University of Rochester

Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery Will Begin Free Admission

May 17, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Thanks to the generosity of its members and the community, the University of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) will open its doors to all free of charge sometime in 2027, much sooner than anticipated.

“Making the museum free ensures that everyone can experience the inspiration, learning, and connection that it offers,” says University President Sarah Mangelsdorf. “We are deeply grateful to our donors, partners, and the broader community whose support makes this historic step possible.” [Read more…] about Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery Will Begin Free Admission

Help Preserve Western New York’s Historic LGBTQ+ Community Sites

March 8, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Historic landmarks are important resources in part because they help make the lives of the past more tangible — and help each of us see ourselves in history. Places significant to LGBTQ+ communities, however, can be overlooked because many of these communities formed out of the public eye by necessity, often receiving little mainstream attention at the time.

As people age and disperse, and as many sites close or are repurposed under new ownership, knowledge of these places’ significance can fade, along with the irreplaceable opportunity to document and preserve them. [Read more…] about Help Preserve Western New York’s Historic LGBTQ+ Community Sites

Nam June Paik Exhibition Opening in Rochester

December 4, 2024 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Nam June Paik (1932–2006) has been referred to as the “Father of Video Art” for his pioneering work in transforming video into a medium for artistic expression starting in the 1960s.

Born in Seoul to a wealthy business family, Paik trained as a classical musician, spending time in Japan and West Germany, where he joined the Fluxus collective and developed a friendship with experimental composer John Cage. He moved to New York City in 1964 and began working with cellist Charlotte Moorman to create performance art. [Read more…] about Nam June Paik Exhibition Opening in Rochester

“Locusts of the East”: The Yankee Invasion of New York

March 9, 2024 by Guest Contributor 3 Comments

New York by 1820 was becoming a “colony from New England” to use the phrase of President Timothy Dwight of Yale. The “Puritan Pope,” as he was some times called, estimated that 60 to 67 percent of the people of New York had originated in the “land of steady habits.”

The few thousand Puritans who had established a new Zion around Boston in the 1630s were a remarkably energetic, prolific, and self-assertive people. The thin soils on the hilly lands, the harsh winters, and the stern theology of John Calvin created a distinct community spirit and shaped a unique character. [Read more…] about “Locusts of the East”: The Yankee Invasion of New York

NYS Nominates 13 Places for State, National Registers of Historic Places

March 23, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The New York State Board for Historic Preservation has recommended adding 13 properties to the State and National Registers of Historic Places and submitting one request to the Columbia Turnpike East Toll House to the National Park Service.

The nominations include a key site associated with Rochester‘s LGBTQ+ history, a historic synagogue in Manhattan‘s Upper West Side, a public park in Ithaca, a church connected to Yonkers’s civil rights history, a re-built Lustron House in Erie County, the Oneida County History Center, and more. [Read more…] about NYS Nominates 13 Places for State, National Registers of Historic Places

Nationally Significant Olmsted Landscapes Threatened

October 25, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Cultural Landscape Foundation today released Landslide 2022, an annual thematic report and exhibition about threatened and at-risk landscapes, focusing on twelve sites designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., and his successor firms, a founder of the discipline of landscape architecture best known as the co-designer of Central Park in New York City.

This year marks the bicentennial of the birth of Olmsted Sr. (1822-1903). The sites feature the involvement of one or more of all three Olmsteds: Olmsted Sr., his son Olmsted Jr. (1870-1957), and stepson John Charles Olmsted (1852-1920). [Read more…] about Nationally Significant Olmsted Landscapes Threatened

Under Threat: Genesee Valley Park in Rochester, NY

July 14, 2022 by Editorial Staff 7 Comments

Genesee Valley Park in Rochester, NY was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1890, and it remains a well-used and defining community landscape. An original aspect of the park’s design is a woodland buffer that runs from Elmwood Avenue to the Erie Canal next to the University of Rochester. [Read more…] about Under Threat: Genesee Valley Park in Rochester, NY

Univ of Rochester to Hold Race and Gender Conference

February 16, 2010 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The University of Rochester has announced a two-day conference on April 16 and 17, 2010 to celebrate the launching of a new book series by the University of Rochester Press, “Gender and Race in American History.” The Conference is free and open to the public. The conference organizers include Carol Faulkner (of Syracuse University), Alison M. Parker (of The College at Brockport, SUNY), and Victoria Wolcott (of the University of Rochester).

Featured Speakers will include:

Deborah Gray White (Rutgers University), “What Women Want: The Racial Paradoxes of Post-Modernity.”

Michelle Mitchell (New York University), title TBA

Meredith Clark-Wiltz, Ph.D. Candidate, History Department, Ohio State University, “Persecuting Black Men, Gendering Jury Service: The Interplay between Race and Gender in the NAACP Jury Service Cases of the 1930s.”

Kendra Taira Field, Assistant Professor, U.C. Riverside, “‘You mean Grandma Brown. Grandpa Brown didn’t have no land.’ Race, Gender, and An Intruder of Color in Indian Territory.”

Rashauna Johnson, Ph.D. Candidate, History Department, NYU, “‘Laissez les bon temps rouler!’ and Other Concealments: Households, Taverns, and Irregular Intimacies in Antebellum New Orleans.”

Michelle Kuhl, Assistant Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, “Countable Bodies, Uncountable Crimes: Sexual Assault and the Anti-Lynching Movement.”

Vivian May, Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Syracuse University, “Historicizing intersectionality as Theory and Method: Returning to the Work of Anna Julia Cooper.”

Helene Quanquin, Associate Professor, University of Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle, “‘There are Two Great Oceans’: The Slavery Metaphor in the Antebellum Women’s Rights Movement as ‘redescription’ of Race and Gender.”

For more information visit:
http://www.rochester.edu/College/humanities/projects/index.php?history&events

University of Rochester

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