Fascinating Finds

Posted on March 2, 2017 by

Vivien Kellems is a stanchion of Connecticut history. She ran the Westport-based company Kellems Cable Grips Inc. which produced and sold the revolutionary invention patented by her brother: an endless-weave cable grip to secure electrical and bridge cables. Ms. Kellems also became a prominent political figure running for senate and governor as well as repeatedly speaking out for tax and voting reform.

Patent for cable grips – Edward Kellems.

Occasionally work in the archives requires a bit of a detective edge. We come across papers and objects that we’re not quite sure how to describe or what their original purpose may have been. Such was the case recently while processing the Vivien Kellems Papers when I came across a set of peculiar items. Although I knew The Kellems Company produced extremely large cable grips for buildings and bridges, I was perplexed to find a set of very small ones.

Finger cable grip manufactured by Kellems Cable Grips Inc.

The answer was found in a piece of correspondence within the collection. These small cable grips were sold to hospitals and used to stabilize injured fingers. When they are slipped onto the finger and tension is applied to the metal tab at the end, the wire mesh gently tightens allowing the fingers to be suspended and secured while they healed.

Cable grip for the pinky finger manufactured by Kellems Cable Grips Inc.

Vivien Kellems also promoted the use of small cable grips in the home for such purposes as securing taper candles in their holders. An innovative and interesting woman, Vivien Kellems is certainly a rich character in Connecticut’s history. Be sure to check out the rest of her collection in our digital repository https://collections.ctdigitalarchive.org/islandora/search/%22Vivien%20Kellems%22?type=edismax&islandora_solr_search_navigation=0 which is being added to as this collection is processed.

The Romano Papers: Stolen Childhoods in 4D

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Brooke Foti

Students from Prof. Anna Lindemann's Motion Graphics I course explore the Romano Stolen Childhoods Collection.

Students from Prof. Anna Lindemann’s Motion Graphics I course explore the Stolen Childhoods Collection, part of the U. Roberto (Robin) Romano Papers.

At the end of October, I was delighted to help facilitate a class visit to the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, along with Graham Stinnett, the Archivist for Human Rights Collections and Alternative Press Collections at the Archives & Special Collections Department. Digital Media & Design Professor Anna Lindemann brought her Motion Graphics I course to see the U. Roberto (Robin) Romano Papers in person; the two classes were able to get a look behind the curtain of the Stolen Childhoods collection, to see and handle the physical materials and to learn some context surrounding the digital collection that they were already familiar with.

Professor Lindemann charged her students with exploring the application of motion graphics to still photographs, and then added the challenging component of upholding the intentions of a collection dealing with the gravity of child labor. To Lindemann, it was integral that the students experience the physicality first-hand, and were able to learn more about the motivations behind Romano’s work.

“Working with the Robin Romano collection was eye-opening. Seeing his life-long devotion to photographic art form as a way to raise awareness about child labor definitely made the class and me reflect on our own modes of working and the potential significance of our work. There was something especially striking about seeing his boxes upon boxes of work prints, negatives, photographs, and hard drives, including one of his hard drives labeled “not working.” This brought to mind so many of the aspects that we grapple with in digital media classes: the great mound of (often unseen) work behind a single effective image, and the capacity for an image or animation to be at once impactful and ephemeral.” – Professor Anna Lindemann

Continue reading →

The Romano Papers: An Introduction To Archiving The Collection

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Brooke Foti

Toddler Screams Atop Garbage At The Bekasi Dump

As a University of Connecticut alum, I can think back to a handful of trips to the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center while working on projects and papers as an undergraduate. Back in June, I set foot in the stacks of the Archives and Special Collections Department for the first time as I interviewed for the position of Archivist Assistant for the U. Roberto (Robin) Romano Papers. I was introduced to the side of the ASC that students don’t typically get to see, and was presented with a literal mountain of material that would soon become my charge. Continue reading →

1966: Collections from 50 Years Ago on Display

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Graham Stinnett

At the Archives & Special Collections, we have been ramping up our interoperability. What does that mean exactly? Twinkling screens, chatter of audio recording and tactile interactions with materials on exhibition. Currently, we are featuring collection materials from 50 years ago in the archives to help highlight the year 1966. These selections contain personal correspondence and work from famous artists and activists like Ed Sanders, Allen Ginsberg, Diane Di Prima and Abbie Hoffman. Popular culture and ephemera from comic books to Life magazine relating to the politics of War in Vietnam, LSD, the rise of Black Power and the battle against Communism.

Included in the exhibit are Alternative Press Collection materials documenting the War in Vietnam ranging from the scholarly to the ephemeral. The Poras Collection of Vietnam War Memorabilia contains posters, death cards, publications and satirical army culture objects demonstrating the antagonisms of war at home and abroad. From a personal collection of Navy Corpsman Cal Robertson, his correspondence from Vietnam in 1966 while deployed over two tours as a medic attached to a marine platoon, detailing the daily grind and uncertainties of waiting in the jungle and relaying safety concerns to loved ones back home. The Alternative Press also includes a trove of anti-war publications such as the Committee for Nonviolent Action.

