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About Jean Cardinale

Jean Cardinale is the head of the UConn Libraries' Public Programming, Marketing & Communications efforts.

Happy Birthday to Ted and George…

Two men from UConn’s early history share March 2 as their birthday.  So we offer up best wishes to the memory of Theodore Sedgwick Gold, an unsung founder of the Storrs Agricultural School, and George W. Flint, second president of the school when it became Connecticut Agricultural College.

Theodore S. Gold

Theodore S. Gold

Gold, one of the first trustees of the school when it was established in 1881, was born on March 2, 1818 in Cornwall, Connecticut.  In 1845, he joined his father, Dr. Samuel Gold, in founding an agricultural school for boys, the Cream Hill School, in West Cornwall. Even before the school closed in 1869, Theodore was a champion for establishing a state agricultural school for boys, and, in his 50th anniversary history of Connecticut Agricultural College in 1931, Walter Stemmons wrote that “Gold was in a position, at least after 1866, to impress his educational ideas upon the Storrs brothers. The striking similarity in form and substance between the Cream Hill School and the Storrs Agricultural School is evidence which cannot be ignored.” As a member of the state school’s initial Board of Trustees, Gold headed a subcommittee charged with the new school’s organization. For many years he was secretary of the board, and in 1900, he wrote the first history of the college. A copy of that history is part of the Gold family papers in the University’s archives.

George W. Flint

George W. Flint

George Flint’s tenure with the college was much briefer than Gold’s, and a good deal more controversial. During his first year as president, Flint saw what had been Storrs Agricultural College since 1893, become Connecticut Agricultural College in 1899. But by then, he was at the center of a dispute that became known as the “War of the Rebellion.” Flint’s interest in classical education over agricultural, and his efforts to incorporate them into the curriculum of CAC brought him into direct conflict with members of the faculty. 

 The “war” was played out, in part, through letters-to-the-editor columns of newspapers in Connecticut New York, and Boston. Long-time faculty resigned, and, at the request of trustees, Flint resigned in 1901.

Spanish Women’s Magazines Digital Collection Available Online

An incredible collection of Spanish periodicals and newspapers from the Archives are now available online at http://hdl.handle.net/11134/20002:NewspapersSpain

In the early 1970s, the Archives acquired this rich collection from the famous bibliophile, Juan Perez de Guzman y Boza, the Duque de T’ Serclaes, which reflects the complex history of Spain through its periodical and newspapers during most of the 19th century.  Of great interest and research value is the wide selection of women magazines written by men to appeal to a female elite audience. The range of materials you can find in these literary and general interest magazines is limitless.  Full of things such as short historical stories, poems, good advice for both men and women about the proper behavior of ladies at any age, beautiful colored and engraved images with the latest news of Paris fashion, music sheets of polkas and other music specifically composed for the magazines, and patterns for needlework to name only a few. These magazines are an amazing window to understand the social dimensions of women in 19th century Spain.

Because of their significance to international researchers unable to travel to the University, the Dodd Research Center has been digitizing many of the titles in the collection.  Nine titles, including Correo de las damas o poliantea instructiva, curiosa y agradable de literatura, and ciencias y artes published in Cadiz, Spain have been digitized with 12 or more titles to  be completed.

C.A.C. President Resigns

Rufus W. Stimson, C.A.C. President Rufus Whitaker Stimson, hired in 1897 as professor of English and Literature, was appointed acting president of Connecticut Agricultural College on 5 October 1901.  Stimson, a graduate of Harvard University and the Yale Divinity School, was appointed president just over a year later.  Stimson utilized his noted eloquence to publicize the activities and programs of the young agricultural school as well as advocating an expansion of the courses offered and increasing enrollment.  Details of the accomplishments of Stimson’s tenure are available in Walter Stemmons’ Connecticut Agricultural College–A History, available in the University Archives.  “On February 20, 1908, Rufus Whitaker Stimson presented to the Board of Trustees his resignation as president, the resignation to take effect at the close of the college year.  President Stimson had been connected with the college for eleven years, four as professor and seven as acting president and president.” (Stemmons, p. 130-131)

Gay and Lesbian History

Flyer from Gay Pride Week, San Francisco, California, 1975

The Foster Gunnison Jr. Papers is one of the most significant collections of homophile and early gay liberation materials in the United States.  From 1963 to 1975, Foster Gunnison Jr. collected the records of the Eastern Conference of Homophile Organizations (ECHO), an early coalition of organizations seeking the creation of a national homophile organization. Gunnison also collected the records of gay and lesbian organizations throughout the United States. He founded his own organization, the Institute for Social Ethics (ISE), “a libertarian-oriented research facility and think tank for controversial social issues,” in the early 1960s.  In 1967 Gunnison authored the pamphlet, An Introduction to the Homophile Movement, which outlined the history, aims and objectives of the movement and profiles of organizations active in the movement.

