UConn Library
Archives and Special Collections Blog
Congratulations, Dr. Nel, on an exceptional work of scholarship.
Philip Nel, Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss (Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2012). ISBN 978-1-61703-624-8. EBook 978-1-61703-625-5.
–Terri J. Goldich, Curator, Northeast Children’s Literature Collection
The James Slater Papers are ripe for any interested researcher, whether the topic is scientific, entomological, or historical. Here we have a fascinating man’s life, observations, and accomplishments awaiting study and reference. James Slater was a remarkable person, and his papers, dating from the early 1930’s to 2004, prove it.
Slater’s chosen career at UConn was as a professor of entomology, but entomological study was not enough for him. There was another field that also caught his interest—the study of gravestones of the American Colonial period, and their carvers. He visited even the most neglected graveyards in Connecticut, carefully recording his discoveries of particular carvers, and published a book on the subject. The sheer amount of writing required for his scientific and historical work would be more than enough for most people, but not for Slater. Even while he was carefully recording data and writing on bugs and gravestone carvers, he recorded the daily events of his own life in a long-running daily diary. A look at all these things in the James Slater Papers offers us a glimpse of his scientific career, his historical avocation, and his inner thoughts.
The scientific, professional part of Slater’s life is the most prominent in the collection, with scientific subjects occupying much of the correspondence. It is here that Slater’s career is laid out in detail, and we can see how devoted and interested he was in his field. He frequently corresponded with other entomologists as far away as Russia, Germany, Australia, and South Africa, often assisting others in the study of true bugs (hemiptera) of the family lygaeidae, while gathering his own research through field work and specimen collections. We can see the product of this research in the large number of printed publications, detailing the discovery of new species of bugs, including Atrazonotus umbrosus, pictured here.
Atrazonotus umbrosus
Slater’s gravestone research and personal diaries are somewhat secondary in number to the extensive amount of entomological research, but they do not dwindle in importance or interest, and are far from sparse. The diary is composed of 61 volumes of its own, while the gravestone research is monumental enough to be distributed across several boxes. As a result of his long research into gravestones, Slater wrote a detailed book, The Colonial Gravestones of Eastern Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them.
Several iterations of the manuscript of this book, along with Slater’s detailed notes and correspondence on gravestones, can be found in the collection. The manuscripts and galley proofs provide photographs of all the stones that Slater describes. The large number of carefully organized drafts and research notes illustrate the careful, accurate research that Slater put into this project in his meticulous analysis of the work of early American carvers such as Jotham Warren, Obadiah Wheeler, and many others.
Excerpt of James Slater diary entry for August 8, 1945
James Slater approached this avocation with a professional interest, working with as much care as he devoted to the study of the bugs of his professional career. The same can be said for his diary. The 61 volumes present an almost uninterrupted account of his daily inner thoughts and observations from the years 1937 to 2004. It is here we can learn about his life in the days before his entomological career, and before his study of gravestones, of his time in the Navy in World War II, his thoughts on the war itself, its beginning in Europe and then the United States, and his horror at the news of the atomic bomb, pictured here in his entry for August 8, 1945.
The sheer extent of the time covered by the diaries provides us with both these descriptions of important historical events, while also illustrating the progress of this one remarkable, multifaceted, prolific man, from youth into old age. Through its extensive amount of documents, and such a wide range of topics, such a collection as this cannot be consigned to obscurity, but will surely remain an important resource to researchers from many different disciplines for many years to come.
– Daniel Allie, student employee
“The 12:25 to Waterbury.” Engine 1338 of the New Haven Railroad in Newington, Connecticut, on July 10, 1946. Photograph by Seth P. Holcombe.
Seth P. Holcombe loved steam trains, and as a youth who grew up near the railroad station in Hartford, Connecticut, he particularly admired those of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (better known as the New Haven Railroad), the predominant railroad in southern New England from 1872 to 1969. Mr. Holcombe was born in 1918 and lived his life in the Hartford area, graduating from Trinity College in 1941 and serving as registrar of the Morgan Horse Club (now known as the Connecticut Morgan Horse Association) as an adult. He was also an avid photographer and took numerous photographs of the trains he loved. His interest never wavered from the steam trains of the New Haven Railroad, so when the railroad switched to a diesel fleet in 1952 Mr. Holcombe’s interest in the railroad waned.
Seth Holcombe died in 2009 and his wife Lucy made a gracious gift of his photographs to the Railroad History Archive this year. The collection shows trains in and around Hartford, as well as other railroad lines across New England when Mr. Holcombe would travel on excursions. A finding aid to the collection is available at https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/908 and all are welcome to come to Archives & Special Collections to view this terrific set of photographs.
