Civil War Panel and Reunion Update

Yesterday, August 1, descendants of the New York 154th regiment gather at St. Bonaventure.  Part of the ceremonies included formally giving the Mark H. Dunkelman and Michael J. Winey Collection of the 154th New York Volunteer Infantry to the Friedsdam Library.  They also got to see a fine exhibit from the collection in the Quick Center for the Arts and a panel of Civil War historians from the Emerging Civil War hosted by Chris Mackowski of the Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication.  The day concluded with a bbq and live music from Rush the Growler.

Leanna Chojnacki Helps Bring Important Stamp Collection to SBU

On August 21, 2012, the St. Bonaventure University archives received an $11,000 United Nations stamp collection. Ray Albertella, an alumnus who graduated with a degree in History in 1962, donated this collection to the university after visiting the campus for the first time since he graduated. As part of my summer job working for Admissions, I signed up to give tours during the Alumni Weekend. One of the tours I gave was for the class of 1962 to show them what had changed at St. Bonaventure University since they attended the university 50 years earlier.

             During my tour, I showed the class of 1962 the Thisness piece to give them a sense of the types of clubs and activities in which current Bona students are engaged and mentioned the Model United Nations of which I am the current Secretary General. This peaked Mr. Albertella’s interest and after my tour he had started to ask me what our organization on our campus does. He soon told me about his collection of United Nations stamps and we exchanged email addresses.

Photos from the Opening of Diana Phalon's Exhibit at the Quick Arts Center

The first visitors to the exhibit!

Exhibit curator with her advisor, Dr. Philip Payne

Diana and the entire History Department faculty.

Diana and her biggest supporters!

“World War II Through a Soldier’s Eye" by Diana Phalon

After interning at the Eldred World War II Museum for over a year and building one exhibit there, I thought it would be interesting to bring an exhibit to the Quick Center for the Arts here at St. Bonaventure to educate high school students and those who might have an interest in the war. After discussing it with my advisor, Dr. Payne, and Steve Appleby, the director of the Eldred WWII Museum, I decided I would pursue this idea for my Honors Capstone Project.

The goal is to make history more fun and even more interesting and personal to those studying it. The exhibit is titled “World War II Through a Soldier’s Eye.” Essentially, it is an exhibit to educate people about the European Front of World War II, but the idea is to do it on a more personal level. Instead of just offering facts, dates, and battles, the exhibit focuses more on the personal stories of veterans from the war and uses different artifacts donated by the Eldred World War II Museum.