On Wednesday, April 23 at 8:00 p.m., students, faculty members, and staff gathered at Samuel C. Williams Library for the “Behind the Books” event hosted by the library itself, Stevens Honor Board, and Gear and Triangle Society. They were greeted by the organizers at the front entrance of the library and served scrumptious refreshments after registration. Most of the visitors learned about the event from Student Life Newsletters (SLN) e-mail and promotion materials distributed in advance at the library.
The event is organized to let the visitors see the part of the library that are not usually available to the public.The rooms made available, namely Mary Stevens, Taylor and Da Vinci Collections can only be accessed during special events such as this one and also pre-arranged library tours.
Herbert Shin, a freshman member of the Stevens Honor Board, gave visitors a short tour of Mary Stewart’s Room. The room contains potraits of Stevens family members and other significant personalities that contributed immensely to Stevens Institute of Technology specifically and the engineering field in general. There is even a proclamation from the Hoboken City Hall in 2012, recognizing various contributions by the Stevens family to the city.
Leah Loscutoff, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian coordinated the Da Vinci and Taylor room tour. The Da Vinci Room has a number of Leonardo Da Vinci collections by John W. Lieb. Mr. Lieb donated the collection to a faculty member which was eventually donated to the library. When asked about the current commitment of the library towards preserving the collections, Loscutoff said, “Mr. and Mrs. Farvardin are very passionate about preserving the collections and have been very supportive regarding this matter”, indicating the level of support that the library receives from the administration. However, the digitizing process of the works by Da Vinci is not yet a priority at this moment. Loscutoff also explained how the collections are being preserved in a climate-controlled environment with continuous monitoring of temperature and humidity.
I do recall seeing the Stevens Library Collections as an undergraduate ’56 – ’60. I remember having lunch with Samuel Williams many times. I am a 1960 SIT Graduate (ME) and was an SIT Instructor of Mechanical Engineering 60 – 64. Worked for Prof. James J. Lawlor – taught Graphics and Mechanisms.. Received my MS in 64. I do not recall Prof. Williams was one of my undergraduate instructors. I recall Prof. Williams was connected to the Library. However I do recall many lunches with Profs. Sam Williams, Ken Moser and James Lawlor. These men made an impression on my life. How / why did they make the impression? Might I ask you a seemingly dumb question: How many people do you remember having lunch with in the 1960 – 1964 time frame??? Another dumb question, how many of the Instructors or Professors do you remember???? May God Bless them and their families. Frank