Author Archives: Melissa Kean

Something interesting happened soon after the offices of the Rice Institute moved to the Esperson Building (seen recently here). We got our first dial telephone! I love the huffy tone of this letter but I do wonder why we needed … Continue reading →

I attended my first college volleyball match last Sunday afternoon and was deeply impressed by the speed, power, and general athleticism of these young women. It was a great match, back and forth, between two very high level teams and … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s groundbreaking ceremony was a lot of fun. It was a nice afternoon, warm but not scorching. The speakers, including Will Cannady himself, were gracious and brief and the crowd was happy. I saw a lot of people I hadn’t … Continue reading →

Next week Rice will be celebrating the contributions of the pioneering African American athletes who courageously entered the newly desegregated campus and the playing fields of the Southwest Conference. Information on the dinner and event is here: https://riceowls.com/news/2022/9/7/general-rice-to-celebratre-six-trailblazing-student-athletes.aspx Come if … Continue reading →

This was probably inevitable: My colleague and comrade in arms Tommy Lavergne did some amazing work over more than three decades as Rice Campus Photographer. A decent chunk of it (but far from all) is collected in 48 boxes in … Continue reading →

The Woodson recently acquired a scrapbook containing twenty-nine professional photographs of the Esperson Building in downtown Houston, newly completed in 1926: At thirty-two stories it was then the tallest building in town and extremely ornate. Here are a couple of … Continue reading →

The picture I was going to use was one from the batch that loyal reader Karl Benson ’63 gave to the Woodson last December. But as I looked closer at some of the other images I was startled to find … Continue reading →

This is yet another post where I have to explain that I thought I knew something but it turns out that I didn’t. I was startled into this particular realization by a photo I ran across of the 1955 commencement: … Continue reading →

I ran across this photograph a couple of years ago and couldn’t immediately place it. It is, of course, the west side of Anderson Architecture and it was taken soon after the 1981 addition: As soon as I figured it … Continue reading →

I just got back from a wonderful, long vacation up in Washington state, which is the explanation for my extended absence here. But I’m back now and I’ve collected a lot of neat stuff to write about, so here we … Continue reading →