“The Ultimate Sacrifice” Memorial

The UConn Archives has been a part of the efforts to honor UConn alumni who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. “The Ultimate Sacrifice” Memorial was dedicated on November 10, 2008 at a moving ceremony on the Great Lawn, where faculty, staff, alumni and families of our veterans gathered to reflect on the lives lost.

As part of the project, University Archivist Betsy Pittman works with the Alumni Association to document the “Roll of Honor”, a comprehensive listing members of the UConn community who lost their lives while serving in the armed forces. For more information on the honor roll, contact Betsy Pittman at betsy.pittman@uconn.edu

Claudia Rueda, Lesley University

On June 18, 2009, Claudia Rueda will present the results of her research in the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection. Ms. Rueda is the second recipient of a Billie M. Levy Travel/Research Grant for 2009 and will give a presentation entitled “How Picturebooks work: the dynamics between visual and verbal narratives in modern picturebooks.”  A native of Colombia, Ms. Rueda is the author and illustrator of nine picture books and has illustrated five others. After attending law school and art school in Colombia, she moved to the U.S. in 1997 to study illustration at the University of California at Berkeley.  Ms. Rueda has won multiple awards for her work and is currently in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Lesley University. Ms. Rueda will talk about the development of the dynamics between words and images in traditional picture books and how the interaction in modern works can generate new meanings and interpretations to involve the reader’s imagination.

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of D Day, the Allied Invasion of Normandy and we will use the opportunity to talk about the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at UConn.  Based out of the School of Engineering, the U.S. Army’s ASTP program was implemented in early 1944 due to the impending invasion. The goal of the program was to increase the number of army trained engineers across the country. More than 1,500 soldiers were stationed at UConn. The Kodachrome exhibit on display has several images of the training these soldiers received while on campus.

Marching soilders, 1944

According to Carl Brandt, the post World War II era was a great time for UConn’s football program.  Many of these “mature males” played teams that seemed to be made up of “kids” just out of High School.  The score below is an indication of one such game.  Mr. Brandt recalls another score of something like 105 to 0, but doesn’t have an official photo of it.

And it was a time when women played football, as you can see in this rare color photograph from the collection.

Ladies football, circa 1948

"Farm Femmes" (Women's Land Army Participants) in the creamery, 1942

The University of Connecticut’s history is rooted in the traditions of agriculture.  This was still a prevalent field in the 1940’s and 1950’s.  In our latest tribute to alumni weekend this June 5th & 6th, we are sharing two of the many wonderful photos taken by Jerauld Manter that show how enjoyable a glass of fresh milk can truly be.  

Milford Labor Camp, 1942

The second of our two exhibits focuses on the history of UConn through Kodachrome Film.  The innovation of Kodachrome in 1935 gave photographers the ability to capture the world around us in living color. 

Archery, 1951

It is likely that Jerauld Manter, faculty member and unofficial college photographer, took the color photographs in this exhibit in and around the University of Connecticut between 1939 and 1959. The prints on display were made from his original Kodachrome 35mm color slides and reflect the remarkable stability of this film over time.

Marching band, 1942

Manter’s photogarphs capture a period of significant growth in UConn’s history, beginning with its establishment as the multi-campus University of Connecticut in 1939. The next two decades saw the development of the Hartford, Stamford, Torrington and Waterbury regional campuses and the Schools of Law, Nursing and Social Work. The student body expanded by 300% after World War II, growing from 1,265 in 1939 to 9,761 in 1959.

As we promised, we will continue to highlight some of the great images on display in the Dodd Center from the Carl Brandt Collection.

Aviation Club Members, circa 1947

Carl Brandt joined the Aviation Club as photographer and took numerous photos for use in the school newspaper.  His pilots were usually World War ll vets who had flown bomber or fighter aircraft over Germany.

“Several of us would rent aircraft early on a Sunday mornings — and then fly for about half an hour to another airport that had a restaurant.  After a good breakfast, we would fly back to the original airport. ”

Next weekend is UConn’s Alumni Weekend and we are celebrating with two very special exhibits that we will highlight all next week right here on our blog.

Athletic Event, circa 1948

Photographs from university activities and events are a significant portion of our collections, as is true with many archives in higher education institutions.  They are incredibly important in documenting life on campus.  But all too often the images are a result of staff photographers employed to take official pictures.  We often see a different idea of what was important when students are taking the images.  

The exhibit “Something Important Happened Today: Student Photography on Campus” is a special exhibit for us, as it is from the photograph collection of Carl Brandt, Class of 1949. While on campus in the late 1940s — a period of remarkable change on the Storrs campus — Brandt took thousands of photographs and this exhibit presents a selection of Dr. Brandt’s images, complemented by his memories.

A View of South Campus, circa 1947

On Monday, May 4, 2009, at 2:30pm Ms. Thea Guidone will present the results of her research in the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection housed at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.  A recipient of the James Marshall Fellowship, Ms. Guidone is a children’s writer who lives in Hamden. At the University of Connecticut, she studied Children’s Literature with Francelia Butler, and Creative Writing with Matthew Proser, Elaine Scarry and Feenie Ziner. She earned her master’s degree at Yale University.  An active member of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Ms. Guidone won Connecticut’s 2006 Tassy Walden Award for New Voices in Children’s Literature and is the author of Drum City (Tricycle Press, May 2010). She is at work on a middle grade novel set in New Haven in 1925.

Ms. Guidone will discuss subtext in schoolbooks and novels for girls, circa 1920’s, that informed and reinforced attitudes about wealth, privilege and class.  The presentation will take place in the Dodd Research Center’s conference room 162 and is free and open to the public.