Special Collections & Archives

Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University has created this delightful guide to copyright–and challenges the fairness of recent changes to copyright laws.

We are testing an online repository for the theses and dissertations of Wesleyan students. You can browse the uploaded theses here. Why are we putting these online?

-Students’ work will be available around the world 24/7, not only at Wesleyan. Currently, paper copies of honors theses are only available in Special Collections & Archives during reading room hours.

-It will allow Wesleyan’s great scholarship to be distributed more widely. We already know that Wesleyan students do amazing research in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences and math. Let’s show the rest of the world, too!

-Students will easily be able to show their theses to future employers, graduate schools, etc. Online theses make it so easy to demonstrate the work done at Wesleyan.

As of now, it appears the project will go forward and become an additional way that theses and dissertations will be submitted. It’s an exciting time to be here!

Today is Spring Fling at Wesleyan, an annual event held after the end of regular classes. It appears to date back to 1975, when Brian Auger and the Oblivion Express and the John Payne Quartet played for crowds gathered on Foss Hill on a sunny day at the beginning of reading week. In the Argus on May 14, 1975, Mark Ellison wrote:

The experience of Monday afternoon’s concert on Foss Hill bears repeating at future dates. The music was of respectable quality, yet the source of the good time did not come from the stage. It emanated from the crowd itself, focussing on the absoluted contentedness of all those who lounged out on the Hill, taking advantage of the Sun King and music to partake in a lazy party like atmosphere with their friends.

Since at least 1977 this day of fun and sun has been called Spring Fling. Happy 30th birthday, Spring Fling!

Why do we love the pencil so much in Special Collections?

Well, what’s not to love? It is easy to find, inexpensive, waterproof, and best of all,

it has a handy-dandy eraser. It’s the eraser that makes pencils our writing instrument of choice in Special Collections & Archives. Although we know our users are careful, mistakes can happen and an errant pencil marking is easily erased. A pen? Not so much.

Next time you visit, leave your pens at home and get ready to research!

photo source

Wesleyan has a terrific tradition of student activism and participation in campus groups. In Special Collections & Archives, we want to collect materials that document student activities so that future researchers can find out what Wesleyan was like back in 2007 (and 2006, 2005, etc.)! The only way for us to gather this material is for student groups to let us know they have items to donate. Contact us at any time for information, supplies (like boxes and folders), and advice. We will keep your materials safe and make sure your events and accomplishments are not forgotten.

Here are ten quick tips for leaders of student groups:

1. Document the activities of your group: keep minutes of meetings, save copies of publications and flyers.

2. Label your materials with full names, dates, and descriptions of events or circumstances.

3. Keep your records together in one central place.

4. Develop a straightforward filing system that works for you. There’s no one best way to do this.

5. Store your records away from dampness, dust, excessive heat, and sun.

6. Avoid using paper clips and rubber bands. If you have documents that need to be kept together, use stainless steel staples or plastic clips.

7. Develop a routine of transferring inactive records to the University Archives at the end of the semester, year, or leader’s term of office.

8. Consider the fate of your non-paper documents. Electronic records can pose software and hardware access problems. Save cds, memorabilia, photographs, posters, and tapes, as well as traditional paper documents.

9. Get to know the staff of the Wesleyan University Archives: Suzy Taraba, University Archivist (x3375); Valerie Gillispie, Assistant University Archivist (x3863); and Linda Hurteau, Archives Assistant (x3859).

10. WHEN IN DOUBT, DON’T THROW IT OUT!

Imagine the honors thesis that could be written with these primary sources! Good luck to those students finishing theses and dissertations this spring.

Denny’s Comment-Card Archive Offers Glimpse Into Decades Of Poor, Fair, And Excellent Service

We now have an online finding aid for our collection of Nineteenth Century Administrative Records. A finding aid is like a super detailed catalog record, which gives you a description of the types of materials found in the collection, and a box by box description of where items can be found. Finding aids are a great help for researchers, since they can pinpoint exactly the items they need, rather than going through each document.

The Nineteenth Century Administrative Records includes the original charter of Wesleyan University, financial information about tuition and donors, student records (including who received demerits!) and even fun stuff like lists of “materials” and “apparatus” belonging to the Wesleyan University Laboratory. It’s fascinating to find out what Wesleyan was like over a hundred years ago by using archival collections like this one.

In addition to collecting materials about Wesleyan, we also have a good amount of Middletown, Connecticut items. These include books, maps, personal papers, photographs, and scrapbooks. Our most recent scrapbook accession were the Marion Vaine scrapbooks. Marion Vaine was a longtime Middletown resident and Wesleyan employee, and through the sharp eyes of a local resident, her scrapbooks were discovered at a church rummage sale and donated to Wesleyan.

The scrapbooks have concert and play programs, travel souveniers, greeting cards, newspaper clippings, and other materials that help document the live of a Middletown woman from the 1920s to the 1960s. This photo shows a clipping from one of the scrapbooks, detailing the winners of a dress making competition at a local store.

These scrapbooks aren’t fancy, but they are a great way to learn about our community. We encourage students and others to consult us about our Middletown resources–there’s a lot to discover!

On this President’s Day weekend, we remember the architect Henry Bacon, who designed the Lincoln Memorial as well as Olin Library and Van Vleck Observatory, among other buildings on Wesleyan’s campus. Bacon worked with the Board of Trustees in the early 20th century to create a building development plan for Wesleyan’s future.

Special Collections & Archives has a collection of Henry Bacon Papers, including a splendid collection of photographs taken during the construction of the Lincoln Memorial. The photo below shows sculpter Daniel Chester French and a work crew as the statue of Lincoln was assembled.

Technological problems can happen even with non-digital media. Enjoy!