Exhibit: October 5 (Thursday) - December 15 (Friday) at Schaffer Library, Lally Reading Room, Union College. "Reformation, Restoration, and Romeyn: Faith and the Founding of Union College".
* Exhibit opening reception (October 5th, 12:50-1:50 p.m.) includes 1:00 p.m. recital on the pedal harpsichord by Stefan Kiebling.
In 1517, Martin Luther, a scholar and theologian at Wittenberg University in Germany, posted his “Ninety-five Theses,” essentially challenging some of the practices of the Catholic Church and paving the way for the Protestant Reformation. The ripple effect of that act of rebellion is reflected in notable objects from the Special Collections and Archives at Union College. Indeed, the Reformation in many ways influenced the creation of Union College in 1795.
John S. Apperson Jr.
(1878-1963)
A Virginia native and college dropout, John “Appy” Apperson relocated to Schenectady in 1899, eventually landing a job as an electrical engineer at General Electric, where he worked for 47 years.
Paul A. Schaefer
(1908-1996)
Grassroots Activism and the American Wilderness: Pioneers in the 20th Century Adirondack Park Conservation Movement” highlights the remarkable careers of John Apperson and Paul Schaefer, two citizen activists who were dedicated to preserving the Adirondacks and New York’s Forest Preserve. This
exhibit focuses on their early forays into political activism. Indefatigable, determined, and politically astute, Apperson and Schaefer prompted a national dialogue around preserving wilderness for future generations. They are now remembered as giants of the conservation movement.
Union College President Eliphalet Nott demonstrated his characteristic progressive nature when he purchased a complete set of the four-volume, double-elephant-folio, The Birds of America, from Audubon in the summer of 1844. The artist was visiting the campus to tour fellow naturalist and Union professor, Captian Issac Jackson's garden.
Display presented in conjunction with LGBT: A Union Perspective, Wikoff Student Gallery, Nott Memorial. This exhibit features print, audio, video, and online resources related to lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual issues, on the Union College campus and beyond. It includes materials from the Schaffer Library general collections and archives, and addresses the history of LGBT life at Union, as well as LGBT perspectives in art, music, film, and fiction. Government documents, college news, case studies, and personal accounts enhance this exploration of LGBT culture.
"It is a bold thing for a human being who lives on the earth for just a few score years at the most to presume upon the Eternal and covet perpetuity for any of his undertakings." - Howard Zahniser
According to The Encyclopedia of Union College History, Union College’s first vegetable garden may have been that of Professor Thomas McAuley (1805-1822). While at Union, McAuley lived at the north end of North College in what is now Bronner House, and the later, undated photograph seen here shows a view of where the garden may have originally stood. Isaac Jackson (Professor, 1831-1877) moved the plot in the early 1830s to make space for his flower and shrub garden, though his personal diaries provide evidence of continued vegetable plantings. Also shown here are pictures of a greenhouse that was once located in the North Colonnade courtyard, sheep grazing on “West Beach,” and “Cap’n Jackson” with his dog and horse, Cosine. Today’s vegetable garden, the Octopus’s Garden organic plot, is maintained by students, faculty and staff. Produce is donated to local soup kitchens, and is also used by Dining Services (the project’s sponsor) in the organic and local food eateries on campus, Ozone Café and Ozone Marketplace.
This exhibit features rare editions from the Schaffer Library collections of two centuries of literary works from England, Scotland, Ireland and the United States, including Union’s first editions of “Pride and Prejudice” and Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”
This exhibit features works hand selected by Schaffer's previous head of the Special Collections department, Ellen Fladger, who retired in January of 2014.
This exhibit showcased traditions and innovations that combine Humanities and Engineering perspectives in Union’s curriculum, student and faculty research, campus structures, and co-curricular and student activities. The exhibit also displayed treasures from Union’s Permanent and Special Collections including several rare Olivier Models (19th century teaching tools for engineering that echo forms in modern sculpture) and plates from Union’s copy of John James Audubon’s Birds of America (purchased directly from the artist himself, and displayed with background information about how Audubon “engineered” both image and story).
This new exhibit series is an investigation into the distinctive ways in which graphic novelists/artists construct a narrative. The first installment focuses on the use of color as a storytelling device and showcases sample images from graphic novels in Schaffer Library’s collections.
The “Dickens in America” exhibit opened in Schaffer Library on February 9, 2010. It commemorated Charles Dickens’ two mid-nineteenth century tours of the United States, both of which included stops in nearby Albany. The exhibit featured first editions of Dickens’ fiction and non-fiction writings on the United States as well as archival materials from the papers of John Bigelow (Union College Class of 1835), who became personally acquainted with Dickens during his “public readings” tour of the U.S. in 1867/68. Also featured in the exhibition: the College’s recent acquisition of an illustrated first edition of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843) along with subsequent editions of this famous work, a condensed version of which Dickens included among his public readings in Albany in March 1868.
The Darwin @ Union exhibit in 2009 celebrated the conjunction of three events: the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth in 1809, the 150th anniversary of the first publication of his On the Origin of Species in 1859, and the gift to Union College of a first and sixth edition of On the Origin of Species as well as the first volume of Darwin’s The Descent of Man (1871), all donated to the College by Aaron J. Feingold, Union College Class of 1972. Dr. Feingold’s gifts joined his earlier presentation to the College of the first edition of Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).
Schaffer Library’s Remembered First Citizen exhibit honored John Bigelow (Union College Class of 1835). Part of a larger project at Union College celebrating the accomplishments one of its most distinguished alumni, the exhibit took its name in tribute – but also in answer – to Margaret Clapp’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Bigelow, Forgotten First Citizen (1947).
