Old Kenyon Fire
Posted on Friday, April 16, 2004 @ 9:30 am
Filed Under History
On the day I was born, fortress-like Old Kenyon on the campus of Kenyon College burned, taking the lives of nine students. Lee Schermerhorn, a student at the time, captured motion pictures of the fire. A version of that film, and other film Schermerhorn shot before and after the fire, is available on the Kenyon College website. (Lower-bandwidth page here.)
This is an incredible document, and a terrific use of the multimedia capabilities of the web to preserve and communicate history. Farther down the page, librarian Tom House makes a plea for Kenyon alumni to help recover and preserve more recordings--film, sound, tape, whatever--in this manner. That effort should not be restricted to Kenyon....
Along the same lines, but far less impressive, is a link my sister sent yesterday to a site called Vanished Kalamazoo.
Last changed 10/22/07 @ 8:48 pm
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