Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
Recently SC&A received an inquiry from Elizabeth Williams, a member of the Aqueduct Rowing Club in Rexford, NY. She was looking for the names of the Wesleyan 1878 crew team, a vintage photo of which had been the basis for her club’s logo of over 30 years. She had already done some research, finding a … Read more
Special Collections & Archives holds a rich collection of documents and photographs related to the Wesleyan’s first period of coeducation, 1872-1912, and it has been recently digitized and is fully available online. The Coeducation Collection finding aid has been updated to provide links to the digital files. You can also browse the collection. This is … Read more
Here is the Browning Society, 1873-1874. I do not know anything about this group other than that is what is written and typed on the back of the photograph. During the late 19th and into the 20th century, clubs and societies formed to study the work of Robert Browning. The Wesleyan Argus has several references … Read more
The new SC&A exhibition, “A Stellar Education: Astronomy at Wesleyan, 1831-1916,” is now open. It explores the study of astronomy at Wesleyan from the University’s founding in 1831 through the construction of Van Vleck Observatory in 1916, which celebrates its centennial this year. Items on display include atlases, textbooks, photographs, an original Henry Bacon Van … Read more
It’s been a crazy winter in Middletown (but, aren’t they all?)—seems like it was too warm and rainy and there was not much snow. Now it’s March, and spring is on its way—that is, if we get one this year—and my thoughts again turn to bicycling on the roads of Middletown and the surrounding towns. … Read more
Freshman beanies, a 1927 letter sweater, a 1970 “Strike” arm band, a 1985 Feminist House T-shirt, and more—this exhibition includes items of student apparel that were (or could have been) worn on a day-to-day basis, and those that were not are evocative of key social and academic aspects of student life. The show is on … Read more
Can you read the text on this page? Neither can I! But it’s one of many foreign-language Bibles in our Special Collections that I’ve had to catalog. Back in the early 19th century, the British Foreign and Bible Society was hard at work on its goal of translating the Bible into as many foreign languages … Read more
As part of my internship at SC&A I created finding aids for three collections. The most notable among these is the finding aid for a collection that I processed during my internship dealing with Wesleyan President James L. McConaughy, his wife Elizabeth, and son James Jr. The collection entitled, McConaughy Family Papers, details important aspects … Read more
Pictured above is the earliest known photograph of the Wesleyan campus, a view of South College taken in 1865. In front is what is believed to be part of the graduation ceremonies held 150 years ago for the Class of 1865. Our best wishes to the Class of 2015!
A Spatial History of Wesleyan University combines geographical and quantitative analysis with archival and oral history research to interpret the past in place. It is the product of the Spring 2015 course in Digital History at Wesleyan taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of History Amrys O. Williams, part of the university’s Digital and Computational Knowledge … Read more
