An Archival Thanksgiving

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The Cranberry, photographed by Don Ball, Jr.

Sometimes when it’s my turn to write something for the blog, and nothing immediately comes to mind, I will then think of an anniversary that can be celebrated, or a holiday that is approaching, and how the archival material can illustrate that event.  With Thanksgiving fast approaching I thought “what’s in the archive that touches on this holiday?”.  One of the best ways to explore the archives is by using the search box to the finding aids, available on our collection management system at https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/.  I decided to have some fun and put in search terms related to Thanksgiving.  Here’s what I got:

Thanksgiving: 14 hits, mostly from political and Children’s literature collections, including a Thanksgiving themed popcorn tin in the Tomie dePaola collection.

Thanks: 5 hits, mostly related to expressions of gratitude from the creators of the collections.

Turkey: 23 hits!  Wow!  But it won’t surprise you to read that the vast majority of these hits are on references to the country, not the bird, in political collections.

Gobble: only 2 hits, including the title “Gobble Gang Poems” by the poet Ed Sanders.

Gobbler: 1 hit, in the Ted and Betsy Lewin Papers (a children’s illustrators collection)

Stuffed: 7 hits! but mostly referring to stuffed toys, stuffed animals, and stuffed furniture (huh?  What kind of collection is THAT?  It’s a railroad collection, if you can believe it, a description of a photograph of the interior of a plush railroad car).

Football: Lots of hits there — 55 of them!  Most of them from the University Archives collections, references to UConn football, of course.

Cranberry: 4 hits, including the photograph that you see above of The Cranberry, a diesel locomotive owned by the New Haven Railroad, taken by photographer Don Ball, Jr.

Squash: 5 hits, three of them referring to the game, one to the vegetable, and one to a Leaf-Footed Squash Bug.

There were 5 hits for “pumpkin” but NONE for “pumpkin pie”.  That is just so wrong.  There’s always room for pumpkin pie in the archive, right?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

November 11, 1941

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Tuesday, November 11, 1941.  Armistice Day.  I met my classes as usual.  At 8 o’clock I met my elementary economics classes, discussing economic problems of natural resources.  At 9 o’clock I met the consumption class giving back their recent hour examinations, and finishing the work on housing. I also made a bare start on a discussion of savings.

 Bill Mattson reached Willimantic at 11.11 by train from  Boston, and Edith met him there.  Ernest Russell drove down from Hadley and arrived at my office just before noon, as I got back from my 11 o’clock class.  We drove home, and met Mattson.  The two men stayed for dinner, supper, and over night.  As usual, Edith put on a wonderful display of culinary art and of old-fashioned hospitality.

 Thus begins the journal entry for this day in 1941 by UConn faculty member and later Provost, Albert Waugh.  A tireless and meticulous diarist, Waugh recorded his daily activities both mundane and extraordinary throughout his life, allowing researchers to see first hand what was happening in Storrs, Connecticut, from the time of his hire in 1941 through his retirement in 1973.  

The Waugh daily journals have been available for research as part of the Waugh papers since their donation in 1985.  An invaluable resource for several University histories, the journals were originally considered for digitization in the late 1990s when the University Libraries received its first IMLS grant for what is now known as Connecticut History Online (http://www.cthistoryonline.org/cdm-cho/index.html).  The sheer volume of the journals made this impossible and the CHO project went on to digitize predominantly images (approximately 14,000 at last count) over the course of the next several years.  Technological advances in more recent years, however, has made the option of electronic access to the materials viable.  In the last year, Archives & Special Collections, with the permission of the Waugh family, has digitized the entire 30 plus span of journals.  In the next several months, researchers will be able to access PDF (portable document format) copies of the journal entries directly from the finding aid, completing one of A&SC’s largest digitization efforts.   

There was also a happy side effect to this lengthy project, in addition to meeting the Waugh family and hearing their stories first hand.  Collaboration with the Waugh family on this project resulted in the discovery of additional journals!  Subsequent donation of these new discoveries has expanded the dates of Waugh journals from 1941-1973 to cover the period from the 1920s through the early 1980s. 

As soon as we go live, it will be announced here so stay tuned!

     Betsy Pittman, University Archivist

Help Us Help You

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UConn Faculty & Students  – Please take a few minutes and help the UConn Libraries help you

From:      Brinley Franklin
               Vice Provost, University Libraries

The University of Connecticut Libraries needs your help and participation in the Fall 2010 LibQUAL+TM  Survey.

The LibQual+TM Survey has been used by more than 1,200 libraries internationally to periodically and consistently track, understand, and act upon their users’ opinions of library service quality.

As in the past, the LibQual+TM Survey results will inform our Libraries’ planning on how to best provide library services to the UConn community. This survey process has been reviewed by UConn’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) and all responses are confidential and will not be associated with a respondent’s e-mail address or other personal information.