A recent addition to the Connecticut Soldiers Collection at the Dodd Center are the Raymond E. Hagedorn Papers. Chronicling the training and war service of Major Raymond E. Hagedorn of Manchester, Connecticut, the papers will be of great interest to scholars and the public at large. Describing in vivid detail his training prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and his service in the South Pacific, the Hagedorn Papers provide an invaluable account of America’s preparation for war and life in the Army. From Camp Blanding, Florida to Guadalcanal, and back to Manchester, the letters between Hagedorn and his family and friends provide one family’s perspective on the Second World War.
From the quality and quantity of the food, and his constant battle to stave off boredom, Hagedorn brings life in the army and the war to life. Through detailed descriptions of army victuals, island life, his health, and his wife Gertrude’s descriptions of life at home, the Hagedorn Papers illustrate the sacrifices made by Americans at home and abroad. Exposing the reality and quotidian nature of war, the Hagedorn Papers will be an invaluable source for anyone interested in daily life during World War Two. Providing often humorous details about the environments he encounters, including squawking birds, swarms of mosquitos, the variety of fruit available, and the activities of the native populations, Hagedorn’s letters confirm the military axiom that war is ninety-nine percent boredom and one percent sheer terror.
Cartoon Birthday Card, Jan. 1943. Raymond E. Hagedorn Papers
An officer in the Army’s 43rd Infantry Division, Hagedorn traveled from San Francisco to New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Guadalcanal between October 1942 and April 1943 before being diagnosed with low blood pressure and a nervous disorder. Focusing on his declining health, and the activities he engages in to stay busy, Hagedorn’s letters lose much of their early humor and by March 1943 take on a much more serious tone.
Evacuated to the United States in April 1943, Hagedorn describes life at military hospitals in and outside of the United States and the process of medical retirement from the Army, providing a wealth of information on an often overlooked aspect of war. Plagued by poor health, and the effects of the South Pacific’s tropical climate, Hagedorn’s letters present one soldier’s ongoing struggle to remain patriotic in the eyes of the army while also maintaining his health and well-being for his family.
Retired from active duty in May 1944 Hagedorn remained in the Connecticut National Guard following the war and was eventually promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. During the Korean War, Hagedorn served as an intelligence officer and aide to Connecticut’s Adjutant General. Briefly resuming his electrical business after the war, Hagedorn went on to become the plant engineer for the New Departure Division of General Motors in Meriden, Connecticut. Retiring in 1962 Raymond Hagedorn spent the rest of his life in Manchester, until passing away on September 21, 1985.
– James Brundage, Graduate Intern
Established in 2004, the Terrence Webster-Doyle Papers contain materials having to do with bullying prevention, conflict management, peace studies, emotional response, and how psychological conditioning prevents peace and creates conflict, individually and globally. Influenced by Jiddu Krishnamurti in 1968, Webster-Doyle began to teach classes at Sonoma State University in the search for understanding the cause, nature, and structure of conditioning. Webster-Doyle also studied the work of Dr. David Bohm, a physicist who studies the relationship between thought and reality; A. S. Neil, the founder of the Summerhill School, an intentional community in England; and Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World which explored the nature and effect of negative conditioning.
Webster-Doyle is a sixth Dan in Take-Nami-do karate, and utilizes his extensive martial arts experience as a focus for the exploration of the nature of conflict and its ramifications for the individual, schools, society and the world. With his wife Jean, they founded the Atrium Society and its subgroups, Martial Arts for Peace, Youth Peace Literacy Project, and Education for Peace (http://martialartsforpeace.com/index-2.html). His published works usually contain not only a main work but also guides for students, teachers, martial arts instructors, and parents, with worksheets, group and individual activities, with tools to chart progress in conflict resolution.
Webster-Doyle’s books, archives, and audiovisual materials are held by the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection. His books are also on permanent display at the International Museum of Peace and Solidarity in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the Commonwealth of Independent States and at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Japan.
–Terri J. Goldich, Curator, Northeast Children’s Literature Collection
On 12 December 1997, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 26 June the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, with a view to the total eradication of torture and the effective functioning of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Background, information and links are available from the UN website.
–Betsy Pittman, University Archivist
Who wouldn’t want to spend the first day of summer at the beach? Surely these telephone operators from Norwich were enjoying just that as this photograph, from the Southern New England Telephone Company records, from 1913, shows us. These ladies, dressed all in white down to their stockings and shoes, seem happy to be on such a pleasant outing that briefly took them from their switchboards for sun and sand.
