The Schaffer Library at Union College in Schenectady, New York

The Schaffer Library at
Union College






Never having visited, I take my camera inside...  Kira Nam Greene's By the Patterns Art Installation gives the library an artful feel.

Without disturbing the students,

I examined the complex patterns

 on the columns on the first floor.

Giant paper airplanes are
suspended in an open
stairway.

I love this shot of the paper

airplanes, looking across the

open stairway & down to

 the first floor.

Students are studying everywhere there's a place to sit.  I'm going to focus on the art and exhibits in the building.

A Butter Sculpture by the Tibetan

Monks of Gaden Jangtse Tsawa

Khangsen, South India

The Nott Memorial from

a library window.

An untitled Melissa Harvey
lithograph focuses on the
wood grain of a fallen log.

I love this Melissa Harvey mixed

 media digitally scanned lithograph,

 placed next to a window.

I immediately recognized to re-purposed wooden storm window.  The house I spent the first eleven years of my life in had removable wooden storm windows.  

 




Edinburgh Blues, by Jon Schueler
is a restful piece to look at while
working in the library.

Wisdom's Valley by Walter

Hatke depicts the Shaker

Orchard near the Albany

International Airport.

 There''s an informative display on Union College's ties to the Adirondack Mountains.

The papers of William F. Fox, Class of 1860 and Superintendent of Forests of the Adirondack Park, with a photo of him standing at tent entrance  
Joel T. Headley, Class of 1839 and author of the 1849 book Adirondacks, or Into the Woods, extolled the virtues of living closely with nature in the north woods.   
Edward Everett Hale, Jr., Head of the Union English Department, was a founding member of the Adirondack Mountain Club





Franklin B. Hough, Class of 1843,
published histories of the
Adirondacks.











He documented the decline of timber trees in the Adirondacks in the mid and late 1800s.   Hough's research on forestry management and dogged determination to include the government in the management of this resource became the basis of American forestry.  He drafted the 1885 Adirondack Forest Preserve Law and saw it enacted shortly before his death.

A display of  equipment used in

 the Adirondack tree census.

The top shelf has a camera and canisters of film to document the census of trees.  The bottom shelf has items used to survey Lake George's Dome Island.

Many used Ernest Thompson
Seton's illustrated nature books
as they explored the Forest
Preserve in the Adirondacks.

Union College students and staff shared the virtues and benefits of "living rough" in the Adirondack Mountains.  They worked tirelessly to save the trees and the natural environment in the north country woods.  It's a proud tradition that those who visit the Adirondacks should know about.