Monthly Archives: December 2011

This was taken during a game in the original fieldhouse–we have very, very few of these pictures and I don’t have any good way to date it. I feel uneasy just looking at this contraption. I guess the dunk hadn’t … Continue reading →

Wowee–this is a really big hole: Obviously, this is the beginning of construction of Sewall Hall. The building makes a lot more sense when you see this. Suddenly, I understand why you enter it on the third floor. Here’s something … Continue reading →

A little while ago someone asked in the comments about the lone pine tree that’s visible in many of the pictures of campus construction in the late 1950s. Is it possible that it’s still standing? Here it is in a … Continue reading →

I received several objections–all of them citing the fleeting nature of life–to my decision in the last post to save one of the Christmas cards I found in Professor Lear’s papers for next year. The point is well taken. So, … Continue reading →

Last year I posted a Christmas card from President and Mrs. Lovett–the same card they sent every year. It was a simple but lovely embossed card: When William Houston became president, he continued the tradition of sending cards and they … Continue reading →

I got back to campus today and I must admit that I really enjoyed being back. I had badly missed my colleagues–and my scanner. I figured that I would be tired and would just put up a post tonight about … Continue reading →

This is the Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson office Christmas party in December, 1909. The Boston architectural firm had been hired by Rice Institute President Edgar O. Lovett in the late summer of that year to design a campus development plan … Continue reading →

We’re getting ready to fly back to Houston after scrapping our original plans to drive. Apparently there’s some sort of blizzard between here and there. I wasted quite a bit of time this afternoon just looking at the pictures I … Continue reading →

I was looking back over some posts this morning and realized that I may have inadvertently given everyone the impression that the “Sundry Contracts” file is full of important–or at least semi-important–documents. In truth, though, the stuff in there is … Continue reading →

I’d like to see a lot more of this kind of thing, complete with the generous party supplies over his shoulder. Gin . . . . I’m a big fan.