Union College and Schenectady have played host to countless stories over the campus’s centuries-long history. Since the invention of photography, members of the campus community have documented this history and their stories visually. Many such photographs are housed in the Picture File (SCA-1206), a collection of thousands of images preserved in the Special Collections and Archives department.
The James Joyce collection at Union College is housed in Schaffer Library's Special Collections and Archives. A small, yet rich collection of rare materials, the collection offers researchers access to unique items related to international Bloomsday events, first and rare book editions, ephemera, and pamphlets from American and European libraries.
We're celebrating Black History Month this February with a great selection of books, graphic novels, and videos. Click on each of these books for more information and to find them in our catalog!
This exhibit features selections from John James Audubon’s Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size watercolors reproduced from hand-engraved plates and printed between 1827 and 1838. Eliphalet Nott acquired Union College’s copy of Birds of America directly from Audubon himself in 1844.
The diaries of Jane Tunis Poultney Bigelow (1829-1889) are found in the John Bigelow papers (SCA 0022) in the department of Special Collections and Archives in Union College's Schaffer Library. Even though Jane was a dedicated wife and mother, she was fiercely independent and was just as respected and loved as her husband in literary and social circles in the United States and Europe. She was a gracious and energetic hostess to Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde during their visits to New York, and her visits with Walt Whitman, Wilkie Collins, and William Thackeray were wildly successful as she charmed and entertained her guests with her high intelligence, wit, and unconventional language. A gifted writer and speaker, she published prose under the pen name of Jenny P. Bigelow and spoke several languages fluently. Part of the Diaries and Journals (1850 - 1911) series, Jane's diaries detail her life and travels from 1850 to 1873 and make up the majority of the Diaries and Journals series.
Night of the Living Radio: WRUC Past and Present celebrates the 101st anniversary of WRUC. The exhibit showcases materials from the WRUC collection and includes vinyl records, radio equipment, ephemera, and recordings of broadcasts that visitors may listen to on their phones.
We celebrate Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage month by selecting relative items from our catalog that fit this theme. Click on each book to find out more and to find it in our catalog!
Union College holds over 2,800 works of art and material culture in the Permanent Collection, including significant cultural resources from internationally recognized artists and objects from Eastern and Ancient cultures.
As a cultural resource at Union College, the Permanent Collection’s mission is to enhance the cultural life and the academic programs of the College community and the public at large. Selections of the collection are on view in public and in administrative areas campus wide. Our strongest holdings are: works on paper from the 14th to 21st century, contemporary art, Asian collections, Luristan bronzes, 19th century portraits, and historical scientific instruments, including the largest collection of Olivier models held by one institution.
Celebrate Valentine's Day by discovering some of our favorite books about love. Click on each of these books to find out more, and to find them in our catalog!
Learn about the Earth on our place on it with Schaffer Library's 14 most impactful environmental book picks. Click on each book to find out more and to find it in our catalog!
Learn about 12 Banned Books and the sometimes surprising reasons that they've been censored. Click on each book to learn more and to find it in our catalog!
This faculty initiated website project uses Omeka's timeline and mapping module, along with a collecting form, to showcase student submissions on a timeline and map.
In this course, we seek to answer these questions by exploring the history of Modern Latin America. Through lectures, readings, music and art, we will examine moments where peoples and governments have sought to make and change the modern world.
This faculty initiated website project uses interactive Omeka components to collect student submissions and allows them to comment on each other's submissions easily without logging into the Omeka backend.
The goals of this course on differential calculus are as follows:
Creating short real-time videos aimed at classmates on a topic, learning target, or assigned problem, they will construct a personal understanding of the concept and develop problem solving skills. Improve critical thinking, creative thinking, and practical thinking skills. Articulate, communicate, and evaluate ideas to structure a more enduring understanding of the material and depth of content knowledge.
This website presents a timeline that contains a combination of important events relating to the development of the current understanding of climate change, as well as an assortment of newspaper clippings about climate change throughout this period to provide insight into what the public was aware of at each point in history.
This project will counter the erasure of Native American culture in the Adirondacks today by highlighting their contributions. Using a timeline of maps, this project will compare the names of locations that have been modified for European convenience.
This exhibit was inspired by the 50 year anniversary of coeducation and celebrates the impact women have made throughout the course of Union's history. Women have long been involved in the history of this institution, influencing its structure through contributions to areas such as labor, finances, and educational developments, among others. These contributions have not always been at the forefront of the historical record, but they have been instrumental, visible or not.
This website encourages other students and those from the community to recreate the Nott building as a painting or a drawing, a poem or a story, a sculpture or a photograph.
Celebrate Indigenous People's Day by discovering some of our books in the catalog about Indigenous People. Click on each of these books to find out more, and to find them in our catalog!
Union was the first liberal arts college to offer engineering in the United States. To celebrate 175 years of engineering education, the Special Collections and Archives Department of Schaffer Library has put together a digital exhibition which explores how the discipline of engineering influenced and shaped the College’s reputation as a partner in modern science and technology - from the 19th century to the present day. In addition, engineering alumni will be able to share their personal experiences to be kept for posterity.
The goal of the exhibit is to recognize the sisterhood of students whose accomplishments have helped shaped Union’s success. With courage and commitment, these women and others, alongside students of color, helped build the foundation for a more diverse student body, faculty and leadership at Union College. Today, women represent 47 percent of enrolled students.
Social Distancing: Stories from the Union Community captures the unique experiences from students, faculty, staff, and community members of Union College, Schenectady, and the region during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sort through stories by student, faculty, staff, community member, browse our interactive map, or search by keyword.
Katherine (Kay) Flickinger Dockstader (1910-1995) was a lifelong resident of the Schenectady, New York area who worked for General Electric. She was one of the first women to hike the 46 Adirondack High Peaks and was an active member of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK), Mohawk Valley Hiking, and Otyokwa Clubs. Kay took extensive scenic photographs, detailing many of them with personal notes about the locations and participants. The images reflect Flickinger’s opinion that “up here, everything is beautiful!"
This website is an historic guide to Union College as it stood at the turn of the twentieth century. It is based upon information and stories gleaned from the recent donation to the College of a treasure trove of over 700 letters written between 1895 and 1904 by Anne Dunbar Potts Perkins, beloved campus resident, creator of Mrs. Perkins’ Garden, and wife of Maurice Perkins (Union College Professor of Chemistry, 1865-1901).
Learn about Notable Union Personages, and view our current feature on the Women of Union College, from the recent Schaffer Library Exhibit, Faces of Change.