History's Mysteries

Schenectady Pipe Band at Union College 1972

Both Union College and the Schenectady Pipe Band are recognized symbols of The Electric City and its history. What's more, these two Schenectady icons have a long-standing partnership. If there's such a thing as a house band at Union, it has to be the Schenectady Pipe Band; a Celtic Max Weinberg 7 to their Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Our band performs at Union throughout the year at Convocation, Founder's Day, ReUnion Weekend, Graduate school Commencement, and Undergraduate Commencement. At Union, where there's ceremony, there's bagpipes.

Invariably, following a Union gig, the question arises, "How long has Schenectady been playing at Union?" The answer is always, "As long as we can remember." Even our most veteran members cannot recall a pre-Union era. One or two of our active band members recollect playing at Union as early as 1969. In fact, we likely began performing at Union much earlier. Interestingly, this question captivates not just band members, but the college as well. The winter 2003 issue of Union College Magazine observes, "the [Schenectady Pipe] band has been a longstanding staple at campus ceremonies such as Commencement . . . College records do not show when the band made its first appearance at Union; do any Alumni know?" We don't know if their survey produced conclusive evidence, but the band has done some detective work of its own.

Given the impoverished written record, we've relied heavily upon personal narrative in our research. Senior (respectfully) band member Bill Munro maintains that he has an old reel-to-reel film of his grandfather playing with the Schenectady Pipe Band at Union College. Bill's grandfather was actually not a member of the band and apparently played as a guest on this occasion. Knowing his grandfather stopped playing pipes about 1949 or 1950, Bill thinks that this film dates from 1948. Thus, we conclude with reasonable confidence that the Schenectady Pipe Band has been performing at Union college for at least 60 years, which is pretty remarkable.

The band hopes to recover this historic footage and transfer it to a digital medium. In the meantime, we continue our search for evidence of even earlier Schenectady Pipe Band performances at Union College. Let us know if you unearth anything!

-JSS

Schenectady Pipe Band leads the ReUnion parade past Lamont House