Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
The past few blog posts have identified some of the Middletown history resources available in Special Collections & Archives—general histories, theses and student papers, maps and directories. What about resources for social or intellectual history? Beyond the resources identified in prior Middletown on My Mind posts, there are a very large number of resources useful … Read more
Special Collections & Archives has good local history holdings and these are being heavily used by Wesleyan students this semester. Current Middletown streets and structures show much of the town’s architectural history—but what about features that are no longer there or obscured by recent growth? Where was the Beman Triangle located? When did the course … Read more
With Wesleyan classes, and others, using the Middletown-based resources in Special Collections & Archives, we’re using the opportunity to summarize some of most the frequently used resources. This blog takes a look at some of the student-prepared resources. Many recent student theses (Bachelors and Masters) and dissertations have been added to WesScholar by the authors. … Read more
Middletown is on a lot of students’ minds too—Considering the Campus (ARST 441), Exploring Middletown’s History (HIST 171) and Middletown Materials (ANTH 227) are looking at Middletown from different perspectives. Special Collections & Archives staff have shown these classes some resources that will be helpful to their work. We’d like to use the next few … Read more
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
My latest processing project is that of the Middletown Manuscript collection dating from 1668 to 1937. The collection is made up of a variety of documents from the Middletown area with no real common theme except for the location. The collection is not very big, but it is filled with some interesting documents, not only … Read more
The Godfrey Library in Middletown, CT, a rich center for genealogical history, recently announced that it has made three major resources on Middletown and Middlesex County history available digitally from its website. The three volumes’ titles and descriptions, from the Godfrey’s website: Statistical Account of the County of Middlesex, in Connecticut, by David Dudley Field … Read more
The following post was written by our intern Annie Benefiel, a library science student in the Simmons College library program. As one of the earliest “town and gown” organizations at Wesleyan, the Middletown Scientific Association explored popular scientific topics from 1871 to 1968. Its membership was comprised of Wesleyan University faculty members as well as … Read more
As we watch the many dangerous hurricanes striking the Caribbean, Gulf Coast, and southern Atlantic Coast of the U.S. in recent weeks, those of us in New England might feel lucky to be so far out of harm’s way. You might be surprised to learn that Wesleyan–and New England as a whole– faced a major … Read more
In March 1936, a severe flood struck Middletown. Especially hard hit were the low lying areas near the Connecticut River in Middletown’s North End. This is a photograph facing north with the river on the right-hand side. Wesleyan students, although safe on the high ground of the campus, helped with flood relief. Some worked with … Read more