The physical exhibit in our reading room is but one element of our program to promote access to collections through outreach. Media displays within the Archives Reading Room featuring additional photographs and videos demonstrate the interactive qualities of physical objects outside of a static display. Currently, the newest arrival to the reading room is a large tablet-like touch table which has digital content loaded from our Omeka exhibit on1966 which will be unveiled in the coming month on the web.

For more information, follow us @UConnArchives on twitter and facebook where we promote exhibits like this one and events happening around the Archives.

New categories in our Digital Repository!

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Laura Smith

We’re always looking to improve our new digital repository, either by adding content at a crazy fast pace, or improving the look and design of the pages. Our latest change is to group the collections by overall topics, to help direct researchers to the main areas under which they are likely to search. The categories are:

Activism, and include such interesting items as the charter for the International Military Tribunal which led to the Nuremberg Trials to convict Nazi war criminals after World War II, in the Thomas J. Dodd Papers.

Business and Industry, with items such as this employment card for a worker at the Cheney Brothers Silk Manufacturing Company in Manchester, Connecticut.

Connecticut History, which includes photographs such as this one from the Ona M. Wilcox College of Nursing Records, of children in the pediatric ward of Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut.

International Culture and Political Movements, which includes many Spanish language items such as this about the Cazadores de Balmaceda Battalion, in the Valeriano Weyler Papers.

Literary and Artistic Expression has many collections that show the range of human creativity, with such fascinating research items as this photo of Gregg Won in a series of scrapbooks from the Joe Snow Punk Rock Collection.

Political Collections hold many different types of materials documenting the lives of Connecticut political figures, including this video recording from the papers of Bruce Morrison, who ran for the office of Governor of the state of Connecticut in 1990.

University of Connecticut History includes a vast array of materials chronicling UConn’s history from its formation in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School to its current status as one of the highest regarded state universities in the United States. This photograph shows an alumni day parade in 1941.

There will be some cross-over among the categories; for example, the Thomas J. Dodd Papers can be found in the categories of Activism as well as Political Collections.

You can also browse the materials by types of media right from the front page. Options include printed books; manuscripts, pamphlets, periodicals; maps; photographs; audio recordings; and video recordings.

Let us know what you think of these improvements and keep checking for more on the way!

Civil War diaries in the digital repository

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Laura Smith

The digital repository is growing at a record pace, with materials from almost every subject area within our collections. Some of the latest items you will find in the repository are several Civil War diaries, in the Connecticut Soldiers Collection.

Page from the diary of D. Alonzo Smith

The diary of D. Alonzo Smith of Torrington, Connecticut, gives us an inside look at his service with the 19th Connecticut Regiment from 1862 to 1864. Smith served as a prison guard at Fort Ellsworth, Virginia. Above is a page from his diary where he writes “Received a letter from my Wife. a sorce of Comfort.”

The diary of Christopher Boon of Westbrook, Connecticut, tells us that he was wounded in May 1863, with details of his convalescence at a VR hospital in New Haven, Connecticut.

John L. Sage from Cromwell, Connecticut served with Company D, 24th Connecticut Regiment. His diary includes entries from Louisiana and Mississippi dating from September 1862 through September 1863.

Gurdon Robins, Jr., of Hartford, Connecticut, documents battle and camplife in 1863, followed by his experiences as a prisoner of war in Libby Prison.

University Resources

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Betsy Pittman

University of Connecticut Bulletin

Archives & Special Collections has been enhancing access to key University resources for several years. The agendas and minutes of the Board of Trustees were the first to be made available online, quickly followed by the fact books and Commencement programs. With the implementation of our digital repository a year ago, the Libraries’ digital capture lab has worked tirelessly to digitize the Bulletin (course catalog), a frequently consulted and authoritative record of courses offered at the University over the years. As of today, the course listings at the graduate (1942-2010) and undergraduate (1950-1997) level, as well as the School of Social Work catalog (1976-1984), are available and searchable online–with more being added regularly. Check back regularly to see what additional resources have been added!

Archives to Host Pre-College Digital Media Course

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Graham Stinnett

2013-0052_gm030 Emzon Shung and Chron.Dis. Present, Box 1 Folder 1. Joe Snow Punk Rock Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut.

This summer, Research Assistant of Digital Media & Design Clarissa Ceglio and Archivist Graham Stinnett will be co-teaching two courses on Digital Humanities and Archives. The courses are for junior’s in high school intended to provide them with early education in University tools and resources such as libraries, archives and digital instruction. The course will focus its primary source work on the Joe Snow Punk Rock Collection at the Archives & Special Collections, where students will have a first hand experience with punk flyers, posters, stickers, pins and ephemera within the collection. Students will benefit from a behind the scenes experience with historical records and artifacts in an archives to prepare them for future research access in an academic setting. The archival experience will then be extended into the digital realm, where students will construct portals for digital content and description and analysis of primary resources on the web. Students will learn about techniques for manipulating digital content and interface tools to build contextual digital media pages. Providing students the opportunity to engage in archival resources at an early age promotes further investigation into historical documents as education and research continues at the University level and beyond.

UConn Library Archives and Special Collections Blog

Tag Archives: Digital collections