Two older women keep watch from paintings on one wall of the former library at the A.D. White House and Aidan Goldberg ’25 is on a quest to find out who they might be.

That’s just one of the historical mysteries Goldberg is solving as he spends the summer putting together a history of the house, which was the home of Cornell’s first president, then housed the university’s art collection and today hosts the Society for the Humanities. The booklet he’s creating will be printed and available for visitors.

As a student in the Humanities Scholars Program, Goldberg is interested in poetry, writing and music and now also Cornell history.

“I feel humbled to be in this house and think about who’s been here before me,” he said. “I feel like a bit of a steward for the house now. It’s a really cool way to be connected to the school that I’m in.”

His summer living expenses are supported by a Humanities Scholars Program Summer Experience Grant, open to students working on a supervised humanities research project.

“Students, visitors, and other campus community members wander into the A.D. White House almost every day and say, ‘I’ve never been in here before. What goes on in this building?’ We also once heard a student tell her family just outside the main entrance of the building that this was where (Cornell President) Martha Pollack lives,” said Julie McLean, program manager for the Society for the Humanities. “We feel it’s time to communicate the lengthy and important history of the house, its foundation as a center for the study and contemplation of the arts and humanities and its continuation today as a center for humanities classes, events, research and scholarship.”

Find out more about what Goldberg has discovered in the full story on the College of Arts & Sciences website.