The Civil War Collection at the Connecticut Historical Society Museum and Library

Many librarians wonder whether there is any real logic to lumping libraries and museums under the same federal agency, the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Connecticut Historical Society provides a good example why this seems very logical indeed.

When researching a topic such as the American Civil War, the serious researcher would expect to mine many sources. There might be trips to libraries, archives, and museums. The researcher might find relevant printed materials, manuscripts, photographs, broadsides, prints, or even 3-dimensonal items such as flags, portraits, or weaponry. Anyone doing Civil War research with a Connecticut angle would find all these resources in one place at the Connecticut Historical Society (CHS) in Hartford. And when visiting, the researcher would enjoy one access point to this library/archives/museum material. As is becoming a trend in similar institutions, the CHS now provides one point of access for all collections. Historians, genealogists, students, hobbyists, and tourists all have access to the “Museum and Library” collections through the CHS Research Center. This helps give both the researcher and the staff a more holistic view of historical subjects, thereby helping to make all those connections critical for good research.

The CHS “is one of the oldest historical societies in the nation and houses one of the most distinguished museum and library collections in New England. The museum’s collections include more than 242,000 prints and photographs and 38,000 objects, with strengths in 17th and 18th century furniture; costume and textiles; portraits and landscapes; tavern and trade signs; decorative arts; and toys and tools. The library holds more than 125,000 volumes, 1,300 maps, 3,700 broadsides, and three million manuscripts, including one of the nation’s finest genealogical collections.” CHS has exhibition galleries, offers educational programs, public programs and events, and they are lead participants in Connecticut History Online, a cooperative digital collection of over 15,000 images. Currently CHS provides an Internet-accessible OPAC for a portion of the library and archives collections. Museum collections are accessible via an on-site search tool, but this database will be available on the Internet soon also.

CHS’s Civil War collections demonstrate how CHS can provide research material in multiple forms. The print collections include most of the regimental histories for Connecticut, as well as published service records. Genealogists often receive assistance in finding information on ancestors who may have enlisted in one of the Connecticut regiments. Ephemera collections include a “covers” collection. These covers are actually envelopes with political and pro-war slogans. Other manuscripts available include soldier diaries, letters, muster rolls, recruiting broadsides, and some of the papers of the war Governor, William Buckingham. Among the more interesting letters are those between a Union soldier and his future wife at home (in both directions), and the letters of the African-American soldier Joseph Cross. Many of the manuscript collections on the Civil War are searchable on the CHS website. The graphics collections include engravings and lithographs, as well as photographs of groups, individuals, and battlefield shots. CHS has a fine collection of carte de visites organized by regiment and searchable by name. Among the “museum” collections are uniforms, soldier accoutrements, firearms, swords, and a surgeon’s field desk complete with the monthly reports filed by the surgeon. CHS has a jaw-dropping hand-painted, silk regimental flag which was hanging near Lincoln at Ford’s Theater. CHS also has a more mundane and (presumably) jaw-breaking piece of hardtack (a hard biscuit) saved by a soldier when he received it on his last day of service. CHS has what may be the only known surviving banner from the “Wide-Awakes,” an organization of young Republicans who marched frequently during the early days of the Republican Party.

Though historians of the Civil War will find much to study at CHS, it is genealogical research that provides 50 percent of CHS inquiries. CHS has a large collection of both published and unpublished genealogies. There are collections of local histories, published vital records, church records, cemetery inscriptions, city directories, genealogical periodicals, and major genealogical resources on microfiche and microfilm. CHS provides onsite access to Ancestry Library Edition, Heritage Quest Online, and New England Ancestors.

Genealogists and other CHS visitors will find many other treasures at CHS. For example, CHS holds the largest collection of 18th- and 19th-century tavern, hotel, and inn signs to be found anywhere. These signs were featured in a recent “Antiques Roadshow” program on PBS. The signs make for a spectacular display in the Auditorium. As well as the print and manuscript collection of Civil War material, CHS has important Connecticut collections on African American history, early almanacs, early bookbinding, famous historic Connecticut authors, early Children’s literature, newspapers, Connecticut imprints, account books, and early travel accounts.

CHS is only on its second year providing a single access point to its Museum and Library collections. Librarians will be interested in how CHS divided their staff teams on the lines of Collections Development vs. Collections Access rather than Museum vs. Library. Despite the need for cross-training, libraries like CHS are seeing the benefits of this approach with better service to their users.

The Connecticut Historical Society is located on One Elizabeth Street in Hartford. For more information, go to their website at www.chs.org .

An edited version of this article appeared previously in Connecticut Libraries.

