Monthly Archives: August 2017

The other day I ran across something wonderful: Newsletter Number 1 from the Institute for the Arts, published in the winter of 1969. Written almost 50 years ago, you can still feel the energy coming off it. Mrs. de Menil … Continue reading →

In a box of materials collected by the Rice Historical Commission in the late 1970s I came across a document in which E. Finley Carter ’22 lucidly explains the origin of Rice’s amateur radio station. (This felt like a gift … Continue reading →

I try to keep up with what the Athletics Department puts online just so I have some general sense of what’s going on over there. Last weekend I watched a video posted by Rice Football that I’m still thinking about … Continue reading →

There have been more construction projects on campus this summer than I can ever remember before, with yet more to begin soon. One of these might seem mundane or even homely but fills me with joy: the renovation of Anderson … Continue reading →

I love this picture. It’s our friend Cal Hill, looking poised and confident, totally comfortable in his own skin despite the beanie. Not everyone managed this. Bonus: Words of wisdom left on a white board in the old football offices. … Continue reading →

Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed this nugget buried in yesterday’s new clipping: It was, alas, a classic fake out. They got the girls the next day: Unbelievably, they had earlier made them wash Hans and Nellie, the elephants across the … Continue reading →

Willoughby Williams ’39 was for decades a stalwart Rice man, one of those alums who show up for everything and contribute more than their fair share. He worked diligently, even passionately, to make the university better. He served as the … Continue reading →

These words of wisdom come from the 1925 Rice YMCA Handbook. Even though today’s freshmen don’t have to worry about sophomores forcing them to make their beds, most of this still seems like sound advice. In fact, I repeated some … Continue reading →

Just kidding. There was, of course, no such thing as O Week in 1922. Freshman weren’t oriented back then; they were hazed. This little guy was right to be apprehensive: This is a Jack Glenn cartoon, by the way, one … Continue reading →

This was so captioned by Mary Jane Hale sometime in the 1930s. She wasn’t a big fan of mathematics but it doesn’t look that bad to me: Bonus: It’s a little known fact that opossums make excellent construction supervisors. They … Continue reading →