The collection contains correspondence, fliers, and information from many of the most important gay and lesbian organizations of the time, including the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee, the Gay Activists Alliance, the Kalos Society, the Mattachine Society, ONE, and the Student Homophile League.

The finding aid for the collection is available at:https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/413

African American Music Film Series Presents “Devil Got My Woman: Blues at Newport 1966”

Imagine you’ve stumbled into a juke joint where the mentor of Robert Johnson and the idol of the Rolling Stones, Howlin’ Wolf, “dis” one another. Picture a place where Wolf taunts Bukka White and the spectral Skip James weaves his haunting Devil Got My Woman. It’s an archetypal blues “crossroads” where legends of the 1920s Delta and 1950s Chicago share the same musical space, suspended out of time in a super-real present, a non-specific “bluestime.”

The film captures the blues experience in its first and truest milieu, the 1966 Newport Folk Festival, one in which African-American men and women drink, dance, and share their troubles and triumphs.

Devil Got My Woman: Blues at Newport 1966
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
4:00 p.m.
Konover Auditorium

 

“Ramnapping” and the Battle of Connecticut and Rhode Island

One of the earliest athletic game films held in Archives & Special Collections is the 1934-1935 football battle between Connecticut State College and rival Rhode Island.  The 1935 Nutmeg reports that “the most thrilling and exciting week-end in Connecticut State College football history embraces the abduction of the Rhody Ram and the traditional battle between Connecticut  and Rhode Island.”  Unfortunately in 1935 the battle ended in a Connecticut defeat (Connecticut 0, Rhode Island 18).  In this footage the battle took place as much on the field as off.  The abducted Rhody Ram is paraded out onto the field for the Connecticut fans, while the marching band plays.  At the end of the game, Rhode Island fans tear down the goal posts and a fight breaks out. 

 View the film (run time 8 min. 52 sec.).

Edwin Way Teale Lecture Series presents “A Sense of Wonder”

A Sense of Wonder

As a scientist, a writer, an activist, and a woman, Rachel Carson has inspired generations. Through her scientific integrity and elegant prose she became one of the 20th centuries most prescient scientific authors. And as an individual she battled economic adversity, family tragedy and gender stereotyping. She also reminds us that we each have not only the ability to make a creative difference in this world-we also have the responsibility to do so.

This Thursday, February 4th the film “A Sense of Wonder“, a film about Rachel Carson, will be shown as part of the Edwin Way Teale Lecture Series.  Using many of Miss Carson’s own words, actress Kaiulani Lee embodies this extraordinary woman in a documentary-style film, which depicts Carson in the final years of her life.  Struggling with cancer, Carson recounts with both humor and anger the attacks by the chemical industry, the government, and the press as she focuses her limited energy to get her message to Congress and the American people.

A Sense of Wonder
Thursday, February 4, 2010
4:00pm
Konover Auditorium

Rachel Carson was born in Springdale, PA on May 27, 1907. She graduated from Pennsylvania College For Women (now Chatham College), worked several summers at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, then earned her masters in zoology from John Hopkins University. Carson worked for what was to become the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a writer and biologist for nearly 16 years. While there she published her first two books, Under the Sea Wind, and The Sea Around Us. The latter became a best seller, winning her numerous literary award. Her next book, The Edge of The Sea, completed her sea trilogy.

In 1962 came Carson’s seminal work, Silent Spring, which alerted the world to the dangers of chemical pesticides and launched our modern environmental movement. Controversy swirled around the book as the chemical industry tried to suppress publication with a lawsuit. In 1963 Miss Carson testified before Congress, speaking out in an effort to protect human health and the environment from the cascade of poisons unleashed by the chemical industry. On April 14, 1964, Carson died from breast cancer.

