Archives

Arthur T. Vanderbilt Papers

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As part of Andrea Benefiel’s work on the Collection on Legal Change (CLC) earlier this year, she created an online finding aid for the Arthur T. Vanderbilt Political, Profession, and Judicial Papers. The papers document the illustrious career of Vanderbilt, a Wesleyan alumnus from the class of 1910. Vanderbilt had a long career in private … Read more

Wesleyan University Young Men’s Republican Club constitution and minutes

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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

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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

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

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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

A Human History of the Shanklin Laboratory Renovations, 1967-1978

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I have just finished processing a collection of papers, the Shanklin Laboratory Renovation Records, detailing the various proposals to renovate Wesleyan’s Shanklin Laboratory in the 1960s and 1970s. I repeat, proposals, not actual construction-based papers. This subtlety in the nature of the collection is what interested me the most; though there are plenty of blueprints, … Read more

The Diary of James Oliver Longstreet, class of 1857

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I have recently completed processing the diary of James Oliver Longstreet, a Wesleyan alumnus from the class of 1857. The diary is a colorful historical document, providing a rare glimpse into the daily life of a Methodist college student in the middle of the 19th century. It provides insight into the political and social activities … Read more

Music Department Records

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The following post was written by Doreen Mangels, a graduate student in the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. This semester Doreen was an intern in Special Collections & Archives. We are grateful for her excellent work! I recently finished processing two series in the Music Department Records collection.  The first series includes … Read more

“A Brief Outline of My Early History,” J.C. Penney

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I recently have been going through press clippings from the Middletown Press. The press clippings are just one part of a larger collection of photographs, negatives, and articles from the Middletown Press that myself and two others are going through and filing. Today, I couldn’t help but stop when I came across an envelope marked … Read more