Wells College alumni can help preserve the history of their alma mater.
Speaking with Finger Lakes News Radio, Claire Lovell with the South Central Regional Library Council said she is working with Tiffany Raymond, Director of Library Services at Wells’ Long Library, to create a digital collection of photos and documents to preserve the history of the college from the point of view of those who were there.
“If Wells alumni want to have an official place to drop their meaningful photos of themselves at the alumni weekend, or themselves at the last day of classes, or their favorite pictures from campus, or maybe some pictures from their time at Wells, we will steward it,” said Lovell. “We’ll make sure this digital collection lives on like the Wells College yearbooks like the Wlles College scrapbooks, or the Albert Leffingwell collection.”
After Wells College announced it would close at the end of the Spring 2024 semester, Lovell said she saw friends of hers who are Wells alumnae post photos of their time at the Aurora-based college, sharing memories of their time there and commiserating over its closure. This, coupled with the larger Wells community’s reaction to the closing, inspired her to work with Raymond to preserve the memories people have of the school.
“[Wells alumni] are bonded; they love that school and they love each other, and this was so heartbreaking for them,” Lovell continued. “It was just really touching and we want to do what we can and help out all these people.”
Alumni are welcome to send photos of their time at the institution to [email protected].
The digital scrapbook can be accessed at nyheritage.org.
Scans of documents such as programs from commencements or plays will also be accepted.
Lovell added that former faculty and staff as well as those who may have a relative who went to the school are more than welcome to contribute; however, photos need to be directly related to the person’s time at Wells.
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