McClure Scholarship collection
Scope and Contents
The McClure Scholarship collection contains birthday cards sent to scholarship winners, baby t-shirts, clippings, and press releases. Also included are copies of thank you letters sent from the 12 scholarship winners that attended RIT to J. Warren and Lois McClure.
Dates
- Creation: 1979-1997
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open to researchers.
Historical Information: The McClure Scholarship
The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) can trace its origins to the founding of the Rochester Athenaeum in 1829. After joining with several different Rochester institutions during the 19th century, the Athenaeum finally merged with the Mechanics Institute (founded in 1885) in 1891 to form the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute (RAMI). RAMI changed its name to the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1944 to better reflect the Institute's role in the field of technical education.
In 1979, the university celebrated its 150th anniversary. The celebration included theater productions, concerts, ceremonies, and activities such as cooking demonstrations. These festivities were organized by an Anniversary Council that was created in 1974. As part of the celebration, a picnic was held to honor babies born June 12, 1979, the exact anniversary of RIT's founding. The babies were awarded $1,500 scholarships to RIT, granted they chose to enroll at the Institute once they were eighteen. Parents of any child born on that day submitted a brief letter with the name of the child and contact information. The first 150 respondents, as determined by the postmark of the letters, were declared winners of the scholarships. Over 3,000 entries were received from 30 states and Australia.
Since the scholarship was funded by J. Warren McClure (RIT Board of Trustee and Vice President of Gannett Company's marketing department) and his wife, Lois, the infants were referred to as the McClure Scholars. Twelve of the 150 scholarship winners enrolled at RIT in 1997: Ryan M. Andreotta, Renee Livingston, Erin Wall, Melissa Torella, Shawn Clapham, Amanda Culver, Michael King, Sarah Blake, Logan Lindquist, Michael Twohig, Gary Adams, and Timothy Sewall.
Extent
0.75 Linear Feet (1 clamshell box)
Language
English
Overview
Materials related to the McClure Scholarships. These scholarships were awarded to 150 students as part of Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT) 150th Anniversary Celebration in 1979. The collection includes press releases, clippings, birthday cards, and baby t-shirts.
Arrangement
Materials are arranged chronologically within material type.
Processing Information
Finding aid created by Amy Vilz in August 2011.
Subject
- McClure, J. Warren (James Warren) (Person)
- Rochester Institute of Technology. 150th Anniversary Campaign Fund (Organization)
- Rochester Institute of Technology -- Anniversaries, etc (Organization)
- Rochester Institute of Technology -- Students (Organization)
- Title
- McClure Scholarship collection
- Status
- Published
- Subtitle
- RIT Archives
- Author
- Amy Vilz
- Date
- 05 August 2011
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the RIT Archives Repository