National History Day, “Turning Points,” and connecticuthistory.org

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Laura Smith

In the years that I have been a curator here in Archives & Special Collections I have been fortunate to work with a wide array of researchers, from academic scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and genealogists to railroad fans, lawyers and preservationists, but I admit to you all right here and right now that I get the most satisfaction when I work with middle school and high school students, those who are at the early point of discovering the wonder and power of primary sources. And one of the ways we get to work with young students is to help them find the resources they need for National History Day projects.

Never heard of National History Day? Here is the description of the contest from the website at http://www.nhd.org/:

“Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide participate in the NHD contest. Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries. These products are entered into competitions in the spring at local, state and national levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators. The program culminates in the Kenneth E. Behring National Contest each June held at the University of Maryland at College Park.”

Thomas J. Dodd at the Nuremberg Trials, 1945-1946, from the Thomas J. Dodd Papers

We here in Archives & Special Collections are collaborating with connecticuthistory.org by choosing materials from our collections and providing these sources and essays for students to use for their NHD projects. Two of the essays are currently online (with more to come), which include:

Connecticut Lawyer Prosecutes Nazi War Criminals at Nuremberg, which describes the work of Thomas J. Dodd, who served on the Executive Trial Council at the Nuremberg Trials following World War II, and the tragedy of Kristallnacht, a turning point that unleashed the persecution of European Jews by the Nazi regime.

Reporting News of Pearl Harbor, which tells of how Andre Schenker, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut and a commentator for Hartford radio station WTIC in the 1940s, reported this shattering world event — a turning point in history if there ever was one — to his Connecticut listeners.

There are more “Turning Points” to come, so stay tuned. Also, if you haven’t tooled around connecticuthistory.org then spend a few minutes with this extraordinary resource, reading the essays and looking at the unique photographs and documents. There is a lot to learn there about the history of Connecticut!

Laura Smith, Curator for Business, Railroad and Labor Collections

Happy 60th Birthday!

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Betsy Pittman

Student Union

The University of Connecticut Student Union opened its doors to the UConn community sixty years ago today. Since 1952 the students and building have changed a bit, but the Student Union is still physically in the center of campus and serves as the “center of activity for students, faculty and staff…designed to enhance the quality of student life, support co-curricular activities and contribute to the University’s educational mission.”

–Betsy Pittman, University Archivist

October is Archives Month

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Betsy Pittman

Connecticut Archives Month, October 2012

The poster for Connecticut’s recognition of Archives Month highlights the fragility of our documentary and cultural heritage. Repositories throughout the state, like Archives & Special Collections at UConn, actively acquire materials that document events, actions, individuals and organizations that are Connecticut and its residents to protect, preserve and make it accessible into the future. During Archives Month, everyone is encouraged to visit a repository and learn more. A list of activities being held in the Dodd Research Center, where Archives & Special Collections is located, can be found online.

–Betsy Pittman, University Archivist

Tomie dePaola receives Society of Illustrators’ Lifetime Achievement Award

Posted on October 1, 2012 by

Congratulations, Tomie! According to the Society’s home page, “The Lifetime Achievement Awards were established in 2005 by past chairs of The Original Art. Nominees must be judged to have a body of work that documents an innovative and pioneering contribution to the field of children’s book illustration, and final selection is made by artists whose work has been juried into the previous year’s show. ”

From an early age, Tomie and his parents knew he would be an artist. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York where he studied Art. His Master of Fine Arts degree was received from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. He has also been awarded three honorary Doctorate degrees from separate Universities and Colleges.

Tomie’s career as a professional artist and designer, former teacher of art, children’s author and illustrator is expansive. He has designed greeting cards, posters, magazine and catalogue covers, record album covers, and theater costumes and sets. He has illustrated over two hundred books, and written over seventy. Tomie has won numerous awards, including the prestigious American Library Association’s Caldecott Honor Award for Strega Nona (1976), the University of Minnesota’s Kerlan Award (1981), the Catholic Library Association’s Regina Medal (1983), and the Smithsonian Institution’s Smithson Medal (1990).

Tomie’s books have been published world-wide in fifteen different languages and he has over five million copies in print. Many of his books are largely autobiographical such as Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs, Tom, and The Art Lesson. Tomie currently resides in New Hampshire.

The Tomie dePaola Collection contains artwork, sketch books and paintings from the beginning of his career, as well as many different editions from each book he wrote or illustrated, including foreign editions. Some of the languages represented are Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, French Canadian, German, Afrikaans, and even Zulu. Original illustrations from books, as well as paintings and other art work spanning from his childhood years are included. The Collection also contains marketing items from his books, such as towels, porcelain jewelry containers, music boxes, paper goods (wrapping paper, cups & plates), quilts from schools, and a large selection of Christmas tree ornaments designed by Tomie for the Marshall Fields Christmas trees in Chicago.

