St. Lawrence's Special Collections Featured in The Wall Street Journal
St. Lawrence University’s Owen D. Young Library Special Collections received national attention in a recent Wall Street Journal article titled “The Ultimate American Summer Adventure: Exploring the Adirondacks by Canoe."
The article details the rich history and enduring appeal of paddling the region's many waterways and features an artifact from the Special Collections—photography pioneer Edward Bierstadt's 1885 photo of Camp Pine Knot in Raquette Lake, New York. The image was commissioned by the camp's designer, William West Durant, who is known for popularizing the rustic Adirondack camp style that charmed visitors and drew them to the great outdoors.
The article references the efforts of Autumn Nealis '25, who digitized a collection of Adirondack artotypes by Beirstadt this spring. Nealis had previously worked with Sophia Roxo '26 and Brush Gallery Director Cathy Tedford to digitize and catalogue a collection of over 130 historical Adirondack photographs by Seneca Ray Stoddard as part of Associate Professor of Anthropology Mindy Pitre's Community-Based Learning course Unpacking Museums.
Read the Story in the Wall Street Journal
These efforts not only promote a richer understanding of the artistic and cultural geography of the North Country, they also help to preserve regional history while giving students hands-on experiences in archival research and digital scholarship.
