Pick of the week, Dec. 20: Party like it’s 1958!
This post features photographs from Wesleyan’s 1958 junior prom. Here’s wishing you all the best during this holiday season and a Happy New Year!
Leith Johnson
Pick of the week, Sept. 6: Happy 40th anniversary, CFA!
As you may be aware by now, the CFA is celebrating its 40th anniversary this academic year. We worked with Pamela Tatge, Andy Chatfield, and John Elmore to provide a wide range of images from the SC&A collections that will be used to mark the occasion. Forty will be displayed in an online exhibition, Celebrating … Read more
Pick of the week, Aug. 30: Digitizing Pictures of Middletown and Wesleyan
The following was written by archives intern Owen Thompson: As part of my ongoing internship in SC&A, I recently digitized and made available in WesScholar an unusual book for Wesleyan’s Adopt a Book program. The volume, Pictures of Middletown and Wesleyan, was adopted by library staff and friends in honor of former Assistant University Archivist … Read more
Pick of the week, Aug. 9: Prof. Woodrow Wilson, 1889
Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, taught history and political economy at Wesleyan from 1888 to 1890. This photograph shows the 1889-1890 Wesleyan faculty. Prof. Wilson is sitting in the front row, third from left, holding a top hat. Before Wesleyan, he taught at Bryn Mawr, where he felt “overworked, … Read more
Pick of the week, July 19: Last Supper redux?
We’re not exactly sure what’s going on in this unidentified photo from about the mid-1970s. We think it possibly could be a riff on a Last Supper motif, which wouldn’t be the only time Wesleyan students have done this. I’m a bit concerned about the gentleman with the bat. Maybe it relates to this painting, … Read more
Pick of the week, July 12: WESU, 1969
Here’s a nice shot of an unidentified DJ in the studios of radio station WESU in the fall of 1969. At that time, the station was located on the lower level of Clark Hall. Check out those 45s!
Pick of the week, July 5: Biographical Sketches and Interesting Anecdotes of Persons of Color…, 1837
I made a presentation to the summer Wesleyan Mellon Mays Fellows of a selection of resources related to their research interests. One item I showed was the book, Biographical Sketches and Interesting Anecdotes of Persons of Color. To Which is Added, a Selection of Pieces in Poetry. According to The Annual Report of the … Read more
Pick of the week, June 28: Civil rights leader John Lewis visits Wesleyan, 1998
Over the decades, hundreds of distinguished guest lecturers and visitors have shared their wisdom with Wesleyan. One of them was civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis, who came to campus in April 1998. Rep. Lewis began his career at the height of the civil rights movement in 1963, and among his numerous activities, … Read more
How to treat the freshmen, 1495
A colleague provided this link to a post found on the Ask the Past: Advice from Old Books blog: Statute Forbidding Any One to Annoy or Unduly Injure the Freshmen. Each and every one attached to this university is forbidden to offend with insult, torment, harass, drench with water or urine, throw on or defile with … Read more
Pick of the week, June 21: How to find out who lived in this old Middletown house
This week, I showed Sarah Croucher’s summer Field Methods in Archaeology (ARCP 373) class a selection of resources that help researchers discover who previously lived in various Middletown buildings and what the residents’ occupations were. One indispensable source is city directories, and SC&A has them for Middletown for the years 1868 through 1927. Here’s one … Read more