A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
Wesleyan’s Special Collections & Archives owns two Roman coins from the 1st century CE. The first of these coins, a silver denarius minted in 80 CE by Emperor Titus, is connected to the early history of printing. According to the Renaissance humanist Erasumus, an exemplar of this coin was given to the famous Venetian printer … Read more
Though Wesleyan has outgrown many of its former “hippy” associations such as being the token “naked” campus, the school still definitely maintains an earthy and involved atmosphere that manifests itself everywhere from its activist groups to the vegan food scene. Outsiders and Wesleyan students alike often see the school’s personality as a remnant of the … Read more
While processing the diary of James Oliver Longstreet (class of 1857) last semester, I came across mention of the Wesleyan Young Men’s Republican Club in the context of the presidential election of 1856. After seeing my interest in the political lives of Wesleyan students in the 1850’s, Valerie Gillispie here at Special Collections and Archives … Read more
On Friday, January 15, I had the honor of interviewing former Wesleyan president, Douglas J. Bennet, Jr. I had spent the spring and summer of 2009 arranging and describing his professional papers which are now open for research in SC&A. As a processing archivist I am privileged to spend many weeks working with the materials … Read more
Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Wesleyan Library, Samantha Klein recently completed a cataloging project for a collection of Arthuriana here in Special Collections & Archives. Samantha wrote the following text about the collection and the project: Members of the Wesleyan community interested in King Arthur and his knights have a unique … Read more
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
As part of her internship at Special Collections & Archives, Simmons Graduate School of Library Science student Andrea Benefiel made digital finding aids for many of the materials in the Collection on Legal Change. We are very grateful for her work! Andrea wrote the following text about the collections and their research value: The Collection … 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
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
While combing through clippings from the Middletown Press as part of a greater project of archiving their collection of photographs, negatives, and articles, I came across an article that stopped me in my tracks. Titled “Sgt. Dick Hawley Slays 44 Japs in Potato Hill Fight,” it was published in August, 1943. The article details local … Read more
