About Us

Background

In 1997, Mary Mowl, Pat Zwick, Peter Simpkins, and Allis D’Amanda began organizing an archive center at Rochester School for the Deaf. Their work resulted in the establishment of the Carolyn White Siegfried and DeFois Hathaway Siegfried Archive Center at RSD in 2001.

In 2006, Marilyn Fedele, Pat DeCaro and Fred Koch joined the archive center team. In the fall of 2006 Nancy McCrave was hired part-time to help organize and catalog the collection and to create a website for the archive center.

On January 30, 2006, the RSD Board of Directors, recognizing the importance of preserving the history of the school and its role in the education of children who are deaf and hard of hearing, voted to approve the mission statement and officially establish the Carolyn White Siegfried and DeFois Hathaway Siegfried Archive Center at RSD.

Current Projects

The archive center is digitizing older films and photographs to create an online catalog system with the goal of making items of this nature more accessible in the future. Additionally, we are creating displays to be placed around the RSD campus to highlight the past and the present, and we are working with students and their teachers in this regard as well. From time to time we meet with RSD alumni to learn their stories and to solicit their help with identification of people and events in photos we have in our collection.

A small area has been set up on the second floor of Perkins Hall at RSD displaying an interesting assortment of old RSD items, including clothes, signs, equipment, and many other objects.

We continue to receive and respond to numerous requests for information by researchers, RSD alumni, teachers and college students who are exploring specific topics on the history of RSD and the history of the education of deaf and hard of hearing children in America and around the world. In short, we are having fun and invite you to join us!