Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
For the past semester I have been slowly working my way through Special Collections and Archives’s collection of Sheila Tobias’s papers. The collection of Women’s Studies ephemera – newspaper articles, women’s conference programs, academic papers, and magazines, all filed and organized by author or theme by Tobias – fills twelve boxes. They operate as a … Read more
In early October 1931, Wesleyan University celebrated its centennial. The event was highly publicized, and was attended by the university’s student body of approximately 600 as well as by guests, alumni and parents. My most recent archival project has been to explore documents associated with the centennial celebration, the Wesleyan Centennial Collection. Contained in a … Read more
Recently I had the opportunity to explore some of the papers of the Wesleyan chapter of the American Association of University Professors. During the 1970’s and 80’s, the AAUP worked to unionize college and university faculty and professional librarians, and to coach them in collective bargaining with administrations. This collection is a fascinating one, tracing … Read more
Wesleyan’s Special Collections & Archives owns two Roman coins from the 1st century CE. The first of these coins, a silver denarius minted in 80 CE by Emperor Titus, is connected to the early history of printing. According to the Renaissance humanist Erasumus, an exemplar of this coin was given to the famous Venetian printer … Read more
As part of her internship at Special Collections & Archives, Simmons Graduate School of Library Science student Andrea Benefiel made digital finding aids for many of the materials in the Collection on Legal Change. We are very grateful for her work! Andrea wrote the following text about the collections and their research value: The Collection … Read more
While combing through clippings from the Middletown Press as part of a greater project of archiving their collection of photographs, negatives, and articles, I came across an article that stopped me in my tracks. Titled “Sgt. Dick Hawley Slays 44 Japs in Potato Hill Fight,” it was published in August, 1943. The article details local … Read more
Cataloging photographs can be frustrating. I’ve been working on the Middletown Press Project and one of my jobs is to sort the photographs that we received. Many of the photographs are impossible to date and the people and places impossible to name. The unidentifiable photographs are placed into one large box that sits on the … Read more
Special Collections & Archives will be open today, Friday, May 8 from 2pm to 5pm, and tomorrow, Saturday, May 9, from 1pm to 4pm. The extra Saturday hours are intended to help students complete their research in our department. We send our condolences to the family and friends of Johanna Justin-Jinich. Our campus mourns together.
Do you know where this window is at Wesleyan? Too often we are so caught up in our own lives and that we forget to look at the things around us. 115 years have passed since a certain Wesleyan student graduated but his generosity is still all around us to enjoy from one … Read more
