Special Collections & Archives

In the archives, there is a fascinating collection of examinations from 1868 to 1970. While going through this collection, I had to do some research on the curriculum during that time to see how these exams fit into the history of the development of academics at Wesleyan. In the mid- to late- 19^th century, the curriculum was very different from what we know it as today. The curriculum we know today wasn’t set until after World War II with few changes since then, with the exception of the addition of a few departments. The curriculum at the beginning of the collection, however, was made up of only two options: the general course of study and the scientific course of study. There were four required entrance exams for Wesleyan: Latin, Greek, English, and Mathematics, although if you were planning on pursuing the science, you were not required to take the Latin and Greek entrance exams. However, Greek and Roman history were still part of your required classes, as well as other languages. The exams, especially the language exams (Latin, Greek, and German particularly) had pretty demanding expectations, even of the entrance exams. There was often a long paragraph that just said “translate,” and this was just to be allowed to continue studying that language! Every student had their schedule planned out for them all four years based on what they were studying and what year they were, with, initially, no choice in electives. It wasn’t until the beginning of the 20^th century that departments were established and students were allowed to choose among them and various classes within them. Since then, the exams don’t look too different than what most are today. The exams in the collection from post-World War II are mostly mid-term and final exams and therefore comprehensive exams for courses. It is interesting to see what department’s material has changed over the years and which have not changed at all.

(This is an image of the course schedule by class year from the 1890-1891 course catalogue. Click image to enlarge.)

The course catalogues themselves are pretty interesting as well, although they are not part of the examinations collection. They were pretty elaborate when the student body was much smaller, with a list of every student by class, where they were from, and where they lived on campus, and a list of all the professors and their addresses too. There was also a list of the graduates of the spring before and the degrees they had earned. There were campus maps, some years more detailed than others. Like the current course catalogues, there was a brief history of Wesleyan, a short explanation of all the academic prizes, a list of the members of the board of trustees, a list of building on campus and their purpose, available scholarships, and rules and regulations.

If you want to see specific exams to see if what your’re learning has changed at all over the past 150 years, come check out the Examinations Collection, made up of over 800 exams!

In 1982 Wesleyan students protested the administrations elimination to their aid-blind financial aid policy. The students held a 150-hour protest on the second floor of North College (as shown in this picture), one hour for each year the university existed. The university responded to their protest by denying the students potty privileges and locking the bathroom facilities in North College. If the students wanted to pee they would have to leave the building and get locked out. In response the students used a bag in the corner one of the administrators’ office (where they were sleeping) and periodically lowered the bag of refuse out the window. Public Safety caught the students in the act and the administration reported them to Student Judicial Board (SJB) and tried to shut the sit-in down. The SJB decided that the bathrooms should be unlocked, the students should be allowed support runners, and the students should move to more public office.

Earlier in the spring 1982 semester, over 600 Wesleyan students attended a rally in Washington D.C. to protest President Reagan’s higher education cuts. It was well publicized that Wesleyan students were the largest single group in attendance. Later 1,284 students signed a petition for the university to bring back the aid-blind admissions policy. When that didn’t work they resorted to the 150-hour sit-in which was during reading week and spring fling. Many of the students inside North College had plenty of time to study for their final exams! They commented that spring fling made more noise and disturbances than they were during their entire sit-in.

More information about this protest can be found in the April 29th Coalition Records.

Once the US entered the First World War, the university became a military hub for training soldiers. Some of the skills that students worked on were combat firing, map-drawing, first aid/sanitation, trench construction (such as in this photo), and military history.

One of the questions that I encountered while processing the history of this collection, World War I Service Records, was what the difference was between a Reserve Officers Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) and a Student Army Training Corp (S.A.T.C.)? It turns out that the university originally had the R.O.T.C. program as well as a Certificate of military training. However once the drafting age dropped from 21 to 18 they established the new S.A.T.C. program to allow students to continue with their education and still be prepared to go off to war. However neither of these programs lasted more than a semester. Once the armistice with Germany was signed the university went back to being a civilian institute.

The World War I Service Records are comprised of a form sent to Wesleyan Men involved in the War. On the back of the form was a questionnaire that asked the men to describe their experience with the war, how well Wesleyan prepared them, and their views on universal military training. Interestingly enough many of the men never fought abroad and spent the majority of their time on an Army base or a fort. The most honest response was by George Raymond Larkin, class of 1918, who wrote ” The army made me lazy physically, mentally and spiritually. Encouraged careless ethical living. Developed chronic restlessness.” Joseph Francis, class of 1914, says of his experience while on the front that “the ability to sympathise with the man in the ranks [is] learned perhaps from playing a losing football game.” My favorite story that I came across was transcribed by the widow of Joseph Hubbard Hefflon, class of 1894. She sent in a journal about her husband’s experience in the YMCA of immediately being torpedoed once shipped out, the way he served as a father figure and the respect that he developed with the other men, and then finally of his dying of pneumonia.

Steven St. Onge, a Quinnipiac University student and history major, is working in Special Collections & Archives this summer, describing some of our 19th century diaries. His discoveries have been fascinating, and I asked him to share some of his findings:

After a month of deciphering handwriting from the 1800s, I’ve finally produced two finding aids for the diaries of Lorenzo Whiting Blood and Harriet Stewart Judd. Surprisingly both of these two figures had very complex lives, much different from what the current Wesleyan student goes through.

The first diary was from Lorenzo Whiting Blood who regales the reader with his adventures as a Wesleyan University student during the 1830s and some details on his later life. The diary begins when Blood is a freshman at Wesleyan who is struggling to become a Methodist minister. However, after completing a year at Wesleyan, Blood attempts to open his own school in Cheshire, which after a few months is forced to close. He then comes back to Wesleyan where he has to take twice the course load to catch up to his class. Somehow he is able to accomplish this, but then again Blood decides to leave Wesleyan, this time to teach at Amenia Seminary. Unfortunately while he is teaching there, he is diagnosed with the measles which leaves him on the verge of death for two months. Miraculously he recovers and returns once again to Wesleyan where, somehow, he goes on to graduate near the top of his class. The journal then describes the troubles Blood faces trying to find a job, marrying his hometown love, and ends with him becoming deacon of Mystic.

The second diary is from the wife of Orange Judd, a former Wesleyan student, by the name of Harriet Stewart Judd. This diary is from 1872-1873 and chronicles three trips taken by the Judd family across the Eastern coast of the United States and throughout Europe. Judd visits many tourist points of interest including Shakespeare’s grave and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, while giving great details on the architectural and historical background. Judd also writes about her traveling family’s dynamic, along with Orange Judd’s continual sicknesses.

If these sound interesting, come check them out at Special Collections & Archives or check my finding aids: you won’t be disappointed!