Campus songs have been a tradition at American colleges and universities for over a century, and at one time the University of Connecticut had enough to fill its own songbook. Published in 1949, Songs of UConn featured about a dozen songs, and its highlight was the first publication of a new fight song written by Prof. Herbert France, head of the music department. The songbook introduction notes that “UConn has many songs, but there are three which you’ll find sung at all rallies and football games. These are the fight song, Connecticut Husky, better known by its first line ‘On the Rolling Hills Beneath the Blue”, the driving UConn Husky, and the nostalgic Alma Mater. By the end of the 1950s, only two songs would be known on campus. Today, while few will know the Alma Mater, the success of Connecticut basketball has made UConn Husky a nationally recognized tune. Connecticut Husky, a favorite for a little over two decades, has faded from memory. It was written at the request of a student by musician Fred Waring, who composed and premiered college songs on his popular NBC radio program in the late 1930s. You can hear an excerpt of the Waring premiere of Connecticut Husky here [http://advance.uconn.edu/1999/990405/waring1.mp3] and a recording of the full song here. [http://advance.uconn.edu/1999/990405/waring2.mp3]
–Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)
The University Archives is a rich resource of information about the activities, events, interests and programs of UConn’s faculty, students, staff since the establishment of the University in 1881. Here are some of the materials that have been recently added to the collections:
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Records
Documents, reports, studies and correspondence pertaining to the finances of the institution from 1999 to the present.
https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/728
Asian American Studies Institute Records
Materials associated with the “Day of Remembrance” program that were collected, produced and/or distributed by the Institute.
https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/218
Bruce Bellingham Papers
Notes, photocopies, transparencies, research, scores, correspondence and publications pertaining to Professor Bellingham’s scholarly research in the history of music.
https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/799
Carl W. Rettenmeyer Papers
Professional correspondence with the National Science Foundation, colleagues and both personal and professional trip notes, i.e. – some from leading groups on trips (Galapogos) and some regarding collecting field trips (Panama). (Inventory not yet available.)
https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/208
Richard D. Brown Papers
Documentation of the professional and administrative career of historian, Richard D. Brown. (Inventory not yet available.)
Cell Stress Society International Records
Publications, administrative records, legal and financial records, ephemera, posters, and correspondence documenting the establishment, management, development and growth of the Cell Stress Society International and its associated journal publication on the Storrs campus of the University of Connecticut from 1995 to the present under the direction of Lawrence Hightower and Helen Neumann. (Inventory not yet available.)
School of Nursing War Veteran Oral History Collection
Oral history video interviews with graduates of the UConn School of Nursing who are (or were) nurses in the military. (Inventory not yet available.)
Donald W. Cameron Papers
Bound manuscript written by UConn alum. https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/880
Eduard Mark Papers
Materials used by Mark (UConn alum) in his research as a historian of the Cold War era in U.S. history. A majority of the collection spans the years 1945-1960, with some materials falling before and after this timeline. The collection includes correspondence, notes, administrative records, transcripts, legal documents, manuscripts, photographs, clippings and books. These sources, which contain military and government correspondence, military reports, declassified documents and other materials, shed light on a myriad of topics relating to the Cold War, including military strategies and positioning, negotiations, intelligence and national security, territorial problems, military propaganda, international relations and European affairs. https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/836
Waterbury Campus Records
Administrative records, awards, clippings, ephemera, notes, and publications about the programs, activities and history of the Waterbury campus since its establishment in 1946. https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/7536
Collins-Levine Family Papers
Correspondence, school papers, memorabilia, photographs and ephemera associated with two generations of the Collins and Levine families who attended the University of Connecticut between 1922 and 1948. The materials in the collection are useful in providing a perspective of college life and experiences from the student’s point of view. https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/757
Albert F. Blakeslee Papers
The collection contains reprints of scholarly articles published by Albert F. Blakeslee. Also included are several journals with articles about Blakeslee, correspondence, calendars, travel diaries, as well as photographs and negatives associated with or documenting the career of noted scientist A. F. Blakeslee, professor at UConn 1907-1915. https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/871
University of Connecticut Educational Properties, Inc. Records
Administrative, financial and legal records pertaining to the development of property adjacent to the north side of campus for a Technology Park. Of particular note is the documentation of the communication and documention between the parties involved in the development of the Park, the range of programs and properties and the complexity of the overall project. (Inventory not yet available.)
Eric W. Carlson Papers
Notes, correspondence, reports, studies and similar materials pertaining to Dr. Carlson’s tenure as a professor of English at the University of Connecticut from 1942-1979. (Inventory not yet available.)
Greater Hartford Campus Records
Course syllabi and schedules of classes for the Greater Hartford campus of the University of Connecticut. (Inventory not yet available.)
–Betsy Pittman, University Archivist
This week is Preservation Week and the Library of Congress, and other libraries across the country, are hosting free webcasts and offering tips and tutorials.
In 2005 the first comprehensive national survey of the condition and preservation needs of the nation’s collections reported that archives, libraries, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions in the U.S. hold more than 4.8 billion items.
A treasure trove of uncounted additional items is held by individuals, families, and communities. These collections include letters, diaries, manuscripts, film, audio recordings, photographs, prints and drawings, and objects such as maps, textiles, paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts.
