Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
As I was refiling some photographs, I came across this stereograph taken of Memorial Chapel in 1893. I’m afraid I don’t know what the event is. These cards are also called a steropticans, stereograms, or stereo views. When you look at them through a stereograph viewer (shown below), the two images merge into one 3-D … Read more
If you follow our picks of the week, you may remember a very similar image to the one above from a pick made last September. At the time, I didn’t know if or how the photograph was used, but as you can see, a slightly different shot was featured on the cover of the February … Read more
The Great Blizzard of 1888 is legendary throughout New England, and it remains the benchmark by which all subsequent storms have been measured, including the one that will probably be known as the Blizzard of 2013. Paralyzing the East Coast from the Canadian Maritime Provinces to the Chesapeake Bay from March 11 to 14, the … Read more
In the SC&A vertical files, there is a nice selection of images of Van Vleck Obersvatory, one of which I came across this week. It’s undated, but judging from the landscape, I would estimate that the photograph was taken sometime in the 1920s or ’30s. That’s the iconic Douglas Canon in the foreground. You can … Read more
I was looking through pictures of College Row during the 1960s in response to a research inquiry and came across this print. It’s from the University Photographers Collection and was shot in October 1966—two years before Wesleyan returned to coeducation. The individuals in the photo are not identified. I don’t know what this photo was … Read more
I have just finished processing a collection of papers, the Shanklin Laboratory Renovation Records, detailing the various proposals to renovate Wesleyan’s Shanklin Laboratory in the 1960s and 1970s. I repeat, proposals, not actual construction-based papers. This subtlety in the nature of the collection is what interested me the most; though there are plenty of blueprints, … Read more
As we watch the many dangerous hurricanes striking the Caribbean, Gulf Coast, and southern Atlantic Coast of the U.S. in recent weeks, those of us in New England might feel lucky to be so far out of harm’s way. You might be surprised to learn that Wesleyan–and New England as a whole– faced a major … Read more
This is a collection containing documents from the planning and construction of what is now Exley Science Center, between 1963 and 1971. This collection is about Phase II of the Science Center. Phase I was the construction of Hall-Atwater Laboratory, which was completed in 1967, preceding the rest of the center. In the mid 1960s, … Read more
Do you know where this window is at Wesleyan? Too often we are so caught up in our own lives and that we forget to look at the things around us. 115 years have passed since a certain Wesleyan student graduated but his generosity is still all around us to enjoy from one … 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
