digital Commons" site, an online page where the college is presenting articles by various faculty and much more. There is an archives section to the site, with a number of collections present already. In adding a document to the site, a list of alumni from 1867-1922, showing where they were living at that time, the archivist was struck by how far some alumni had traveled. Many of course were in the local region, or in NY, but many were living out west and other parts of the country. Some had made it even further, serving as missionaries, working for the government or business. Here are their listings in the register:

• Changsha, China: Carl D. Meinhardt '07, American Counsulate.


• Maubin, Burma: Mrs. Elsie Northrup Chaney (Rev. C.E.) '05, American Baptist Mission.


• Shidzuoka City, Japan: Mrs. Leora Britton Lobdell (N.L.) '99, 32 Nichome Hegashi, Kasabuka Cho. (Pictured here from the 1899 yearbook, a one time production; it wasn't till some years later that a yearbook was regularly published.)


• Tokyo, Japan: Mrs. Minnie Jackson Ayres (S.G.) '88, care of Universalist Church.


• Tokyo, Japan: Rev. Charles B. Tenny '91, 29 Sauai Cho, Ushigome.

It was starting to get a little crowded...

As enrollments skyrocketed in the 1950s, the campus was increasingly overcrowded. The classroom space in what is now Hartwell Hall had been supplemented by some temporary classrooms buildings along the railroad tracks ("Quonset" huts, that shook when the trains went by!) but that additional space was hardly enough to alleviate the space issues, as shown in this photograph. Pictured here is instructor Rosie LaSorte teaching a sex education class to a group of men - back then they divided the sexes up for these classes. Note by the way the "beanies," or caps many of the students are wearing. These were worn by all freshman, men and women, the first month or so of school, as part of the longstanding tradition of hazing of freshmen.