Monthly Archives: February 2011

I’m having an interesting day today. I’m really busy, I need to have a short piece of writing finished by tomorrow, and we just located a potential treasure trove of materials related to various building projects. But what has my … Continue reading →

There are lots and lots of pictures in the Woodson of Rice students and faculty goofing around in a wide variety of ways. Inspired by the softball hijinks at the 1951 History Department picnic, I dug out these photos of … Continue reading →

Over the last several days I’ve been working on putting together a short presentation for FE&P next week, sort of looking at the general physical history of the campus. This afternoon I was trying to find construction photos of the … Continue reading →

I ran across something interesting today. In the usual way of things, I picked up the box that was next to the box I needed just to see what was inside it. It turns out that we have a full … Continue reading →

I got an email last night from someone who gently reminded me that just before I took off talking about storm sewers, I was about to explain how the early residence halls were laid out. This is true–it was while … Continue reading →

Things often arrive in the Woodson unexpectedly. Last week we were surprised by a packet of photographs that came from the family of Edward Hake Phillips, who taught history at Rice from the late 1940s to the late 1950s. (Phillips … Continue reading →

I’ve had some questions about exactly where the stream called Harris Bayou or Harris Gully ran into Main Street. James Medford correctly points out in the comments that you can very clearly see the path of the bayou in this … Continue reading →

When I was looking through William Ward Watkin’s papers this week, this picture caught my eye. Such a friendly little building, nestled under the shade of a big oak in a grassy clearing. But why take a picture of it … Continue reading →

(No, I don’t know how many times I’m going to write about drainage. A lot, probably. Don’t even think about trying to stop me.) So, to pick up after Tuesday’s cliffhanger, by the fall of 1911 our hero, handsome engineer … Continue reading →

About six or eight months ago I took the contents of the campus photographers’ file cabinets out of the basement of Allen Center and brought them to the Woodson, where my colleague Lauren has been processing them. There were a … Continue reading →