Well done, Tomie!

–Terri J. Goldich, Curator, Northeast Children’s Literature Collection

Tomie dePaola receives Society of Illustrators’ Lifetime Achievement Award

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Kristin Eshelman

Well done, Tomie!

–Terri J. Goldich, Curator

Mansfield Connecticut Landscapes

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Kristin Eshelman

Campus scene from east hill looking northwest

Rear view of Agriculture Hall and dairy building

Mansfield Connecticut Landscapes, a set on Flickr.

Landscape photographs of Mansfield Connecticut made by Harry L. Garrigus before 1912 are now available on Flickr.

The Connecticut Company, and a devoted collector of its history

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Laura Smith

[slideshow_deploy id=3086]

William B. Young was an avid fan, enthusiast and historian of the Connecticut Company, particularly its trolley cars, which controlled the street railroad system that provided public transportation in the state’s towns and cities from 1905 to 1948. Mr. Young, born in 1942, spent much of his youth in Stamford and Roxbury, Connecticut, where he explored local trolley right-of-ways, collected railroad documents and memorabilia, took photographs, and rode the trains at every opportunity, not just in the state but across the country. While earning a degree in history (focusing many of his term papers on transportation history) at Yale University he worked summers as a Conductor on the Chicago Transit Authority. After he graduated in 1966 he was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy, serving as a Naval Aviator during the Vietnam War, and continued as a flight instructor after the war, when he left active duty in 1977. After his service he became a database programmer and lived in North Carolina until his death in December 2010.

Mr. Young compiled an enormous and extraordinarily comprehensive collection of materials about the trolley system which includes publications, photographs, timetables, maps, postcards, manuals, and reports. He corresponded with an extensive network of other knowledgeable railroad and trolley historians, where the minutiae of the cars and the broad history of the company were discussed and dissected with equal interest and regard. His ultimate goal in amassing this information was the creation of a car roster database, which classified each car in the system by number, owner, purchase cost, weight, roof, type, builder, first year in service, accident history, motor type, compressor type, and controller.

In February 2011 Mr. Young’s sister, Mary Young, contacted the archives about donating the collection. In the time between this initial contact and its ultimate donation in June 2012, Ms. Young and her sister Lucy gathered the materials from Mr. Young’s home in North Carolina, separated those materials most appropriate for donation, boxed and organized the materials by format, created “finding guides” and other descriptions to ease discovery of the materials, and provided much of the written information about Mr. Young and the company that helped place it all in context. This comprehensive collection is now available for use by the general public, and its finding aid, which includes long descriptions of the life of Mr. Young and the Connecticut Company, is available at https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/911.

The Connecticut Company, which by 1907 was controlled by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, operated most of the trolleys and buses in Connecticut, with fourteen divisions and, at its peak in the 1910s, a roster of over 2200 cars and nearly 800 miles of track that either ran in or connected twelve major Connecticut cities. Ridership started to drop in the 1920s and systems were abandoned by the 1930s. The last trolley ran on September 25, 1948, in New Haven, as the post-war boom of personal ownership of the automobile became widespread.

Connecticut is lucky to have two trolley museums to preserve this important aspect of transportation, including the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven (http://www.shorelinetrolley.com/) and the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor (http://www.ct-trolley.org/).

The archive is deeply grateful to the family of William B. Young for this valuable collection that will serve as a vital resource for this corner of the state’s transportation history.

Laura Smith, Curator of Business, Railroad and Labor Collections

Levy and Marshall Travel and Research Grants available

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Kristin Eshelman

Archives, Special Collections and Digital Curation of the University of Connecticut Libraries, housed in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, supports the research of scholars throughout the United States and from abroad. In recognition of the substantial contribution Ms. Billie M. Levy has made to the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection and the genre of children’s literature in general, an annual travel and research grant has been established to facilitate the use of the Collection by worthy applicants. Travel Grants are intended to encourage use of unique materials in the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection and to provide partial support to researchers who must travel long distances to consult them. Research Grants are intended for those researchers in the vicinity who need financial support in order to undertake a research project within the Collection. Follow these links for Levy Grant details and application.

James Marshall Fellowship Grants are intended to encourage use of unique materials in the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection and to provide significant financial support to a promising author and/or illustrator at the beginning of their career to assist him or her in the creation of new children’s literature. Grants are awarded on a competitive basis to promising authors and illustrators who plan to conduct research at the Dodd Research Center. Follow these links for Marshall Fellowship details and application.

