UConn Library
Archives and Special Collections Blog
Elizabeth Rourke, Editor-in-Chief, 1939 Nutmeg
The Nutmeg Yearbook was first published in 1915, and its first woman editor-in-chief was Elizabeth Rourke, a member of the Class of 1939. Hers was the last graduating class of Connecticut Agricultural College. A month after her June graduation, her alma mater became the University of Connecticut.
-Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)
In 1914 Congress created the Cooperative Extension System at USDA which included the work of boys’ and girls’ clubs established to support rural youth and to introduce new agricultural technology to the community. The clubs were formalized nationally as 4-H (Head, Heart, Hand and Health) Clubs. By 1922, “health took hold in the 4-H program with a health contest in which State Leaders were invited to have their youth select the boy and girl from their delegations whom they deemed healthiest. These candidates were thoroughly examined by physicians from the Elizabeth McCormick Memorial Fund, a health foundation. The idea of presenting a farm boy and a farm girl as the ‘healthiest in the United States’ had an appeal that fired journalistic imaginations and won headlines….the health contest produced more newspaper and magazine space than any other single feature – and in spite of its defects- the contest focused attention on the importance of health to boys and girls. The contest waned after World War II, and the remaining programs in health seemed ‘vague and disparate’.” (From the National 4-H Headquarters Fact Sheet)
The lantern slides of Winners in Girls’ and Boys’ 4-H Club Health Contest, 1923 are part of the Albert E. Wilkinson Collection, Cooperative Extension Service Records. Wilkinson began serving as Extension Vegetable Gardening Specialist in 1930 and performed the extension duties of the Horticulture Department at the University of Connecticut. Explore the collection guide for the Cooperative Extension Service Records.
Kristin Eshelman, Curator of Multimedia Collections
Student government began at Storrs Agricultural College in the 1890s, but it wasn’t until 1918 when a woman would serve as its leader. Gladys Dagget, who also made a first for women as business manager of the student newspaper in 1918, was president of the Students Organization that same year. When men returned from World War I, they resumed control of the student government. A separate Women’s Student Government Association was established in 1918, coordinating activities and campus life for women until 1971. After a change in the constitution of the male-run student government, Henrietta Spring, a member of the Class of 1945, was elected as its first woman president in 1944.
Women's Student Council, 1920-1921 Nutmeg
-Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)
The family of the late Coleen Salley have donated James Marshall’s book dummy for his “The Cut-ups cut loose” to the NCLC. The charming, 32-page dummy is accompanied by a letter from Mr. Marshall to Ms. Salley with a note about “our little book.” The dummy is black and white with some color on the title page. The book was published in 1987 by Viking Kestrel and is dedicated to Ms. Salley. This piece is the only item in the Marshall Papers for this title. Thank you, Salley Family, for this important addition to the NCLC.
The family of the late Coleen Salley have donated James Marshall’s book dummy for his “The Cut-ups cut loose” to the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection. The charming, 32-page dummy is accompanied by a letter from Mr. Marshall to Ms. Salley with a note about “our little book.” The dummy is black and white with some color on the title page. The book was published in 1987 by Viking Kestrel and is dedicated to Ms. Salley. This piece is the only item in the Marshall Papers for this title. Thank you, Salley Family, for this important addition to the NCLC.
–Terri J. Goldich, Curator
It was in the fall of 1893, just months after Storrs Agricultural School became Storrs Agricultural College and began officially admitting women, that the first student organization for women was established. Women had been taking classes unofficially since the fall of 1890, and then a legislative act in 1893 made their enrollment official.
The first student organization at the school was a literary society launched in 1888 when it was still an all-male institution. That group disbanded after its founder left the school. Two literary societies took its place in 1893, the Eclectic Society for men and the Ionian Society for women. They merged into one group and took the Eclectic Society name in 1894. Then a new, separate literary society for women formed in 1899 as the Alethia Society.
Editors of The Lookout (student newspaper), 1906-1907
A student newspaper, the monthly “Lookout”, was established in 1896, but it wasn’t until 1906 that the all-male staff was joined by a woman. Lena Hurlburt, a member of the Class of 1907, was the Class Notes Editor, in addition to being co-captain of the women’s basketball team.
The Class Notes position would be the only position for women on the newspaper staff until 1917. After the United States joined the fighting in Europe during the First World War, women took over many of the previously male-dominated campus organizations. Helen Clark was the first woman to be editor-in-chief of what was now the Connecticut Campus, with Gladys Dagget as the first woman to serve as the newspaper’s business manager. Both Clark and Dagget were members of the Class of 1919. But once the war was over and the men returned to campus, women would not again hold those top positions on the newspaper for decades.
Helen Clark, 1918
Gladys Daggett, 1918
-Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)
Student body, Storrs Agricultural College, Fall 1894
With the arrival of Susan Herbst as the University of Connecticut’s president, it’s time to take note of some other firsts for women in the history of the University.