One participating student* (grad or undergrad) will win a $500 GIFT CARD from the UConn Co-op!

The link to the survey can be found in your e-mail.  If you missed the e-mail, have questions, or need assistance in any way, please contact librarysurveys@uconn.edu

Please complete the survey by:  December 10, 2010

Thanks for participating!

* Participation in the drawing is optional.  Eligible students must be registered to take classes at the University of Connecticut during the Fall, 2010 semester; have completed no more than one online survey;  have entered an optional “uconn.edu” e-mail address at the time the online survey form is completed; not be an employee of the State of Connecticut, including student employees of the University, or of the UConn Co-op; permit the University of Connecticut to make public a photograph, name, home town, academic year and major of the winning entrant; agree to any rules and restrictions placed upon the use of the gift certificate by the UConn Co-op.

New state-wide Book Festival in planning stages

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The Dodd Research Center is one of the sponsors of the first state-wide book festival, to be held at UConn’s Greater Hartford campus on May 21-22, 2011.  In addition to the Dodd Center and UConn, other sponsors include the CT Center for the Book at the Hartford Public Library, the UConn Co-op, the CT Library Association, CT Humanities Council, CT State Library, and the CT Commission on Culture and Tourism.  The Honorary Chair of the Festival is Wally Lamb, award-winning author of She’s come undone, I know this much is true, and The hour I first believed, among other fiction and non-fiction works.  Mr. Lamb will be the featured speaker at a Gala Reception on November 20, 2010 at the Town and County Club in Hartford and the public is welcome to attend.  For tickets and other information, please go to the Festival’s web page at http://ctbookfestival.org/ or send an email to ctbookfestival@gmail.org.    

Other authors appearing at the Festival will include Dick Allen, Connecticut’s award-winning Poet Laureate for 2010-2015; Ronald L. Mallett, a physics professor at UConn and author of Time traveler; Diane Smith, an Emmy Award-winning TV journalist and author of six books based in Connecticut, and many others listed on the Festival’s web site.  The Festival will bring together writers of books for adults and teens and activities will include readings, signings, storytelling and other presentations, great food offered by area restaurants, and an activity tent for kids aged 3-12.  Watch the web site for the schedule of events.   See you at the Fair!

Human Rights Film Series Screening of “State of Fear,” Nov. 10

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Please join the Human Rights Institute, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) for the third film of the monthly 2010-2011 Human Rights Film Series: Human Rights in the Americas.  More information and a full listing of films in the series are available on the Dodd Center’s website.

Film poster for "State of Fear," directed by Pamela Yates.

November Film: “State of Fear”
Directed by Pamela Yates

Wednesday, November 10, 2010
4:00 pm, Konover Auditorium
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center   

Film Synopsis:   

State of Fear” is set in the deserts, mountains, and jungles of Peru, and tells a gripping story of escalating violence and repression, and of courageous resistance by human rights defenders. Terrorist attacks by the Shining Path guerrillas provoked a military occupation of the countryside. Military Justice replaced Civil authority, widespread abuses by the Peruvian Army went unpunished, and the terrorism continued to spread. Eventually nearly 70,000 civilians died at the hands of the Shining Path and the Peruvian military.

Through vivid depictions of several horrific attacks in Peru’s mountains, as well as through revealing, poignant interviews with victims, soldiers, and insurgents, the film shows the agony that Peru’s war inflicted. The film is narrated primarily by members of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, who emphasize that, if internal war is not to recur, we must understand its various causes and know its tragic effects.

 For more information about this and other events at the Dodd Research Center, please go to http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/events/index.htm

The “Vault” of UConn Basketball

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This afternoon, Ken Davis will be signing copies of his new book University of Connecticut Basketball Vault, The history of the Huskies, published by Whitman Publishing.  Davis will sign copies of the book at the UConn Co-op on Friday, Oct. 15, beginning at 4:30 p.m., just before the 2010-11 basketball season kicks off with First Night activities at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.

University of Connecticut Basketball Vault, The history of the Huskies

The book is part of The College Vault series and features a “time capsule” approach, including historic images and reproductions of ephemera that are part of the team’s history, such as game programs, statistics sheets, and other items that enhance the comprehensive narrative about each team.  A considerable portion of the research was conducted in the University Archives and items from the collection have been reproduced as part of the publication.  More information about the author and the book in the UConn Today article by Kenneth Best (10/15/2010).  Details about the book signing are available on the Co-op website.  A copy of the publication has been added to the collection in the University Archives.

Little Magazines of the Mimeo Revolution: Poetry, Exhibition, Film!

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Long before the photocopier, desktop computers, and blogs, the mimeograph machine put inexpensive printing technology in the hands of poets and artists.  The Mimeo Revolution of the late 1950s brought about an explosion of DIY printing and independent literary magazines.  Although many of the mimeo magazines and small presses were short-lived, poetry superstars emerged from the mimeographed pages, including poet and little mag publisher, Ed Sanders.

