From the Museum Studies Program at the Rochester Institute of Technology
Spring 2016 marked the 50th anniversary of the graduation of RIT’s class of 1966. These photographs, clippings, and souvenirs call to mind the good times the class of ‘66 had and embody the Spirit of ‘66.
Link to site: https://library.rit.edu/archives/spirit-66
It wasn’t a bird or a plane that Rochesterians were astounded to see flying above their heads on the morning of May 18, 1962. It was a 35 millimeter camera encased in a spherical capsule the size of a small beach ball that was kept aloft by three oversized helium balloons. But this wasn’t a secret government or military surveillance mission– rather a project by RIT photo science students including George Pittman and Mike Geissinger. Its codename? Operation Hi-Ball.
Link to site: https://library.rit.edu/archives/operation-hi-ball
In 1958, Milton Pearson was 24 years old, a Navy veteran, and a freshman in the Imaging Sciences program at RIT. Either from fiscal responsibility or an aspiration to later donate this collection to RIT, Pearson kept many of his receipts, bills, grade reports, loan documents, and GI Bill records from 1958-1963, of which a handful are on display. Today, these documents give us the unique opportunity to compare the costs and methods of payment for of college life then and now.
Link to site: https://library.rit.edu/archives/milton-pearson-0
Born deaf on October 5, 1976, Matthew Stanley “Matt” Hamill’s love of wrestling would begin in high school, when his step-father, Loveland High School head wrestling coach, Michael Rich, introduced him to the sport. After a standout high school career, he went on to attend Purdue University for one year before transferring to RIT in 1996. While at RIT he was a three-time All-American, a three-time New York State Champion, and a three-time RIT Invitational Champion, with a career record of 89-3. In 1998, he was named the National Deaf Athlete of the Year, and during his senior year he went the entire season without a loss.
After graduating from RIT in 1999, Hamill went on to earn a silver medal in Greco-Roman Wrestling and a gold medal in Freestyle Wrestling at the 2001 Summer Deaflympics. He followed these victories with a highly successful mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting career with the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), during which he had 13 wins and eight losses, including the distinction of being the only man to ever defeat two-time UFC champion Jon Jones. He retired from the UFC in 2013, but returned to MMA fighting in 2014, this time under contract with the World Series of Fighting, from which he retired twice, once in 2014, and again in 2015. He has since fought for various independent promotions around the world.
In 2011, Hamill was immortalized in the biographical film “The Hammer,” which covered his early life and college wrestling career, and was filmed in and around Rochester and RIT. The film starred Russell Harvard, a deaf actor best known for his role in 2007’s “There Will Be Blood,” and premiered in RIT’s Clark Gym—the site of many of Hamill’s wrestling bouts—on January 30, 2012.
Link to site: https://library.rit.edu/archives/matt-hamill-0
In four years of fencing competition for the RIT women’s team, June Johnson never lost a dual match. Captain of the squad for three seasons (1955-1957), the outstanding foiler was named Female Athlete of the Year in 1957. Competing in the Intercollegiate Women’s Fencing Association, Johnson won the individual championship in 1957 and finished second in 1956. In the Amateur Fencers League of America, Johnson registered six firsts, one second and five thirds. During her career, the RIT women’s team went undefeated in dual meet competition. Johnson graduated from RIT in 1957 with a business degree in commerce and soon became engaged to Martin Siebach, a professor of electrical engineering at RIT. They married in 1958, went on to raise 13 children together, and by Johnson’s own admission, she never touched a fencing foil again. However, this did not mean that her achievements were forgotten. In 1974 she was inducted into the RIT Sports Hall of Fame.
Link to site: https://library.rit.edu/archives/june-johnson
John Ratcliffe (1930-2017) didn’t let being born deaf limit his ability to participate and live his life to the fullest. As a boy, he attended the Rochester School for the Deaf and Allendale Columbia School, where he was active in sports, as well as participating in Boy Scouts, achieving Eagle Scout before becoming a scout leader for Troop 77 of Rochester—the first deaf scoutmaster for a troop of all hearing scouts.
Ratcliffe was no less active at RIT, where he studied Lithography, was a brother in the Gamma Phi printing fraternity and a member of the Pi Club (another printing organization), played baseball, and helped with technical aspects of publishing the Reporter. It was at RIT that he met his wife of 62 years, Frances (nee Long), a Food Administration major who he graduated alongside in 1953.
After graduation, he went on to work for Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company (now Reuters) for over 30 years. In addition to his career, Ratcliffe continued his life-long passion for community service, especially when it would aid the deaf community. He established the first local TTY Relay Service in 1973 and was on the TTY maintenance team for 20 years, as well as serving on the boards of both Rochester Tel-Com Association of the Deaf and the Monroe County Association for the Hearing Impaired.
John Ratcliffe passed away on February 23, 2017, at the age of 86.
Link to site: https://library.rit.edu/archives/john-ratcliffe-0
Fourth generation Scandinavian metalsmith John Prip (1922-2009) had a passion for educating his students and the public about the special beauty of handmade objects. He accomplished the former by founding the metalsmithing department at the School for American Craftsmen (SAC) at Alfred University, which would be absorbed into the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at RIT in 1950. The later was accomplished via collaboration with other SAC faculty such as Frans Wildenhain, Tage Frid, and Ronald Pearson, which yielded Shop One, a gallery space created for and run by craftsmen.
Link to site: https://library.rit.edu/archives/john-prip-and-shop-one
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Bernie Boston (1933-2008) is best known today for his photographs of presidents and protesters, but did you know that he got his start as a photo student at RIT? This online exhibit provides an opportunity to look at some of this influential photographer’s lesser known student work and early experiments with technique and visual storytelling.
Link to site: https://library.rit.edu/archives/bernie-boston
In 2015 archives across the United States shared examples from their collections that specifically give voice to people who have a unique, surprising or compelling story to tell. For the third year in a row, the archives will partner with students in Dr. Juilee Decker’s Cultural Informatics to develop engaging exhibits for the RIT community and virtually for all of you.
Link to site: https://library.rit.edu/archives/stories-they-tell-3
During the Fall 2015, Museum Studies students from the College of Liberal Arts worked with RIT’s Archivist, Becky Simmons, and Associate Archivist, Jody Sidlauskas, to curate a second exhibition on the theme “The Stories They Tell.” Over five weeks, the students examined the collections, selected items, wrote exhibit labels, installed the works, and prepared an online exhibition as part of their coursework in the Museum Studies course, Cultural Informatics, taught by Museum Studies faculty, Dr. Juilee Decker. The students involved in this exhibition include: Hannah Barber, Katie Curran, Maggie Davis, Phillip Fowler, Lauren Hubbs, Emily King, and Zachery Sherman. Their exhibit, existing here online and onsite in The Wallace Center, is drawn from archive collections of: Robert Bagby, Barbi Brill, Mary Anne Cross-Ehasz, Liz Dopp, Ruth E. Gutfrucht, Harry Lang and Robert Panara, and Charles H. Wiltsie and Emily Wiltsie Field.
Link to site: https://library.rit.edu/archives/stories-they-tell-2-installation-0
RIT Museum Studies Projects 