SUNY Brockport history

The College Archives contains publications, photographs, and other materials related to the college from its beginning in 1835 to the present.

The College at Brockport opened as the Brockport Collegiate Institute in 1841.

In winter 1844, Mortimer organized a special program for a group of women students.

In 1845, Cyrus McCormick came to Brockport and licensed the Backus & Fitch foundry to manufacture 100 of his newly-invented reapers.

The Republican Party came to Brockport with the founding of the Brockport Republic weekly newspaper in 1856.

As an example of the volume of lumbering business, they and several other firms shipped 5.9 million pounds of barrel staves in 1860.

>>The Rose Archives recently came into possession of a rare artifact, a heavy, cast iron stamp, 4.5 inches high, the imprint of which references P.J. Williams, who was head of the school from 1861–63.

In 1866, the institution was renamed Brockport State Normal School.

The campaign was a success, and in 1867 the Brockport Collegiate Institute joined the ranks of a "normal school."

The Democrats founded their own mouthpiece with the Brockport Democrat weekly newspaper in 1870.

Five cemeteries had been founded in the Town of Sweden outside the village limits by 1880.

The Johnston Harvester Co. plant burned in 1882 and the firm rebuilt in Batavia.

In 1894, a 52-foot Soldiers Memorial Tower was erected at that site.

By 1900, it became clear that the canal could not survive in the form it then had.

After initially referring to the colors as olive and yellow, by May 1902 (the first report on Color Day), it was noted that the colors were now prominently displayed on the "green and gold banners."