Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
This week, I showed Sarah Croucher’s summer Field Methods in Archaeology (ARCP 373) class a selection of resources that help researchers discover who previously lived in various Middletown buildings and what the residents’ occupations were. One indispensable source is city directories, and SC&A has them for Middletown for the years 1868 through 1927. Here’s one … Read more
A patron called and described a photograph that she had in her possession and wondered if it had something to do with Wesleyan. I asked her to email a digital copy, and I found the identical image in the 1914 Olla Podrida. Turns out what she owned was a photograph of the 1913 Wesleyan University … Read more
Wondering what to do before you graduate? Here’s what one student did, back in 1929… Paul S. McElroy graduated from Wesleyan in 1930, but the year before that, he spent time in Egypt, teaching English at the American University at Cairo. While there, he and some of the faculty members of the American University took … Read more
During Reunion/Commencement Weekend, my colleague, Music Librarian and World Music Archives Director Alec McLane, and I co-presented a WESeminar on events surrounding the last few days in April and the first few days in May 1970 at Wesleyan, which included rallies in support of the Black Panthers in New Haven, calls for a strike to … Read more
The Hall Laboratory of Chemistry is shown in the above photograph taken around the early 1930s. It was situated directly across from Olin Library on Church Street and the two buildings were designed by Henry Bacon (whose papers are held by SC&A), sharing architectural elements. Constructed from 1925 to 1927, it was demolished in late … Read more
This week, we just added a new artist’s book to our collection: HERetic: Joan of Arc, by Dorothy Simpson Krause (Marshfield Hills, Mass. : Viewpoint Editions, 2009). What’s an artist’s book, you say? One short definition, by scholar Stephen Bury, says that “Artists’ books are books or book-like objects over the final appearance of which … Read more
The World’s Fair: Being a Pictorial History of the Columbian Exposition…, published in 1893, provides a comprehensive description of the Fair and its host city, Chicago. Members of the Wesleyan community may be particularly interested in this chapter:
In the “Chemistry Dept. 1832-1968” vertical file, you’ll find this document. The caption reads: The chemistry lecture room in old Judd Hall. Prof. M.L. “Mose” Crosley was lecturing on the last day of classes prior to the final exam. The device at the right moved a huge roll of wrapping paper by means of the … Read more
An inquirer asked about Laban Clark’s journal from 1807. Clark kept a number of journals. Here you see the first page of journal “No. 17,” which starts on Christmas Day. You can find a full description of the Laban Clark Papers here. From 1801 to 1851, Laban Clark was engaged in the work of the … Read more
Long-time members of the Wesleyan community will remember Willie Kerr. He joined the university in 1959 as an assistant professor in the History Department and later served as assistant provost, provost, and secretary of the university. He retired in 1993 and died in 1999. At Professor Kerr’s February 26, 1999, memorial service, former President Colin … Read more
