Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
This week, a patron requested to see the SC&A copy of Krazy Kat by George Herriman with an introduction by the avant-garde poet E. E. Cummings (New York: H. Holt and Company, 1946). For the uninitiated, Krazy Kat was a bizarre, existential comic strip that involved a clueless cat (the title character); Ignatz Mouse, whose … Read more
As I was reviewing a box of presidential papers, I came across several folders of documents from 1956 and 1957 relating to the possibility of creating a “separate coordinate liberal arts college for women offering opportunities for teacher training” on the site of the State of Connecticut-run Long Lane School on the southwestern edge of … Read more
Our pick of the week is this 1803 insurance contract covering the schooner Resolution. A patron was interested in Benjamin Williams, then-president of the Middletown Insurance Co. At the time this document was signed, Middletown had a thriving seaport—it was one of the largest ports on the east coast—although in just a few decades, due … Read more
An inquirer emailed this week looking for information about her great grand-uncle, Ralph Lockwood Crandell ’12. We discovered he was quite active in campus clubs and groups, including the Corpse and Coffin Society. Our pick of the week is the photograph above, which appeared in the 1912 Olla Podrida.
