Contact: Ellen Marsh
Phone: (607) 254-4680
E-mail: ebm7@cornell.edu
Bicentennial Celebration Continues at Cornell Library
Carol Kammen presents "Ezra Cornell and Any Person" on March 28
Ezra Cornell and his dream of founding of a university open to anyone regardless of their religion, gender or race will be the focus of a March 28 presentation at Cornell University Library.
Tompkins County Historian Carol Kammen, a senior lecturer in the university’s history department and co-curator of the library’s Ezra Cornell Bicentennial exhibition, will give a talk entitled “Ezra Cornell and Any Person,” beginning at 4:30 p.m. in the lecture room of Carl A. Kroch Library. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will immediately follow.
In his address at the opening of Cornell University on Oct. 7, 1868, Cornell said, “I trust we have laid the foundation of [a] university – ‘an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.’” Kammen’s presentation will center on the historical significance of Cornell’s “any person” belief and how it ultimately led to the creation of a university bearing his name.
“What impresses me about Ezra Cornell is that having been poor, and then in debt, when he came into money – and he came into a lot of money for the day – his immediate goal was to use it to do the most good and to do something for his hometown,” Kammen said. “In an age that would come to be dominated by ‘Robber Barons,’ Ezra Cornell set a stunning example of stewardship and humanity.”
The March 28 presentation is part of the university’s yearlong bicentennial birthday celebration for Ezra Cornell. Also on display in Kroch Library’s Hirshland Gallery through Aug. 31 is the exhibition, “‘I Would Found an Institution’: The Ezra Cornell Bicentennial.” It details how Cornell, who came to Ithaca with no formal education, went on to amass a fortune in the telegraph business and found one of America’s finest universities. The exhibition features Cornell’s letters, diaries and photographs. Highlights include the university’s charter, the telegraph receiver used to receive the world’s very first telegraph message, Cornell’s safe and tools and a collection of shells from Hawaii that he purchased to enhance the university’s holdings
For more information, call 255-3530 and visit rmc.library.cornell.edu/Ezra. For press information, call 255-4813 or go to library.cornell.edu/communications/Ezra.
Ezra Cornell: Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Feats
Library exhibition celebrates university founder’s 200th birthday
An exhibition that celebrates the 200th birthday of Ezra Cornell and the founding of Cornell University begins March 8 in the Hirshland Gallery of Carl A. Kroch Library. “‘I Would Found an Institution’: The Ezra Cornell Bicentennial” will display letters, diaries and photographs from Ezra Cornell as well as the university’s charter.
The exhibition opening will begin at 4:30 p.m. with a ceremonial cake cut by Cornell President David Skorton and the founder’s great-great-great grandson Ezra Cornell, ’71. The event is free and open to the public.
"The University Library houses a wealth of information on our founder," said President Skorton. "I am delighted that Ezra Cornell’s 200th birthday is giving us an opportunity to celebrate his singular contributions to American higher education while also highlighting the strength of the Library’s Rare and Manuscript Collections."
The exhibition details how Cornell, who came to Ithaca with no formal education, went on to amass a fortune in the telegraph business and found one of America’s finest universities. Highlights from the exhibition include the telegraph receiver used to receive the world’s very first telegraph message, Cornell’s safe and tools and a collection of shells from Hawaii that he purchased to enhance the university’s holdings.
"Ezra Cornell was an extraordinary man, entirely self-educated and self-made," said Elaine Engst, the director of the library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections and one of the exhibition’s curators. "With Andrew Dickson White, his remarkable ideals constituted a radical educational experiment for the 1860s, and led, in the small rural community of Ithaca, NY, to the realization of the first ‘truly American university.’"
As part of the bicentennial celebration, Cornell University Library will host a presentation March 28 at 4:30 p.m. by Carol Kammen, a senior lecturer in the university’s history department and the historian of Tompkins County, NY, entitled, "Ezra Cornell and Any Person.” A reception will follow.
"There is a special place in our heart for Ezra Cornell,” said Interim University Librarian Anne R. Kenney. “He was a great book lover and his very first philanthropic act was to fund the establishment of a public library in Ithaca. He also made sure that Willard Fiske, the first university librarian, had the resources to build the foundation for what has become one of the very best libraries in the world.”
"‘I Would Found an Institution’: The Ezra Cornell Bicentennial” exhibition opens March 8 and closes Aug. 31. For more information, call 255-3530 and visit rmc.library.cornell.edu/Ezra. For press information, go to library.cornell.edu/communications/Ezra.