Jessica Alden
Welcome to the Alden Room!
Milne Library's Alden Room is the home of many treasures that document the history of the College and student life beginning with the College's foundation as the Oneonta Normal School in 1889. The room is named in honor of Jessica Alden, the first librarian at the Oneonta Normal School. Yearbooks, newspapers, and other student publications as well as photographs, scrapbooks, office and department documents, sorority pins and other memorabilia, and a biography file comprise the archives.
In addition, there is an extensive lantern slide collection as well as numerous special book collections: New York State histories, Faculty Publications, Masters Theses, Early Textbooks, O'Mara Native American Collection, New York State Verse, Cornell-Gladstone-Hanlon-Kaufmann Collection, Popular Fiction, Private Press Publications, and Special Collections Miscellanies.
All of these materials are available for you to research or browse, simply contact Heather for an appointment.
You can also learn more by checking out the Special Collections Guide.
If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about our history and would like to make an appointment to browse other collections, please email me at heather.stalter@oneonta.edu!
Rules of the Alden Room
In order to keep all materials in the best possible condition for future generations of students, we ask everyone visiting the Alden Room to observe the following:
- Food, drink (including water) and gum are to be left outside the Alden Room
- Pencils and paper or electronic devices are to be used when taking notes, taking care not to lean anything on the Alden Room materials
- When pulling a book off the shelf, never pull it out by the top of the spine
- Handle materials with care, making sure that they are fully supported
- When done using materials, leave them on the tables rather than returning them to the shelves.
- For additional guidelines, see Handling Rare Books from U Texas, San Antonio Libraries