Pick of the week, Oct. 5

Osmon Cleander Baker attended the Wesleyan Academy (now Wilbraham Academy) in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, from 1827 to 1830.  He was a member of the Wesleyan University class of 1834, although he didn’t graduate with his class, perhaps due to illness.   The collection contains some notes from his time at Wesleyan and correspondence.  The subject of this excerpt,  … Read more

Nineteenth Century Photographs: Cased Images Collection

SC&A is on a roll.  We have another collection ready for your use: Cased Images Collection, 1849-1860.  What are cased images? Those are the nineteenth century photographs presented in protective, often decorative, enclosures. The cases were often small—about 3.25” by 3.75”—and could be larger. This collection includes daguerreotypes and an ambrotype. Not everyone is familiar … Read more

Nineteenth Century Photos

SC&A likes to give you a heads up when there’s a collection that’s ready for use. We have a good one for you—a collection of 19th century photographs. The Joseph W. Reed and George Creeger Collection of Human Likenesses, 1840-1900, is just about ready for you to use. English Department faculty members Joe Reed and … Read more

Shelf Prep I

This class album needs protection!

Through our work at Special Collections & Archives, we student workers have become sensitive to the cause of preserving historical objects.  All of us handle fragile objects nearly every shift, and through handling these objects we see firsthand the effects of afflictions such as “red rot” (where the leather binding of a book begins to rot and leave chestnut smudges everywhere), which can damage our collection and undermine our work.

These volumes will be safe from harm as long as we continue to treat them well

Our library already has a department that specializes in restoring damaged books, namely the Preservation department.  At Special Collections & Archives however, we focus on enclosing and protecting books in their current state.  Each year, a small team of student workers attempts to protect as many objects as possible.  This past year, three seniors—Anna Katten ’11, Jessica Levin ’11, and myself, Julius Berman ’11—have been charged with this task.

We call ourselves “Shelf Prep” and we take our work very seriously.  After the jump, follow me down the hidden spiral staircase into the basement workroom where I will show you how this important Special Collections work gets done.

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Teen Idols: from James Dean to…The Seventh Regiment of the New York State Militia?

This week I have been working on processing the scrapbook of Stephen Henry Olin, an influential figure in Wesleyan’s history (most commonly known as the son of President Stephen Olin of Olin Library fame). The scrapbook does not detail Olin’s many life accomplishments, however, but instead reveals the fancies of a thirteen year old boy … Read more

How graham crackers shaped Wesleyan student culture: 1839-2010

Though Wesleyan has outgrown many of its former “hippy” associations such as being the token “naked” campus, the school still definitely maintains an earthy and involved atmosphere that manifests itself everywhere from its activist groups to the vegan food scene. Outsiders and Wesleyan students alike often see the school’s personality as a remnant of the … Read more

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