Wesleyan University Young Men’s Republican Club constitution and minutes

While processing the diary of James Oliver Longstreet (class of 1857) last semester, I came across mention of the Wesleyan Young Men’s Republican Club in the context of the presidential election of 1856. After seeing my interest in the political lives of Wesleyan students in the 1850’s, Valerie Gillispie here at Special Collections and Archives … Read more

Bennet papers open in SC&A

On Friday, January 15, I had the honor of interviewing former Wesleyan president, Douglas J. Bennet, Jr.  I had spent the spring and summer of 2009 arranging and describing his professional papers which are now open for research in SC&A.  As a processing archivist I am privileged to spend many weeks working with the materials … Read more

Nathan Comfort Starr Collection of Arthuriana

Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Wesleyan Library, Samantha Klein recently completed a cataloging project for a collection of Arthuriana here in Special Collections & Archives. Samantha wrote the following text about the collection and the project: Members of the Wesleyan community interested in King Arthur and his knights have a unique … Read more

(His)tory’s in the details: Thoughts on the journal of Daniel C. Rand, 1843

I like to think that most people have some experience with journals-whether its the two-sentences a day that your third grade teacher forced out of you, or that tome that you’ve been adding to faithfully since high school. For me, journaling was never a huge interest– instead I kept notebooks of lists; things to buy, … Read more