Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
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
My latest processing project is that of the Middletown Manuscript collection dating from 1668 to 1937. The collection is made up of a variety of documents from the Middletown area with no real common theme except for the location. The collection is not very big, but it is filled with some interesting documents, not only … Read more
Please join us for a celebration of writer William Manchester’s career on Thursday, February 5 at 7pm in the Smith Reading Room in Olin Library. The event, titled “William Manchester: Portrait of a Writer,” will kick off with a talk by Leith Johnson, Project Archivist, and Jenny Miglus, Archives Assistant. They will discuss Manchester’s life … 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
We started a new school year this week. The weather has been hot but the leaves are starting to turn, which always reminds me of research! Fall is the time when our senior thesis writers conduct most of their archival research, and we always have a number of other students who research Wesleyan and local … 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
Congratulations to the class of 2008! The upcoming weekend will be a celebration of our newest graduates, as well as a gathering time for alumni of all ages. There will be two WESeminars–presentations open to all students, alumni, parents, and visitors–related to Wesleyan University history. One is “A History of Wesleyan Presidents,” a look back … Read more
Wesleyan generally prides itself on its reputation for political activity. Recently, according to the November, 30th edition of the Argus, 50 student, faculty, and citizen protesters marched down to the Army recruitment office in Metro Square in protest of the war in Iraq. Forty years ago, the University was in similar circumstances during the Vietnam … Read more
