Stephen K. Sillay and Irene Adams Sillay collection

The first item in this collection is a handwritten note from Mrs. Stephen K. Sillay, which describes some of the items in the collection. In the note, Mrs. Sillay says that the objects and paper documents were from Mr. Sillay’s time at the Mechanic’s Institute in 1936, but records show he attended school from 1931 to 1935.

Several of the items in the collection relate to pinhole camera photography, including several handouts providing details on how to make and use an Eastman pinhole camera. The collection also contains one Eastman Kodak Company pinhole camera with the name Irena Adams written on it in pencil. In the collection are other photography related items, two of which are film holders for a 4x5 camera. Eastman Kodak Company was one of the most prominent film and camera manufacturing companies during the time period that Mr. Sillay was a student here.

Many of the booklets and paper documents in the collection are student handouts and assignment sheets or textbooks for different classes that Mr. Stephen Sillay was most likely enrolled in. Eastman Kodak Company made many of the booklets, but some were made by different Rochester area photographic businesses, such as Defender-Photo Supply Company, Inc. Their booklets contain information on a wide variety of photographic processes and films. There are several photography textbooks in the collection, which were most likely from Mr. Stephen Sillay’s courses at the Mechanic’s Institute in the 1930’s. One of the texts, Elementary Photography, was written by three men, two of which were Mechanic’s Institute professors.

The collection also contains a few personal items of Stephen Sillay that do not relate to his courses, but to his time as a Mechanic’s Institute student. One of these items is a newspaper clipping of an obituary of a fellow Mechanic’s Institute student, which one can assume was a friend of Sillay’s. There is a class ring from the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanic’s Institute, which was most likely Mr. Sillay’s. Finally, there is a metal Mechanic’s Institute ashtray with an “M I” monogram in the center of it.