The first woman on staff was Mrs. R.H. Coit who served as matron from 1882 to 1883 at the Storrs Agricultural School. Although records do not indicate exactly what a matron’s role entailed, it’s possible she did cooking and cleaning in the single-building school/dormitory that was home to the first dozen students of the then boys-only school.
The first woman on faculty at the agricultural school was Josephine Nettleton, who first taught algebra when she joined the teaching staff in 1888. Later she was a instructor in mathematics and physical geography.
It was in the fall of 1890 that a girl joined the boys in classes. Nellie Wilson had asked Benjamin Koons, principal of the school, if she might be admitted. Koons, reasoning that the state law establishing the school for boys did not expressly forbid the enrollment of girls, answered in the affirmative.
Wilson was joined by Louisa Rosebrooks and Anna Snow in the spring of 1891, and two years later, the legislature formalized their enrollment when it changed the name of the school to the Storrs Agricultural College.
The following year, 1894, Wilson, Rosebrooks, and Snow, whose names are memorialized on residence halls in South Campus, became the first women to graduate from the college. And they did it all as the first commuting students. The first dormitory for women, Grove Cottage, would not be built until 1896.
-Mark J. Roy, University Communications (retired)
Thanks, Nan Sorensen, Scholastic, and the rest of the New England Children’s Booksellers for the donation of books by the wonderful authors at your conference on June 15. It was fun to give tours to such knowledgeable and engaged listeners. And your speakers were delightful: M.T. Anderson, Nan Rossiter, Joyce Baskin, Angela DiTerlizzi, and all the rest of the stellar lineup. I had the pleasure of awarding Matt Collins the CT Book Award for Children’s Illustration last year at the CT Center for the Book’s celebration so it was great to see him again. What a talented group of folks you are!
–Terri J. Goldich, Curator
Can’t get enough photographs of railroad locomotives? Here is another to enjoy.
1881, Housatonic Railroad locomotive and crew
Charles Dickens, in his 1842 book American Notes, wrote about an excursion he took by train from Boston to Lowell, Massachusetts. He describes his trip in this way: “[The train] whirls headlong…clatters over frail arches, rumbles upon the heavy ground, shoots beneath a wooden bridge which intercepts the light for a second like a wink, suddenly awakens all the slumbering echoes in the main street of a large town, and dashes on haphazard, pell-mell, neck-or-nothing, down the middle of the road…there – on, on, on – tears the mad dragon of an engine with its train of cars; scattering in all directions a shower of burning sparks from its wood fire, screeching, hissing, yelling, panting; until at last the thirsty monster stops beneath a covered way to drink, the people cluster round, and you have time to breathe again.”
Takes your breath away, doesn’t it?
Railroads came on the scene in the United States in the early 1830s and immediately took hold of the national psyche, changing concepts of speed and time and providing limitless possibilities of the movement of agricultural products, goods of industry, and people to all points across the country. The railroad was the means that brought the Industrial Revolution to the United States, ushering in the modern world we know today. To the people of the 19th century, the railroad was a dream, a miracle, a danger, and the most marvelous thing they had ever seen.
The Railroad History Archive has many thousands of photographs. Most focus on locomotives and scenes of the New Haven Railroad, the predominant railroad line in southern New England from 1872 to 1968. We have photographs of railroad stations and other structures, railroad yards, passenger cars and dining cars. We have photographs of railroad bridges, railroad tunnels, and railroad trestles.
But few photographs are as evocative as the one above, where railroad men pose with the nation’s new obsession.
Memorial Day was first enacted to honor soldiers following the American Civil War and after World War I it was expanded to honor Americans who have died in all wars. UConn established its own permanent memorial in November 2009 with a monument erected west of the flagpoles, between Beach Hall and the CLAS Building.
Veteran's Memorial at the University of Connecticut
In addtion to the physical memorial, the Alumni Association mantains the Roll of Honor at the Alumni Center
Roll of Honor, Alumni Center, University of Connecticut
and online at http://www.uconnalumni.com/roll-of-honor/the-roll.html. If you have the opportunity, I would encourage all who are on campus over the Memorial Day weekend to include a visit to these memorials to honor the UConn alums who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
–Betsy Pittman, University Archivist
In addition to lovely comments from our presenters, exhibitors, and attendees, the Windsor Patch posted this great review of the first ever Connecticut Book Festival. Many thanks go to everyone involved, especially to the wonderful authors and presenters, volunteers and workers, food vendors, exhibitors, performers, therapy dogs and their friends, and of course the attendees who came out to enjoy the Festival. Special thanks go to Bill Thomson for judging our Sidewalk Chalk contest and generously providing signed posters to loads of kids (some bigger than others), and for handing out four copies of his book Chalk to contest winners. The Mystic Paper Beasts were also a hit with children of all ages.