Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
I like to think that most people have some experience with journals-whether its the two-sentences a day that your third grade teacher forced out of you, or that tome that you’ve been adding to faithfully since high school. For me, journaling was never a huge interest– instead I kept notebooks of lists; things to buy, … Read more
I have recently completed processing the diary of James Oliver Longstreet, a Wesleyan alumnus from the class of 1857. The diary is a colorful historical document, providing a rare glimpse into the daily life of a Methodist college student in the middle of the 19th century. It provides insight into the political and social activities … Read more
In 1939, the Wesleyan Alumni Council started collecting alumni memories, which included those of Wesleyan professors, pranks, the burning of North College in 1906, and the arrival of women in 1872. This collection, the Alumni Council Collection of Recollections, has been a pleasure to read. Because of the nature of these anecdotes, in this post … Read more
The Godfrey Library in Middletown, CT, a rich center for genealogical history, recently announced that it has made three major resources on Middletown and Middlesex County history available digitally from its website. The three volumes’ titles and descriptions, from the Godfrey’s website: Statistical Account of the County of Middlesex, in Connecticut, by David Dudley Field … Read more
The following post was written by our intern Annie Benefiel, a library science student in the Simmons College library program. As one of the earliest “town and gown” organizations at Wesleyan, the Middletown Scientific Association explored popular scientific topics from 1871 to 1968. Its membership was comprised of Wesleyan University faculty members as well as … Read more
In the archives, there is a fascinating collection of examinations from 1868 to 1970. While going through this collection, I had to do some research on the curriculum during that time to see how these exams fit into the history of the development of academics at Wesleyan. In the mid- to late- 19th century, the … Read more
Steven St. Onge, a Quinnipiac University student and history major, is working in Special Collections & Archives this summer, describing some of our 19th century diaries. His discoveries have been fascinating, and I asked him to share some of his findings: After a month of deciphering handwriting from the 1800s, I’ve finally produced two finding … Read more
In the 19th century, many students at Wesleyan made class albums. These were like yearbooks, but entirely comprised of photographs. Each student would choose the images of classmates, faculty, campus buildings, and Middletown scenes of their liking. This image of the class of 1886 is only one image of thousands in our over 150 album … Read more
