Author Archives: Melissa Kean

It was pointed out to me just recently that although the inside isn’t yet finished, the construction fence around the new O’Connor Building has come down and we can finally get a good look at it. While I don’t absolutely … Continue reading →

There were a couple boxes of old Fondren records sitting on a cart the last time I was in the Woodson and in one of them I discovered correspondence about the potential purchase of a large globe for the map … Continue reading →

The immediate problem once we decided to build the new stadium was how to pay for it. Rice was prohibited by its charter from incurring debt (this restriction stood until the early 2000s, when we did one of our periodic … Continue reading →

A loyal reader recently sent me a scan of a Houston street map that was produced by Shell, the kind of map, I think, that you could get at gas stations. I don’t see a date on it anywhere but … Continue reading →

There aren’t a whole lot of pictures of the Bonner Lab, and the ones I do have are almost all of the outside: I’ve only ever seen a couple images taken inside. The first one provides almost no clue to … Continue reading →

I’ve mentioned before that I routinely troll eBay for Rice materials. In the course of this business a couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon something unexpected. There are always a lot of archival photos from various newspapers–mostly sports related–but … Continue reading →

Sometimes when I don’t know where to start I just go all the way back to the beginning. This is Katherine Martha Fischer. We would know her later as Mrs. Drew but here it’s 1944 and she’s a graduating senior … Continue reading →

I found these, undated and otherwise unlabeled, in a packet in a box of things from Space Science. They are hard at work, building something: Maybe working late, with pizza for dinner: I don’t know where they are, what they’re … Continue reading →

I’ve been thinking we haven’t had a good aerial in a while, then I suddenly found two. Both show things that I’m interested in and that have long since disappeared. This first one was sent to me by my friend … Continue reading →

Sorry for the long absence–I was distracted. But I’ve recently been trying to pull together the history of the Rice Quantum Institute, which has not proven to be an easy task. The records are spotty and scattered through several collections, … Continue reading →