Mummy Preservation

Our mummy has been laid to rest.

The mummy had been on display here in the library for close to 20 years. In that time she was visited by campus and local community members often. Due concerns about her continued exposure to the light and her ongoing preservation, along with lack of display space with the Learning Commons renovation, it was decided it was time to see to her welfare.



She is now at rest in our climate controlled art storage room. We took every care to make sure she would preserved in line with the best practices of the day. And, we feel certain that any curses have been lifted since she is back in the dark where she longed to be.

Holiday Cards from HWS Presidents

Archives has digitized our collection of Holiday Cards sent between 1919 and the present by Hobart and William Smith Colleges Presidents and other officials. Take a look and get in the mood for your holiday of choice, or just the school break.


The oldest card in our collection, sent by President Bartlett between 1919 and 1939.

Thanksgiving Week Hours

Please note our reduced hours this week. The library will close at 3 pm on Wednesday for Thanksgiving break and will reopen on Sunday with regular hours. We hope you all have a good and restful break!

Archives Scrapbook Collection

Join us this Friday, November 7, between Noon and 4:45 in the Rare Book Room on the lower level to view several scrapbooks from members of the early classes of William Smith College.

Serendipity in the Archives

October is American Archives Month. Join us next Wednesday, October 22, at 7:30 PM in the Learning Commons Presentation Room (Warren Hunting Smith Library, 1st floor) for a talk by Michael Tinkler, Associate Professor of Art. Professor Tinkler will talk about "Serendipity in the Archives" -- how an archives visit to answer a simple question of fact turned into a research project, an article, and a new field of interest. Tinkler, a medievalist, while preparing to give a tour of Hobart's St. John's Chapel on behalf of the Geneva Historical Society, ended up learning much more about Gothic Revival than he ever expected - and is working on it still!

1908/1909 William Smith Catalogue

Rachel I Sutcliffe, 2002 William Smith Alumna, has found the 1908-09 William Smith Catalogue available on Google Books. Since it is the first WS Catalog, it's worth a look in this centennial year. There is also a link to it on the Archives page.

Historical news resources

The newest addition to our databases is World News Digest, published by Facts on File. This database contains an archival record of news stories dating back to November 1940.

For other historical news sources, try our full-text databases containing the New York Times dating back to 1851, the Wall Street Journal back to 1889, and the Washington Post back to 1877.