The volume of digital collections are growing fast. These items are fragile, and their formats quickly become obsolescent, if not obsolete.
Check out Preserving Your Personal Memories for best practices, methods, and storage media tips, and American Library Association’s @ your library for more like:
Thursday, April 26, 2 pm Eastern, Webinar: “Preserving Personal Digital Photographs” From the Association of Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Visit the ALCTS website for more information. See their list of other free webinars at the same link, includes Book repair basics, Disaster response, and Mold prevention.
Thursday, April 26, at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Webinar: “Preserving Your Personal Digital Photographs” From the Library of Congress. The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program will present information about learning to care for digital photos. Hosted by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services. Free; registration required .
– Melissa Watterworth Batt, Curator of Literary, Natural History and Rare Books Collections
–Terri J. Goldich, Curator
At Archives & Special Collections in the Dodd Research Center, I examined the papers of three former members of Congress and the regional office of an organization of labor unions. My dissertation is about the politics of foreign trade in the United States since the late 1920s. The goal is to present the history in a way that makes possible an informed evaluation of the responsibility of the groups involved in the political process for the outcomes reached. To that end, my research has focused on the papers of politicians and politically active groups interested in trade issues.
Each of the collections that I examined fit this description. The William Cotter Papers provided insight into the thinking of a Democratic Congressman in the 1970s, who stuck with the traditional stance of his party in favor of lower trade barriers at a time when some of his colleagues were questioning that position. Cotter’s papers revealed his support for trade liberalization in the legislative efforts of 1974-75 and 1979, which allowed the Executive Branch to begin the multilateral Tokyo Round talks under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and to implement in American law the resulting agreement to reduce trade barriers. Cotter’s letters showed the rhetorical nimbleness that a member of Congress from a state with economic interests as varied as Connecticut’s were in Cotter’s time had to possess on trade matters. Pursuing a pro-liberalization agenda would please Connecticut’s larger enterprises that had done well in the international economy, and would endear a Congressman like Cotter to successive presidential administrations that advocated freer trade. But it left him vulnerable to attacks by businesses and workers for whom foreign competition represented a threat rather than an opportunity.
The Barbara Kennelly Papers provided evidence of the same type, but of a different character. In the 1980s, like most other members of Congress, she opposed the efforts of a Democratic minority that sought to protect industries such as textiles, shoes, and steel that seemed to have been badly impacted by earlier trade liberalization. Connecticut had already lost most of these industries, and Kennelly positioned herself as the defender of her state’s consumers against the attempts of special interest groups to escape the competitive forces that kept prices down. Kennelly also jointed in the heady talk of expanded American exports that was common at the time, but did little to change the country’s long-term trade deficit. However, she viewed the interests of her state differently in the debates over NAFTA in 1993, when she became one of its leading opponents. Both Cotter’s and Kennelly’s papers contained a variety of materials that I can put to different uses: constituent letters and speeches that put their views in writing, background materials supplied by supporters and opponents of trade legislation, and internal memorandums from the Democratic House leadership and Study Group and various Congressional caucuses that suggested what those groups thought of these issues.
The Prescott Bush Papers are older and consisted mostly of his speeches and press releases, but they will help me a lot, because they show the perspective of a leading Republican opponent of trade liberalization at a time when the mainstream of his party was moving towards support for it. Bush’s position made him useful to the Eisenhower Administration, which included him as a needed dissenting voice on the Randall Commission, a body intended by the Administration to supply a report that would justify further trade liberalization. The Papers don’t contain much about Bush’s service on the Commission, but they show the fairly straightforward, anti-liberalization stance on trade issues that he took over the course of a decade, which encompassed the Eisenhower years and the Kennedy Administration’s push for the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The Papers also show how a trade-skeptical Republican dealt rhetorically with the turn in his party’s trade politics. The copy of the oral history of Bush, which dated to the early 1970s usefully supplemented these papers with a few anecdotes and a plain-language statement of Bush’s understanding of trade liberalization.
The New England Region of the AFL-CIO Papers contained several folders containing the national body’s communications with its regional affiliates about NAFTA. Because of the prominent role of the AFL-CIO in the NAFTA debate, it was very handy to find so many of its press releases, materials for distribution both to members of unions and members of Congress, and internal communications in one place.
I also had the chance to visit the Homer Babbidge Library, where I found an memoir important to my topic that was published in Britain– one that I had not been able to find in libraries in my area.
I am very glad to have had the chance to visit Archives & Special Collections at the Dodd Center, and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in topics like mine. The archivists were friendly and extremely helpful, notwithstanding my frequent requests for boxes and the late hour at which I finished.
–Christopher Bordelon, Ph.D. candidate, Brandeis University and 2012 Strochlitz Travel Grant awardee