On January 16, Gerry will be taking a closer look at the mid-19th century when American professionals were finally freed to take up hobbies, sometimes with fascinating consequences. In this talk we’ll examine two dentists, one in Rochester and one in Canandaigua, who both experimented with new technologies outside of working with teeth. One explored telegraphy, and the other photography, and each had varying degrees of failure and success in their endeavors. Along the way, we’ll delve into the connections each had to their communities in the decades before the Civil War.

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Gerry Szymanski is Senior Librarian for Reserves and Digital Services at the Sibley Music Library at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.

He is an award-winning filmmaker and composer, and is an adjunct professor of musicology. A noted photographer and collector, he has had exhibitions at the Rochester Public Central Library and Monroe Community College, and has lectured about photography at the Flower City Arts Center, MCC, and St. John Fisher University. His photographs have appeared in City Magazine, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and South Wedge Quarterly. Recently, images from his historic collection were on display at Genesee Country Village & Museum as part of the “Becoming Gendered: Garment as Gender Artifact” exhibition in the John L. Wehle Gallery.