Finding and Remembering Depression-Era Art in Connecticut: The W.P.A. Inventory Project at the Connecticut State Library

Hollywood movies often show a band of heroes searching for priceless treasures believed lost, stolen, or mythical. Right now the State Library is on its own quest for treasure, but this time the treasure may be in many different locations. From the early 1930’s to the outbreak of war, the federal government invested substantial funds in back-to-work programs, including work projects in the arts. In Connecticut the feds employed 160 Connecticut artists to create over 5000 pieces of art. About 1700 of these paintings, murals, and sculptures were allocated to public institutions throughout the state. So who were these artists and where did all their artwork go? Could some of these items still be in libraries?

The Connecticut State Library is trying to answer these and other questions regarding the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) Federal Art Project in Connecticut. This was the first time that the federal government made a concerted effort to invest directly in American artistic culture. FDR’s administration set up Federal Theater, Music, Dance, and Writers Projects, as well as an Art Project. Their intention was to put creative people to work, and in the case of the Art Project, this meant employing painters, sculptors, photographers (to photograph the art work), and carpenters (to build frames). Some of the artists would enjoy great success and others would disappear, along with much of the Art Project artwork.

Mark Jones, State Archivist, is in charge of the W.P.A. Inventory Project. With special Legislative funding, Mark began working with the records of the Federal Art Project now in the State Archives. These records include artist cards that list much of the artwork created by the artists. Though there is some information available on what public institutions received the artwork, not all the art went to institutions and some of the art produced by the project is not accounted for in the records.

Last summer, Mark Jones used the help of a summer intern and art student, Nolan Pelletier, to put all this information into databases with the intention of creating a searchable Internet resource. This resource will include the information on the artist cards as well as digital versions of the black and white photographs taken of the artwork by the Project photographers. Mark and his staff have also done considerable research on the artists employed during this WPA program. Consulting directories, databases, art museums, newspapers, and other resources, Mark is compiling short biographical information on as many artists as he can identify and this added information will make the eventual Internet resource an invaluable tool for art students and historians in Connecticut.

Beatrice Laving Cuming (1903 –1974), for example, studied painting in Paris during the 1920s and spent much of her life traveling to places where she considered the landscape inspiring. Employed for several years by the Art Project, she would go on to paint in Texas and New Mexico, would write a book about travels in North Africa, and would design her own home in New London, Connecticut.

Vito Covelli (1882-1958) was born in Italy and found much success as a landscape painter in New York City. He and his wife, a renowned opera singer, moved to a secluded rural property in Barkhamsted where Vito painted and his wife composed music and wrote poetry. The Covellis called their place a “National Rural Art Museum,” where visitors stopped to see the “hundreds” of paintings in their house.

John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) and James Henry Daugherty (1887-1974) were critically acclaimed and internationally known artists. Curry lived for some time in Westport, painting murals there before leaving the Project in 1936. His last great murals, painted in 1943 at the Kansas state house, would create such controversy for their depiction of the Civil War era “bloody Kansas” that he was not allowed to finish them. Curry died shortly thereafter. Daugherty would enjoy a longer life and spent much more time in Connecticut, living in Westport and Weston. Daugherty is well known for his Depression-era murals, one of which was saved from destruction during a renovation project at the Stamford High School when a passing bicyclist found the mural canvases in the trash.

Unfortunately, other WPA artwork that found itself in the trash probably did not benefit from a similar rescue. The State Library’s Inventory Project seeks to find as much of the Art Project’s artwork as possible. The State Library itself has about 50 items in its collections, including at least one painting recovered recently from a Hartford area school and about 30 that had found their way to State Surplus. But Mark is quick to point out that the State Library is not interested recovering the art for State ownership. The Inventory Project hopes to find and photograph as much of the artwork as possible so that these digital photographs will be available in the State Library’s Internet inventory. Phase two of the Inventory Project will involve trying to locate and photograph the artwork in Connecticut, especially those art pieces that found their way to public institutions.

What public institutions? Generally the Art Project allocated artwork to court houses, state hospitals, sanatoriums, post offices, schools, and libraries. Even if the artwork was not specifically allocated to the library, many of the public institutions which did receive artwork no longer exist or have been moved to new facilities. Some of this artwork may have found its way to the local library. How would you know if the artwork you own is from the Art Project? There may be a label somewhere on the frame (if it hasn’t been replaced) or on the back of the artwork. If so, a call to Mark Jones will help provide verification. Generally the Art Project managers of the 1930’s were looking for art that was pleasing to the eye. Don’t expect to find much of the era’s surrealist art, though some of this art did get commissioned as part of the Project. Artists were more likely to create social realist art, and often painted landscapes, still lifes, and depictions of transportation, sports, or school subjects. At least one artist made the Merritt Parkway the main subject for his paintings.

What makes the WPA Federal Art Project so important in Connecticut? Nothing like it had been done before or since, which makes the Inventory Project so important in understanding Connecticut’s Depression-Era art history. There is more information available on the State Library’s WPA Inventory Project at http://www.cslib.org/archives/wpaartannounce.htm. Or you may contact Mark Jones, State Archivist, at 860-757-6511.