On this day…

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Betsy Pittman

[slideshow_deploy id=3225]

in 1938, the first major hurricane to hit New England since 1869 made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. The full force of the hurricane reached Long Island in the afternoon, the eye making landfall in Suffolk County (LI) shortly after 3:00 pm. By 4:00, the eye had crossed the Sound and made a second landfall just east of New Haven, Connecticut. Current analyses have labeled the hurricane at Category 3 intensity at both landfalls and place the maximum sustained winds in the 120–125 m.p.h. range. After crossing Long Island Sound, the hurricane sped inland. By 5:00 pm, the eye had crossed Connecticut and moved into western Massachusetts, reaching Vermont by 6:00 pm.

Betsy Pittman, University Archivist

Constitution Day and Congress Week 2012

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Betsy Pittman

Congress Week observance September 16 – 22, 2012

Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center would like to remind its readers of the significant roles in our lives played by Congress and the Constitution. Congress week is sponsored by the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress (ACSC), which was founded in 2003 as an independent alliance of organizations and institutions which promote the study of the U.S. Congress. The theme of this year’s national celebration is “Congress: Chosen by the People.” Article 1, Section 2 and the 17^th Amendment of the Constitution give citizens the right to elect their members of Congress. With the presidential and congressional elections just around the corner in November, it is important to remember our civic responsibility to choose our representatives in government. Documentation of Congress and how it works can be found in the papers of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation housed in the Dodd Center. A complete list of the political collections open for consultation is available on the A&SC website.

Constitution Day recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. This year also marks the 225^th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787. Connecticut had two representatives sign the Constitution, William Samuel Johnson and Robert Sherman. Sherman also signed the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence, making him one of only two people to sign all three documents. Both Sherman and Johnson were influential in creating a system of representation in Congress where the rights of smaller states like Connecticut would be protected. In the end, the Great Compromise created two branches of legislature: the House of Representatives where states are represented proportionally, and the Senate where every state is guaranteed two senators regardless of size.

Today, UConn is observing Constitution Day by hosting a “watch party” from 1:30-2:30 p.m., in Konover Auditorium (Dodd Center). The program is an hour-long presentation showcasing the national scene and dilemmas that faced Americans on September 22, 1862. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has arranged for a special live stream performance and discussion focused on the ramifications of emancipation. Several renowned Civil War scholars from around the country (University of Richmond, Columbia University, and Duke University, among others) will participate in the presentation. Perspectives from Frederick Douglass, enslaved people from the South, Northern free blacks, the White House, and others will be highlighted.

For community members who wish to view the panel from their classrooms/offices, please use the following link to connect: emancipation.neh.gov/live/.

–Krista Miller, Intern

Connecticut Railroad Commissioner reports now online!

Image

In our continuing efforts to make our collections available online we present to you a set of Railroad Commissioner Reports of the State of Connecticut, now available through the Internet Archive at http://archive.org/search.php?query=%22uconn%20libraries%22%20%20railroad%20%22annual%20report%22. This is done courtesy of our cooperative relationship with the Boston Libraries Consortium and the Digital Programs and Preservation and Conservation staff here at the UConn Libraries.

The railroad commissioner reports are very rich documents, published yearly between the 1850s until 1911, and provide details about bridges, structures and track laid for each railroad in the state as well as the expenditures and income. Many of the issues have details about train accidents and lists of the members of their board of directors, important information for any railroad researcher.

Many of these reports were donated by a long-time donor of railroad materials, Mr. Leroy Beaujon. Mr. Beaujon has a soft spot in his heart for the Central New England Railway, which ran in western Connecticut and eastern New York State until it was taken over by the New Haven Railroad in the early 1900s. He grew up on Canaan, Connecticut, so his interest in the railroads of that area was formed early in his youth and has remained throughout his life. We are pleased that we can make Mr. Beaujon’s gift of the railroad reports available not only to the researchers who visit us here at Archives & Special Collections but to anyone, anytime and anywhere.

Check out the reports online, and enjoy!

Susan Raab hosts new blog “Artstomarket”

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Kristin Eshelman

Susan Raab is interviewing some of the best in the arts business and publishing their fascinating advice on her new blog “Artstomarket.” Read great tips like “do’s and don’ts in the arts business” by Roxie Munro and Steve Light, advice on networking and making yourself “visible and indispensable” from Michael Astrachan, President and Creative Director, XVIVO LLC. This great blog was created in conjunction with the workshops coming up at UConn on September 28, 2012, for students in the morning and folks working in the creative arts in the afternoon.