The revolution was spawned by the youthful, counterculture poet-publisher, cranking out 100 copies of an outlandishly titled magazine on cheap paper.  The image of the iconoclastic and self-motivated poet, breaking the chain of convention, heading out for the territories with a sack full of magazines and making it new, formed and solidified in our common imagination as a direct result of the mimeo explosion. (M. Basinski from An Author Index to Little Magazines of the Mimeograph Revolution)

Join us for an afternoon as we explore the Mimeo Revolution and celebrate the poets and presses that made it flourish.  Events are free and open to the public.

October 26, 2010, 3:00pm to 6:00pm, Dodd Research Center

Program:

3:00pm Gallery Talk Little Magazines in the Archives with Melissa Watterworth, Curator of Literary Collections (McDonald Reading Room)

3:45pm Unveiling of special re-issue of the 1968 limited edition book Krulik Ksiega or Book of Rabbits by Cleveland poet Tom Kryss

4:00pm Poetry reading with Ed Sanders! (Konover Auditorium)

4:45pm Film showing If I Scratch, I Write: d.a. levy and the Mimeograph Revolution

6:00pm Reception with refreshments

For more information contact melissa.watterworth@uconn.edu

Let’s talk toilet paper

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Ah, we’ve stooped to this.  The talk always turns to potty humor, doesn’t it? 

As odd as it sounds, we here at Archives & Special Collections have toilet paper in one of our archival collections. That’s right — ARCHIVAL toilet paper.  In a business collection, if you can believe it.   Let me explain…

Cardboard cover for toilet paper manufactured by C.H. Dexter Company of Windsor Locks, Connecticut

The Dexter Corporation began in 1767 as a small, family-operated mill on land in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. Originally a saw and grist mill, the business added a paper mill and began marketing specialty papers in the mid-nineteenth century.  In its third generation of family ownership, under the direction of Charles Haskell Dexter, the company established itself as the C. H. Dexter Co. and developed products for a well-defined market of papers and tissues.  Their Star Mills Medicated Manila Tissue was the first commercially-manufactured tissue. Together with his son, Edwin Dexter, and his son-in-law, H. R. Coffin, C.H. Dexter moved the company into the twentieth century as C. H. Dexter and Sons, Co. In 1914 the company was incorporated and was headed by A. D. Coffin, the son of H. R. Coffin.

The years of the depression in the 1930s saw the company’s further evolution with the development of the Long Fiber Papers, and through mergers and divestments.  In addition to its specialty tissues and paper covers, the company began producing tea bags and meat casings.

By the mid-twentieth century, having established the quality of its specialized papers, C. H. Dexter and Sons, Inc., began production of industrial finishes and laminates. The company renamed itself the Dexter Corporation in 1966 to reflect its expansion and development.

In 1999-2000, when a hostile takeover threatened to displace over 200 years of operations, the Dexter Corporation dismantled, leaving only a trail of toilet paper in its wake (not really. I was kidding about that).

Shown here is a cardboard cover for a package of toilet tissue, circa 1896.  For more information about the C.H. Dexter Company, and to see the cover and the toilet paper up close and personal, look at the finding aid at https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/343 and come view it in the reading room.  I’ll warn you, though — toilet paper from 1896 is NOT as soft as a baby’s bottom.  Not by a long shot.

Great American Pastime at CAC

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It’s the top of the eighth inning. The Yankees lead the Giants 3-0 in the second game of the 1922 World Series, and students at Connecticut Agricultural College listen to the game on radio on the lawn in front of the Mechanic Arts Building.

It was the first time that the entire World Series was on radio, and this second game would end in a 3-3 tie after a controversial call “on account of darkness” in the tenth inning.

Radio was relatively new for the campus – WABL, the first student radio station at CAC, began broadcasting that fall from studios in the Mechanic Arts Building. The station’s equipment was probably the source of the hook up to a speaker that was placed outside the front door of the building.

Students kept track of the game with a box score on a blackboard placed in front of the building

The winner of the “subway” series was the Yankees. They beat the Giants in five games.

Students of Connecticut Agricultural College listen to Game 2 of the 1922 World Series on October 5, 1922. Freshmen can be identified by their beanies, and just to the left of the photo center is a lone co-ed joining the boys for the afternoon of baseball. The Mechanic Arts Building on North Eagleville Road is now the Islamic Center on the main campus in Storrs.

Constitution Day and Congress Week

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The 2010 University of Connecticut Constitution Day observance highlighted the anniversary of the ratification in 1920 of the Nineteenth Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.  This year’s presentation included a panel discussion and a keynote lecture on September 16, 2010.  The keynote speaker was Pamela S. Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law and Co-Director, Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford University.

