Archives Gold #21: 50 Objects for UMBC's 50th

Thu, 25 Feb 2016 14:16:04 -0500
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Special Collections continues our archival project Archives Gold: 50 Objects for UMBC's 50th, a special series showcasing 50 different objects that tell the story of UMBC. This week we present a transcript and audio cassette tapes from the UMBC Founders Oral History Project.

UMBC Founders Oral History Project transcript and cassette tapes, 2006. University Archives, Collection 55, Special Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD)

Over the years several oral history projects have been initiated at UMBC. The first, by Dr. Ed Orser, was completed in the mid-1990s to celebrate UMBC's 30th anniversary. In 2006, Joseph Tatarewicz and Barry Lanman began the UMBC Founders Oral History Project in preparation for UMBC's 40th anniversary. Tatarewicz and Lanman interviewed some of the earliest figures on campus including UMBC's first chancellor Albin O. Kuhn, the first dean, founding faculty members, and some of the first students at UMBC.

In one of the early interviews with Albin O. Kuhn, Kuhn discusses the white silo that stands near the entrance to I-95. The silo is one of the oldest structures on the UMBC campus and one of the few reminders of Spring Grove Hospital which was located on the site of the UMBC university from 1867 to the 1960s. When Spring Grove sold the land to make way for UMBC, the campus decided to keep the silo. In his interview, Kuhn speaks of this decision.

"...they were kidding around campus that, calling that the Kuhn Silo because they knew that I had a farm background or an interest in, in fact, farming at the same time I was at UMBC...when they got the road network laid out the silo would not be in the way...and those are fairly heavy concrete things to remove, and I said, "Well, let thing stand. It won't bother anybody and it will be sort of a memory of the fact that this once was used as a farm for the Spring Grove."

-Albin O. Kuhn, interview by Dr. Larry Wilt, 2006, transcript, UMBC Founders Oral History Project, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD

Learn More:

-History of UMBC Research Guide

-University Archives Webpage

-Archive Record of UMBC Oral History Collection

-Article on the Silo in UMBC Magazine

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