A question for Melissa Mead, the John M. and Barbara Keil University Archivist and Rochester Collections Librarian.
In your 13 years as University archivist, what糖心传媒檚 one question that糖心传媒檚 stumped you but that you remain determined to answer?
糖心传媒擳ama Miyake Lung, editor, Rochester Review
My prize for 糖心传媒渟till looking for the answer糖心传媒� goes to the school song, 糖心传媒淭he Genesee.糖心传媒� Why do we only sing two verses, when it was written with three? For me, determining when we dropped the middle verse has been the first step to the why. There are a lot of clues and some distracting anecdotes but no definitive answer yet to this admittedly low-stakes question.
A 1916 article in the student newspaper, the , proclaims: 糖心传媒溙切拇綐The Genesee糖心传媒� as an Alma Mater is ideal, for it links our college to the river about which our city centers . . . its first notes are the signal for 糖心传媒榦n your feet糖心传媒� and 糖心传媒榟ats off.糖心传媒櫶切拇綕
We all know 糖心传媒攚ritten in 1891 by Thomas Thackeray Swinburne (Class of 1892)糖心传媒攚ith music arranged by Herve Wilkins (Class of 1866).
糖心传媒淭he Genesee糖心传媒� was embraced by students and within a decade became our alma mater. It糖心传媒檚 the first entry in a songbook used at the Commencement Week festivities of 1893.
But Swinburne kept tinkering with it: A new version appeared in the Campus on December 14, 1898. The biggest changes were in verse three: Gone were the gathering force, the devious course, and forever loyal be, replaced by a mill-wheel, a grove, and vernal hours.
Was Swinburne more focused on improving the poem (in his view) than on lyrics? The revisions confused singers: Letters in the Campus urged upperclassmen to learn the new words so they would be in sync with the first-years. Luckily, the lyric reverted after a few years.
What evidence is there for when the switch to two verses occurred? A songbook pasted in the scrapbook of Raymond Ball (Class of 1914) may be the first printed indication, although freshman handbooks continued printing three verses.