In addition, the Dodd Research Center observed Congress Week (September 13-17, 2010) with an exhibition in the McDonald Reading Room that will be available for viewing through the end of September.  The theme this year was “Main Street to Capitol Hill”  and the exhibition illustrates the activities of the Connecticut Congressional delegation in representing the transportation concerns of their constituents.  From the grading and widening of roads in Meriden to renovations of the docks and bridge in Mystic and the revitalization of Broad Street in New Britain to highspeed rail in Hartford, the concerns of state and town officials, as well as the taxpayer are reflected in the congressional collections housed in Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.    The Center actively collects the records of the state’s Congressional delegation and the materials date from the 1930s to the present supporting the research interests of scholars investigating the work of the state’s representatives over time and across political parties.  The collections represented in this exhibit include:  Prescott S. Bush, Sr.  (Republican, Senator 1951-1962), William Cotter (Democrat, Representative 1971-1982), Thomas J. Dodd   (Democrat, Representative 1953-1957, Senator 1958-1971), Robert N. Giaimo (Democrat, Representative 1959-1980), Nancy L. Johnson (Republican, Representative 1983-2006), Barbara B. Kennelly (Democrat,    Representative 1981-1998), Francis Maloney (Democrat, Representative 1933-1934, Senator 1935-1946), Stewart B. McKinney (Republican, Representative 1971-1988), Bruce Morrison  (Democrat, Representative 1983-1990), Robert Simmons (Republican, Representative 2001-2006).

Congress Week, September 13-17, 2010

Mark Your Calendars!

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Lots has been going on in Archives & Special Collections lately as the semester reaches full swing!  Curators are teaching classes, researchers are filling the tables in the reading room, and a variety of events are happening in Konover Auditorium.

A few upcoming events of note:

Album cover by praCh, who will be performing at the Dodd Research Center on September 16 at 4 pm.

Lecture and Performance by Cambodian American rapper praCh
Thursday, September 16, 2010
4 pm
Konover Auditorium

Named by Newsweek as the “pioneer of Khmer Rap” and the “first Cambodian rap star” praCh first received international acclaim with his debut hip hop album, Dalama…The End’n is Just the Beginnin’ (2000). Over the course of a decade, he has emerged as a multimedia force, releasing two sequels to Dalama, in 2003 and 2010.  Born in the farmlands of Cambodia but raised on the mean streets of America, praCh is a committed transnational activist. He battles oppression via rhyme and lyrics, and by example, and makes clear the reasons why hip hop is global and will continue to matter.

Ed Dorn and son, March 1960, photofinisher’s date. From the Charles Olson Papers, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.

If hip hop is not your speed, on September 21, 2010, our visiting Strochlitz Researcher Justin Katko, will give a talk entitled, “The Archive’s Other Fiction: Alternatives to Edward Dorn’s Gunslinger.”  Katko is a writer and PhD candidate in English Literature at the University of Cambridge, and recipient of a  Strochlitz Travel Grant.

Where does a text end and its archival footprint begin?  Can a text be built to rely upon previous, archived versions of itself?  Can coherency be claimed for a text which intentionally relegates component aspects of itself to the archive?  These questions will be addressed through the lens of Gunslinger, a modernist quest narrative by American poet Edward Dorn (1929-1999).  Gunslinger is a long narrative poem which exceeds the bounds of its own printed text in a number of manifest ways, including a rare secret installment printed as a standalone newspaper.  This talk will address the way in which archived versions of a single poem from the Gunslinger epic both clarify and complicate the work’s fragmented and difficult narrative.   Interpretation of Dorn’s masterpiece is only just beginning to be impacted by the archival materials which constitute the Edward Dorn papers.

The 2010-2011 Human Rights Film Series at the Dodd Center

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Please join the Human Rights Institute, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies for the opening film of the Human Rights in the Americas Film Series.

Screenshot of a restavek girl from Karen Kramer’s film, Children of Shadows.

Film: “Children of Shadows”
Directed by Karen Kramer

Wednesday, September 15, 2010
4:00 pm, Konover Auditorium
Filmmaker Karen Kramer, who has recently returned from Haiti, will join us for a Q & A and reception following the film, moderated by Samuel Martinez, Associate Professor of Anthropology at UConn.

 In Haiti, many parents are forced by destitution and desperation to give away their children. The children, who may be as young as four years old, then go to live and work for other families as unpaid domestic servants, or slaves. They are known as “restavek” children.  Children of Shadows follows the children as they go through their daily chores – the endless cycle of cooking, washing, sweeping, mopping, going to the market, or going to run errands. In heartbreaking interviews, the children speak openly and shyly about the lives they are forced to lead. Their “aunts” (adoptive caretakers) speak openly and proudly of the vast mountain of work that “their” restavek does for them. The camera goes deep into the countryside to interview the peasant families as to what kind of situation would force them to give away one or more of their children.