But her legacy lives on. She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the U. S. government can award a civilian. Her determined labors led directly to the passage of such important laws as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. These laws remain the pillars of U.S. environmental law today.

But Some of Us are Brave: Black Feminist Writings, 1970-1999

But Some of Us Are Brave:  30 Years of Black Feminist Writing

All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave

The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center announces a new display in the McDonald Reading Room highlighting Black feminist publications written between 1970 and 1999 from the Alternative Press Collection at the Dodd Center. The exhibit includes books by Barbara Smith, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, Patricia J. Williams, Alice Walker, Gloria T. Hull, and Patricia Hill Collins, as well as pamphlets from the Combahee River Collective, and multi-racial feminist newspapers, including off our backs, RAT, and Sojourner.

The display will run through the month of February.  The reading room at the Dodd Research Center is open Monday-Friday from 10 AM- 4 PM.

More information on the Alternative Press Collection is available at https://lib.uconn.edu/location/asc/collections/alternative-press/

A Most Generous Gift

At the Farmer’s Convention that was held between the 15th and 17th of December 1880, Charles and Augustus Storrs announced their intention of offering property and funds to the State of Connecticut for the establishment of an agricultural school for boys. The property in question was located in the rural, eastern portion of the state and included about 160 acres of land, farm buildings and a residence that had originally housed the Connecticut Soldiers’  Orphans’ Home, constructed in 1866 by Edwin Whitney.  The original Deed to the property was not clear and necessitated further legalities over the next several years but within the year, the State of Connecticut accepted the gift and the Storrs Agricultural School was established.

Duplicate of Storrs Deed, 1887

Storrs, Deed, p. 2

‘Tis the Season… for Ice Skating!

To tide you over for the next few winter weeks while the Dodd Research Center is closed for the winter break, we’d like to highlight a sampling of books from the Stephenson Collection of books on ice skating.  The collection includes everything from novels to how-to manuals.

Hand-in-Hand Figure Skating by N. G. Thompson and F. L. Cannan, published in 1896, gives an overview of different hand holding positions while skating, including face to face, the link, side by side, and the echelon, all with illustrations.

Figure Skating for Women, by James A. Cruikshank, was published in 1921.

“It is not extravagant praise of figure skating to say that it is probably the finest sport available to the majority of American women.”  — James A. Cruikshank, page 9.

And finally, Ice Rink Skating, by T. D. Richardson, from 1938.

We wish you a happy and peaceful holiday season.

Archives Contributes to City University of New York 2010 Calendar

The Dodd Research Center was among more than 100 public colleges and universities in all 50 states that contributed to the 2010 City University of New York’s (CUNY) calendar, website and curriculum project by sharing historic images and milestones from their own past.

Entitled, “Investing in Futures: Public Higher Education in America,” the 2010 calendar project is the sixth such collaboration bringing together CUNY, the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives and The New York Times Knowledge Network, with support provided by founding sponsors JPMorgan Chase and TIAA-CREF.

War Effort on Campus, from the University of Connecticut Archives

The calendar will have two photographs from the Archives, one that will appear on the page that highlights the efforts on college campuses during World War II and another they have labeled “milestones”, which will include our own Huskies women’s basketball team at the final game of the N.C.A.A. tournament.

The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, which produced the calendar, is housed at CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College in Queens, New York.

The story of Rosa Parks as told in children’s literature

Dec. 1, 2009, marks the 54th anniversary of the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to make room for a white passenger. Many depictions of Parks show her as elderly, or frail, when in fact she was 42 years old and “tired of giving in.” Her subsequent arrest led to the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, during which African-Americans and some whites walked to work, school, church, and everywhere else they needed to go. City buses ran nearly empty for a total of 382 days before the Supreme Court’s ban of Jim Crow laws made segregation illegal in December 1956. Some of the greatest names in the civil rights movement such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were involved in the boycott.

From Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney

The illustration pictured here is by Brian Pinkney for the 2008 work Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation, written in rhythmic text by Andrea Davis Pinkney and published by Greenwillow Books. Other recent works for children in the Dodd Research Center’s holdings include Nikki Giovanni’s Rosa, illustrated by Bryan Collier and published by Henry Holt in 2005, and The Bus Ride that Changed History: the Story of Rosa Parks, by Pamela Duncan Edwards, illustrated by Danny Shanahan and published by Houghton Mifflin in 2005.