I greatly enjoyed Eileen Keating’s talk about the Flora Rose, Martha Rensselaer, and the history of the College of Human Ecology.  Before attending, I had absolutely no idea who Rose house was named for, and it was wonderful to learn about our house’s connection to the history of home economics and women’s education.  That said, however, I’m not particularly well versed in the history of New York nor the history of education.  So, while I can recognize that the contributions to women’s rights and Cornell University made by Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer were immense, I suspect that I lacked the context to properly feel the weight of the photographs I was holding in my hands.

The thing that fascinated me most about the presentation was the fact that we have those photographs.  We have photographs, letters, bulletins, pamphlets, a desk, and all sorts of small or everyday objects that one would generally expect to have been thrown away or lost at some point in the ~85 years since they were produced.  We have those artifacts simply because someone took it upon themselves to save them, and now together those bits and pieces allow us to construct a remarkably detailed and vivid picture of who these women were and what they did.  I would imagine that this is an invaluable resource to anyone who has an academic or personal interest in the history of women’s education, women’s rights, education politics, Cornell history, or New York State history.  This thoroughly impressed upon me the incredibly important role that archives play on the Cornell campus.

This process of continual preservation continues even today, as demonstrated by the request that we send in to any posters, fliers, pictures, or other materials related to student groups on campus.  Archiving now extends into the digital as well, including both University pages and student websites.  In another 85 years, it is unlikely that I am going to be the person whose odds and ends will be trotted out for display at talks and exhibitions.  However, out of population of ~14,500 undergraduates, it seems nearly inevitable that someone on this campus will be.  And for whoever among us becomes a historical marvel, it seems likely that Cornell University will have an unparalleled record of their life and accomplishments, because there are people like Eileen Keating here who go to great lengths to keep and preserve all manner of materials, even those that may seem insignificant in the present day.