Browse Collections

Select drawings, studies, and a small sampling of photographs that provide a fascinating glimpse of Marsh's artistic work. The Marsh collection was donated to RPI by the Hiland G. Batcheller Memorial Foundation.

Photographs of the personal and professional activities of George M. Low, an influential aeronautics and aerospace engineer, federal agency manager, and university president.

Select photographs from the Horsford Family papers which comprises a collection of papers created by various members of the Horsford, Gardiner, and L’Hommedieu families spanning more than two centuries. The central collection is that of Eben Norton Horsford (1818-1893), Rumford Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University (1847-1863), co-founder of Rumford Chemical Works, and expert on the chemistry of foods.

This digital collection comprises select items from the Joseph P. Davis papers (MC 26) which document the professional activities of Davis, a civil engineer hired by the Peruvian government to conduct surveys of guano for the Department of Public Works in Peru between 1861-1865. The journals, written by Davis, record detailed surveying and engineering work as he travels throughout the country from Lima to Puno and Cusco and along the coast from Ica up to Piura and out to the Guanape Islands, Lobos de Tierra, and Isla Tortuga. Davis also recorded his journey to Peru, traveling by steamer from New York City to Aspinwall (now Colon), Panama, across the Isthmus, through Ecuador, and on to Peru. Two of the journals detail expeditions to survey guano off the coast of Peru, along with details regarding various engineering projects including water systems, bridges, sewer systems, structural analyses, and railroads. Interspersed throughout the journals are surveys and measurements of Incan ruins in various towns, in particular, the cities of Lima, and Cusco. The journals also contain detailed reports and in many cases detailed drawings of Davis' projects. Accompanying Davis' journals are transcriptions purportedly created by Davis himself. One transcription, however, records Davis'trip from Lima to Puno and Cusco during the Spanish invasion of the Chincha Islands. Unfortunately, the original journal was never part of Rensselaer's acquisition of this collection in 2002. As time allows, staff will also include in this digital collection, correspondence - most of which is between Davis and Mariano Felipe Paz Soldan, Director of Public Works for the government of Peru - work orders, and various reports to the Peruvian government regarding engineering projects and expeditions.

C. Lloyd Bauer was a member of the RPI Class of 1955 who played hockey for the Institute’s first national championship team in 1954. His memorabilia includes three scrapbooks (compiled by his mother), game programs, rosters, schedules, news clippings, 1954 issues of the Intercollegiate Hockey Newsletter, and several items documenting the team's trips to the NCAA Hockey Championships in 1953 and 1954. A small sample of the collection has been digitized and is available here.

Select photographs and advertisements from the Ludlow Valve Manufacturing Company records. The company operated in Waterford, Lansingburgh, and later Troy, New York, between 1861 and 1969.

Select photographs from the Othniel Foster Nichols papers with particular emphasis on photos related to the design and construction of the Williamsburg (New East River) and Manhattan Bridges.

Select photographs, postcards, and correspondence from the Paul Harteck papers. This sampling of the material highlights some of Harteck’s professional activities in both Germany and the United States from the late 1920’s to the 1970’s.

A vast collection of photographs from the Archives that document student life, campus activities and scenes, buildings and their histories, classes and reunions, and various subjects related to science, technology and engineering.

In 1887 William H. Young published the Biographical Record of the Officers and Graduates of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute which was compiled by Henry B. Nason. Young extra illustrated his personal copy with images and documents, which is part of his memorabilia collection. Photographs and engravings from that volume have been reproduced here.

The collection consists of picture postcards of street scenes, parks, public buildings, businesses, monuments, educational institutions, scenes along the Hudson River, and other views in and around Troy, New York as well as a small set of postcards of bridges built by RPI engineers. The years 1900 to 1920 are widely regarded as the golden age of postcards, when they began to be used both as souvenirs and as an inexpensive means of communication. The majority of the postcards withi this collection date from that period, and depict a variety of buildings and public spaces in and around Troy, New York and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The images included here are a small fraction of the Postcard Collectionheld by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Archives and Special Collections Department.

Tubeflight was the brainchild of RPI professor Joseph V. Foa beginning in the 1950s. Foa, his colleagues, and students studied a novel means of ground transportation in which a vehicle was propelled through a tube at high velocity. This collection primarily consists of RPI technical reports dating from 1964 to 1970, some of which served as reports to funding agencies. There are also four renderings illustrating what the system would look like, and an issue of the Rensselaer Review focused on Tubeflight.

Eleven publications dating from 1855 to 2006 that detail the history of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and its predecessors beginning with its founding in 1824 as the Rensselaer School and its later incarnation as the Rensselaer Institute.

Items in this collection have been published under a variety of titles from 1929 to the present. Issues typically contain articles about developments at RPI in addition to news regarding student, faculty, and alumni accomplishments. Recent issues have alumni contact information redacted.

Select photographs and drawings from the Roebling collection dating from approximately 1844 to the early 1900s, the period of time when John A. Roebling and Washington A. Roebling was active in the design and construction of suspension bridges and the manufacture of wire rope. Especially significant are the extensive records documenting the planning and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened in 1883, and the early scrapbooks created that document the progression of the construction activities.

Photographs from the RPI Players records highlighting student theatrical productions from 1930 through the 2000s.

This collection contains various Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps photographs from the mid-1980's.

Students at Rensselaer have published several newspapers over the years, beginning with four short-lived titles that appeared between 1857 and 1884. A fifth paper, The Rensselaer Polytechnic, first appeared in a short run in 1869 and was later resurrected in 1885. It has been in continuous publication since then.

Union Annual Reports are produced by students of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to identify the programs and finances of the student-run Union. Reports include information on student government and leadership, clubs and organizations, athletics, student services, activity fees, and annual income and expenses. Many also include statements from student leaders such as the Grand Marshal, President of the Union, and others.

Select photographs from the W2SZ Amateur Radio Club records include shots of radio equipment, interior and exterior views of the "shack," photos of club members sending or receiving messages, and snapshots from a 1994 club reunion.

Select postcards and a photograph album from the William I. Baucus papers reflecting the travels and the engineering work in which Baucus was engaged most notably the Panama Canal. The postcards, collected or posted, include images of Panama (1903-1904), such as the Culebra cut, Cuba (1908), Grand Turk Island (1912), and the Dominican Republic (1912).