Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
Valerie Gillispie 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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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, … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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, … Read more
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 & … Read more
Technological problems can happen even with non-digital media. Enjoy!
The Science Library now has brand new compact shelving to hold periodicals, books, and archival materials. With the growth of our collections, we’ve been scrambling for space for years, so the new shelving is much appreciated! As always, the archival material is in an enclosed area off limit to patrons, but just as before, any … Read more
