Rice History Corner

We had a patron in the Woodson today who was doing research in the papers of Stockton Axson, who taught English at Rice from 1914 until his death in 1935. I have to confess that if I ever knew we had these papers, I’d forgotten it. When I opened the first folder, this jumped out:

Although I can’t be certain based on what’s here, I assume this is Axson’s composition. I don’t think it’s great poetry, although I’ve seen lots worse, and the change to the last line seems like a decided improvement. But you know what? I like it. And I absolutely recognize what he’s talking about. He got something very right.

Bonus:

Here’s one that just straight blew my mind. George R. Brown was one of the most pivotal figures in the development of the modern Rice University and a dominating presence on the Rice board for over twenty five years. His name is all over campus, from the School of Engineering to the tennis center that was recently built over by the football stadium. The idea that someone once needed to write a letter recommending him as a candidate for trustee had simply never occurred to me, but even George Brown didn’t start out as George Brown:

The writer, of course, was his freshman year roommate, Congressman Albert Thomas, and he was correct about all of it.

(Yes, I neglected to scan the second page. All that’s there is the closing and I was in a hurry. Sorry!)

Bonus: Albert Thomas as an upperclassman instructing a new freshman in campus tradition, c1920. His good judgment may have taken a while to develop.

Extra Bonus:

Paging through a 1925 Campanile this afternoon I came across something I realized I’d never seen before:

Every other image I’ve laid eyes on shows (for good and obvious reasons) the front side of this desk, thusly:

I must confess my own guilt here as well. I’ve taken thousands of pictures inside this building over the years and 45 minutes of searching turned up exactly one that shows even a part of the back side of the front desk. This is very interesting to me because I’m consciously trying to capture images that normally go unnoticed. You’d think I would be better at it.

In any event, the Campanile picture is pretty fuzzy but you can easily see that the setup back there was very different from what it is today:

Bonus:

Last week’s post about the mattress party got me thinking about all the interesting party photos and memorabilia that I’ve come across over the years. Here’s one of my favorites:

Two things in particular jump out at me here. First, the range of attire, which spanned everything from dinner jackets to bermuda shorts. But second and even more interesting is the fact that Rice faculty members Joseph Davies and Bud Rohrshach were there chaperoning this event. They don’t seem to have been especially good at it.

More evidence–Dr. Davies chaperoning another dubious party:

Bonus:

Interesting concept–the beer is free but you have to provide your own mattress. I would surely fall asleep.

I’m talking at an event tonight so I don’t have time to compose anything here. What I do have is another wonderful photograph, this one courtesy of loyal reader Nancy Burch:

Nancy, who would know, says it’s David Houser ’78, the same young man we saw here with his shotgun:

It looks like he worked hard for the honor.

Bonus: I just noticed a missing tree. It’s clearly been gone for some time but I didn’t see it go.

Some of you might have gotten the impression over the years that these posts are essentially random. This is because they are. I don’t have all that much time to spend on hunting specific things down for no good reason (although–here’s a contradiction–I admit that sometimes I do just that). Anyway, the only benefit of having been so sick the last few days was that I could lie on the couch and browse through the images that I have saved on my laptop.

There was, in fact, something specific that I was looking for. I’m sure that, like me, none of you have been able to forget this anomalous lamp post, last seen in a post about a piece of outdoor sculpture installed in 1962 for the Semicentennial:

I’ve always wondered how and when that got there and when it went away so I started looking in a very relaxed sort of way, scrolling through the images. Right off the bat I found this one dated (alleluia) 1954. I have zero idea of who the students are but you can clearly see what the weird globe looks like:

I couldn’t find any other photos of this spot with the lamp there but then this caught my eye:

It’s dated 1950 but I’m not sure I believe that. Going by the landscaping I’d guess it was taken a year or two later but there can be little doubt that the lamp post was installed there in 1950 when the gym was finished.

But here’s the one I was really not expecting:

It must have been taken at roughly the same time as the semicentennial  sculpture photo, maybe a little after as the engineering annex the preceded Ryon Lab is still there. My best guess is that they bought these for the new gym and then started using them to replace broken ones wherever they were needed.

All I can say is that I hope they were on sale because they are ugly.

I’ll be back at school tomorrow.

Bonus:

I’m still pretty well under the weather today but I maintain high hopes for tomorrow.

This is a beautiful photograph that I found tucked behind some bigger things in an R Association box. I believe that’s Dave Roberts, which would make this the mid-70s and it must have been taken in the Astrodome:

I made it back to Houston but I’m home sick today. The most feverish thing I could think of to post is this weird image of the Administration Building ablaze one night in 1912:

I think I’ll have my feet back under me tomorrow.

This one isn’t from 1951. It’s a Tommy Laverne image and it’s stamped 1993 but I’ve learned to be skeptical of those stamps.

Cute little fella, though.