Thomas Thackeray Swinburne (April 21, 1865 – December 17, 1926) was an American poet from Rochester, New York. He has been called "Rochester's poet laureate" [1] He wrote a number of books of verse which he printed himself; one of these—By the Genesee: Rhymes and Verses—contains a version of the poem which, set to music by Herve D. Wilkins, has become the alma mater of the University of Rochester [2] – The Genesee. [3]
Swinburne attended the University of Rochester as a member of the class of 1892, but never graduated. [4] He was a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity. [5]
One critic compared Swinburne and Rochester in Song and Verse to Edgar Lee Masters and his Spoon River Anthology. [6]
In December 1926, distraught over the death of his sister Rose, to whom he had dedicated By the Genesee and Rochester in Song and Verse, he committed suicide by jumping from a bridge into the Genesee River. [4] [7] A body was found in June 1927 at Forest Lawn, on the shore of Lake Ontario in Webster, New York was identified as Swinburne's by his clothing, [8] however, later some doubt was cast on the identification. [9]
The University of Rochester and the Rochester community honored Swinburne with a memorial, Swinburne Rock, placed "beside the Genesee" near the University's Interfaith Chapel. The memorial, proposed in 1927 and dedicated in 1933, is a 26 ton glacial boulder holding a bronze plaque with verses from The Genesee sculpted by Alphonse A. Kolb. [6] [10] [11] According to local legend Swinburne's ashes were interred under the rock, but when it was moved in 1968 no remains were found. [12] News reports, however, indicate that the poet's ashes were scattered on the Genesee River in July, following his death. [13]
The University of Rochester is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees.
Monroe County is a county in the Finger Lakes region of the State of New York. The county is along Lake Ontario's southern shore. As of the 2022 census estimates, Monroe County's population was 752,035, a decrease since the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is the city of Rochester. The county is named after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States. Monroe County is part of the Rochester, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000, and the crematorium was opened in 1902 by Sir Henry Thompson.
Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in Western New York, the city of Rochester forms the core of a larger metropolitan area with a population of 1 million people, across six counties. The city was one of the United States' first boomtowns, initially due to the fertile Genesee River Valley, which gave rise to numerous flour mills, and then as a manufacturing center, which spurred further rapid population growth.
William Rose Benét was an American poet, writer, and editor. He was the older brother of Stephen Vincent Benét.
Frederick Douglass - Greater Rochester International Airport is a public airport located within the City of Rochester, three miles (4.8 km) southwest of Downtown, in Monroe County, New York, United States. It is owned and operated by Monroe County. It is the fifth-busiest airport in the state of New York and the third-busiest outside of the New York City metropolitan area. The airport is home to the 642nd Aviation Support Battalion, part of the 42nd Infantry Division.
The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. The river contains several waterfalls in New York at Letchworth State Park and Rochester.

Idris Davies was a Welsh poet. Born in Rhymney, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, he became a poet, originally writing in Welsh, but later writing exclusively in English.
Highland Park, also known as Highland Botanical Park, is an arboretum in Rochester, New York, United States. Its administrative office is located at 171 Reservoir Avenue in Rochester. The park is one of several in Rochester originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, including Genesee Valley Park, Maplewood Park, and Seneca Park, which is now a zoo.
Archie Hayes Merrill was an American journalist, writer, and poet sometimes called the "Poet Laureate of Upstate New York".
George Anthony Mogridge was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox (1911–12), New York Yankees (1915–20), Washington Senators (1921–25), St. Louis Browns (1925), and Boston Braves (1926–27). Mogridge threw the first no-hitter for the Yankees franchise in 1917 and was a member of the 1924 World Series champions with the Senators.
Alphonse Anton Kolb (1893–1983) was a German-American artist known for creating sculptures and other art works ranging in size from medals to statues. For many years he worked for Bastian Brothers of Rochester, New York, and was the semi-official sculptor of the Rochester Numismatic Association.
Downtown Rochester is the economic center of Rochester, New York, and the largest in Upstate New York, employing more than 50,000 people, and housing more than 6,000.
Jessie Belle Rittenhouse Scollard, daughter of John Edward and Mary (MacArthur) Rittenhouse, was a literary critic, compiler of anthologies, and poet.
Erie Railroad Depot, Erie Railroad Station or Erie Depot was the terminal station for the Erie Railroad in Rochester, New York, designed by George E. Archer, the railroad's architect.
Herve Dwight Wilkins, was an American organist and composer.
Emily Sibley Watson was a prominent Rochester, New York philanthropist and patron of the arts. Youngest child of Western Union founder Hiram Sibley and Elizabeth Tinker Sibley, she grew up in a family that valued service, faith, and the arts. She is best known as the founder of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, and patron of Rochester's Hochstein School of Music & Dance. With her mother, she was a major supporter of the Homeopathic Hospital.
Greenlight Networks is a fiber-optic Internet service provider in Rochester, NY and the Buffalo Niagara Region. The company was founded in 2011 and competes with Frontier Telephone of Rochester, Verizon Fios and Charter Spectrum.
The city of Rochester, New York—before being known as the birthplace of Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb—was internationally known for its robust brewing industry. Indeed, the city was uniquely positioned for such an industry in the early 19th century. The corn, rye, barley, wheat, and other grains grown in the Genesee River Valley were shipped down river to be milled in such quantity that by 1838 Rochester was world's largest flour producer, earning it the nickname the Flour City.
Edgerton is a neighborhood in the Northwest Quadrant of Rochester, New York that sits between the Genesee River on the east and the Erie Canal bed on the west. One of the city's oldest and largest residential areas, Edgerton is among the most ethnically, linguistically, and racially diverse communities in Western New York. The neighborhood has been called "the Bermuda Triangle of Rochester" because of its "nearly invisible" status in local politics. Edgerton is currently the poorest neighborhood in Rochester, with an Unemployment Rate higher than that of the United States during the Great Depression.