Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
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
This post features photographs from Wesleyan’s 1958 junior prom. Here’s wishing you all the best during this holiday season and a Happy New Year!
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
New Student Arrival Day was today and I joined fellow SC&A staff members Rebecca McCallum (shown above) and Linda Hurteau to help out as part of the 12th annual WesHAUL. As Suzy Taraba points out, it shows that the requirement in my job description that I’m able lift 40-pound boxes doesn’t only apply to archival … Read more
I recently came across an interesting collection of the Great Hollow Wilderness School, a Wesleyan run summer wilderness program for disadvantaged youth. In the late 1960s, a 1,440 acre wildlife preserve on New Fairfield (almost on the New York-Connecticut border) was will to Wesleyan and in 1969, the Great Hollow Wilderness School was created. The … 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
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
Today is Spring Fling at Wesleyan, an annual event held after the end of regular classes. It appears to date back to 1975, when Brian Auger and the Oblivion Express and the John Payne Quartet played for crowds gathered on Foss Hill on a sunny day at the beginning of reading week. In the Argus … Read more
