Peter Kohn photographs

Collection

Identifier: C-146

C-146 Peter Kohn

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Scope and Contents

The collection contains approximately 28,000 color photos taken by and related to Peter Kohn during his time as lacrosse manager at Middlebury. Photographs are primarily of lacrosse events and players, but also includes photos taken at events, parties, ceremonies, and other sporting events.

Dates

Creation: 1979 - 2008

Creator

Kohn, Myron "Peter", 1931-2009 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish materials, contact: Special Collections & Archives Middlebury College Phone: (802) 443-2387 Email: specialcollections@middlebury.edu

Biographical / Historical

Peter Kohn (1932-2009) was a well-known lacrosse manager and friend to Middlebury College. Kohn is best known for serving as manager of the U.S. National Team at the World Games. Kohn was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2004.

He started as a field manager for the Park School in Baltimore in 1954, and was manager of the U.S. teams from 1978-1998. Kohn acted as manager for the North-South All-Star game for over 25 years and for the club teams in the United States Club Lacrosse Association for over 20 years. Kohn worked in the equipment room at Middlebury College from 1981-1988, while serving as a manager of the men's lacrosse team. Kohn also enjoyed helping with other spring sports teams at Middlebury when time allowed.

Kohn and his role in the lacrosse world were the subject of a much-publicized 2005 documentary, "Keeper of the Kohn." The title of the film is drawn from a longstanding College tradition, in which a "keeper" (usually a first-year lacrosse player) was selected as a caretaker to Kohn, who suffered from mild autism.

Extent

24 Boxes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

This collection is divided into four series, series I. Sports, series II. Events, series III. Peter Kohn, and series IV. Miscellaneous. Those series are in turn divided into subseries created according to the way the photographs were originally organized by the donor. The subseries are arranged alphabetically whereas the contents of the subseries, the photographs, are arranged chronologically. The undated pictures are arranged alphabetically.

Physical Location

Shelved at end of archives photos.

Other Finding Aids

For a comprehensive list of the contents of this collection visit this link: C-146 Peter Kohn photographs finding aid

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Collection given to Special Collections by Bob Sideli '77, P'08 and P'13 in 2016.

From an email by Bob Sideli, September 25, 2016, SUBJECT: Peter's wish fulfilled: When David Gaynes interviewed Peter in 2002, Peter talked about his photos. Below is a text excerpt from that interview. I would like to report that we have made good on Peter’s wish that his photo collection be preserved by Middlebury. This past Friday I delivered 26,000 of Peter’s photos packed into 13 boxes. Even though the entire collection has been scanned and cataloged on our Flickr site, the Middlebury Special Collections office will preserve the originals and they will be available forever! See the link below for a photo of the Peter’s photos being accepted into the Special Collections at Middlebury.

Talks a little about photos 36:53 People like them, they enjoy seeing them. 37:55 you want to get a good overview of the event you're working at. You don't want to just take regular pictures. if there's really something special, you want to take that. 38:12 Sometimes with the college guys, they make funny faces and they want funny pictures, so you take that. 38:20 Anything we do, the kid might be patting the dog, I'll take a picture of the dog, they're part of our group. 38:30 I’ll take still life of food if (unclear) 38:40 You take it of every little thing that happens. 39:30 I'm planning to give some of them away to Middlebury College and I got to get busy and organize that so they will be preserved. 39:47 I'd like to see them enjoyed. 40:09 I've been through 25 or 30 cameras the 3 or 4 days we've been here. Is that too many? It may well be that it was. 40:44 when I see the 70 or 80 books that I have, it's quite a lot. did I do the right thing? It's not for me to say.

https://flic.kr/p/LCBbgs

Related Materials

For additional resources related to Peter Kohn, please see Peter Kohn Club, a website created and maintained by Bob Sideli '77.

Related Materials

For photographs taken by and related to Peter Kohn, see the Yahoo! Flickr site Peter Kohn. Note that Middlebury College does not own this account or these photos, and that the website continues to be maintained by Bob Sideli '77. To watch the documentary Keeper of the Kohn, a documentary about Peter Kohn see: Keeper of the Kohn. There are two copies of the documentary available in the archives.