Born in Leavenworth, Kansas, Schein was a pioneer in the development of educational television and radio in New York State. During graduate study at Boston University, he became active in fundraising to help establish Boston's educational television station, WGBH and served on the Massachusetts Citizens Committee on Educational Television. In 1955, Schein came to Schenectady and served as associate producer and first president of the Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television, where he produced instructional programs for in-school use broadcast over WRGB-TV. Schein led the effort to launch the second public television station in New York State, Schenectady's WMHT in 1962, and was executive director and later general manager. He was instrumental in the addition of the all classical music radio station WMHT-FM in 1972 and the Radio Information Service (RISE), a radio reading service for the blind and print handicapped in 1978. He retired in 1986 as general manager, after concluding negotiations for the acquisition of Channel 45, WMHQ. The collection contains newsletters, programs and schedules, meeting minutes, photographs, and Schein's files as president of Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television, and files as executive director and general manager of WMHT.

This collection contains manuscripts and a journal written by the Spanish novelist Gonzalo Torrente Balleste.

This collection documents the life, work and activism of Helen Quirini of Schenectady, New York. The collection represents Quirini's numerous activities and interests including her early work owning a local market with her brother, her 39 year employment for General Electric, her activism in unions during her employment and retirement, as well as her charitable activities where she pursued civil, housing, pension, women's and senior citizen's rights.

Diaries and lecture notes of New York State Normal School graduate Jennie M. Schoonmaker, and the diary of her sister Lydia.

Includes correspondence, 1955-1989; course syllabi and lecture notes, 1951-1979; offprints, 1957-1981; and a diary of a sabbatical leave, 1954-1955. Grenander was a professor of English at the New York State College for Teachers and the University at Albany from 1948 to 1989. Grenander was a scholar of the American writer Ambrose Bierce and corresponded with John Crowe Ransom about New Criticism and other literary topics.

The Norman Studer Papers document his career as both an educator and ardent Catskill folklorist. The collection includes significant material relating to his work as director of the Downtown Community School in New York City and Camp Woodland in the Catskills.

The Paul Leser Papers document not only the life and career of anthropologist Paul Leser, but also contain materials pertaining to Leser's sister, Maria Lingemann and her husband Heinrich Lingemann, and earlier members of the Leser family. Although the collection contains correspondence between Paul and his brother, Albert (Leser) Lestoque, a separate collection, the Albert (Leser) Lestoque Papers, held at the University at Albany's Department of Special Collections & Archives documents the life and career of Paul Leser's brother as well as providing additional Leser family documents and material.

This collection documents the literary and legal careers of Roy C. Bates (Kurt Bauchwitz). The materials cover his early years in Germany (1890-1938), the years of flight from Hitler's Germany via Japan to the United States (1938-1941), and his U.S. years (1941-1974).