‘Innovation is a muscle’ — 8 questions about the iZone
Julia Maddox, director of the new Barbara J. Burger iZone at Rush Rhees Library, talks about what stops many would-be innovators, and how the iZone’s intentional design fosters creative thinking and actions.
Digital scholars rescue lost Japanese film
A 1929 Japanese silent film inspired by a classic O. Henry short story was long thought lost until Rochester researchers collaborated to bring it back to the big screen.
Rediscovered song honoring Frederick Douglass to be performed for the first time in a century
Only two copies of “Farewell Song of Frederick Douglass” are known to exist—and one of them was acquired earlier this year by River Campus Libraries.
‘I am content to be made known through this specimen of your art to all who may come after me’
In a letter recently acquired by River Campus Libraries, abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass expresses his pleasure with a bust that can now be reproduced by anyone with a 3D printer.
Hands-on AR/VR lab slated for Carlson Library
A new hands-on learning and research lab envisioned for the Carlson Science and Engineering Library will give students and faculty a place to explore augmented and virtual reality—regardless of their level of expertise.
The myth—and memorabilia—of Seward’s Folly
Several generations after the purchase of Alaska on March 30, 1867, the William Henry Seward Papers at the University of Rochester show the supposed folly to be a shrewd bargain.
In the zone at Rush Rhees Library’s iZone
iZone, a new collaborative gathering point under construction at on the first floor of Rush Rhees Library, was created in response to undergraduate students’ expressed desire for a collaborative space for innovation. It will perform triple duty as a program, a community, and a space and is slated to be open by fall 2018.
Remembering Frederick Douglass on his 200th birthday
Like most African Americans born into slavery, Frederick Douglass was never told the date and year of his birth. He chose February 14 as the day on which to celebrate it, and in 2018 we celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. At the University of Rochester, one of the most extensive collections of Douglass artifacts in the country can be found in Rush Rhees Library.
A stitcher’s story
Randall Cook, building and project manager for River Campus Libraries, turned a hobby used to relieve the stress of his previous job as a software engineering into the art quilts featured in the Memorial Art Gallery’s “Hidden Passions” series.
Looking at urban history as a fight for space, power
Chicago and Delhi. Rome and Rochester. The students in the 100-level course “The City: Contested Spaces” take a virtual tour of them all, while pondering an overarching question—can people’s lives be reshaped by redesigning urban spaces?