An edited version of this article appeared previously in Connecticut Libraries.

Mystic Seaport Collections Research Center

With America’s long history of maritime commerce and adventure, it is not surprising that a research center dedicated to man’s relationship with the sea and inland waterways would be of interest to researchers around the world. And not surprising either to find this research center at Mystic Seaport, the nations’ premier maritime museum. What is surprising, however, is to find a research center where everything maritime, from manuscripts to fine art, exists together in one location. The Mystic Seaport Collections Research Center is not just a library, or an archive, or a museum, it is all of these things.

Housed in new quarters in a renovated velvet mill, the Center boasts a variety of maritime collections, many available for research and study in the Center’s reading room. Visitors include students, researchers, genealogists, hobbyists, historians, boat owners, ship builders, and many others. Those who cannot visit the Center will find extensive online resources. There are online catalogs of book, manuscript and art collections. Online databases include crew lists, seaman’s protection certificates (like a passport for sailors), and yacht registers. Besides online catalogs and databases, the Center has digitized many of their more popular collections. Center staff have digitized about a half million items and continue digitizing daily. No wonder, then, that the Center attracts so much interest from researchers world-wide.

The Manuscript Collection includes “ships’ logs and journals, ledgers, diaries and documents from the whaling, fishing and shipping industries, and various business and personal papers of yacht clubs and naval architects.” These manuscripts, many dating back to the 18th century, give researchers some of the most valuable and straightforward ways of accessing the experiences of men and women at sea. Ships’ logs give a glimpse of the day-by-day life of sailors . Of interest to genealogists, historians, and model builders, ship registers provide information on the owners, captains, and sea-worthiness of thousands of ships on the seas in 19th century America. Of particular interest recently are the insights the manuscripts give into the ethnicity of sailors, the experience of women at sea, and the early labor activity of sailors. The race, gender, and ethnicity of sailors are listed in many of the ships logs and journals. Students and scholars make good use of this primary research material.

The Book and Periodical Collection specializes in American maritime history. The G.W. Blunt White Library has around 75,000 volumes, including 3,000 rare books and 700 periodical titles. Subjects include “ships (passenger ships, merchant marine, ocean liners, Coast Guard, naval and pleasure), immigration, yachting, voyages, women at sea, crew lists, whaling, exploration, and discovery.” Of particular note is a full run of the periodical The Rudder, a famous yachting and boating magazine which started in the late 19th century.

The Ships Plans Collection includes over 125,000 sheets of plans for ships traveling by wind, steam and gas. There are plans of existing boats and historic boats, merchant vessels and private yachts, rowing boats and naval vessels. Of particular note are the plans, correspondence, and design drawings of L. Francis Herreshoff, a famous ship designer and author. Herreshoff’s ship plans and drawings are of particular interest to boat and ship builders and hobbyists. For the study of ship-building architecture, the ship-building industry, and the sheer artistry of ship-building, the Ships Plans Collection is invaluable.

The Center has many non-print collections of use to maritime students and scholars. The Photography Collection covers “more than150 years of commercial and recreational activity and include onboard, shipyard, and waterfront scenes; portraits of shipmasters and other mariners and Inuit life and culture.” The Film and Video Collection “covers a broad range of subjects, including storm scenes, boating, ocean passages, yachting, various ports and cities, boat building and restoration, lighthouses, whaling, rowing, Gold Cup races, sail making, ice boating and fishing.” The Sound Archives includes oral histories and recorded lectures and events on maritime activity.

As noted earlier, the Center is not just a library or archives, it also includes an Art and Objects Collection. This collection “includes American marine art, ephemera, nautical instruments, ship models, scrimshaw, industrial fishing gear, furniture, whaling implements and myriad tools from the various maritime trades.”
All these collections, from nautical folk art to the log books of the Charles W. Morgan are found under one roof and made available for study by the staff of the Collections Research Center. The staff provide a number of research and copy services.

Before any visit, researchers should look at the extensive resources already available online at http://library.mysticseaport.org . Digital materials can also be found on Connecticut History Online http://www.cthistoryonline.org . The Mystic Seaport Collections Research Center is located at 75 Greenmanville Avenue in Mystic, a stone’s throw from the Seaport Museum.

An edited version of this article appeared previously in Connecticut Libraries.

Railroad History Archive, Dodd Center, University of Connecticut

Transportation is a big issue for many Connecticut citizens. Whether stuck in traffic jams on I91 or I95, or stranded at Bradley Airport with a ticket to a cancelled flight, today’s travelers are apt to dream a bit about the days when the railroads worked well and went everywhere. Few realize that just 100 years ago you could take a train to almost every city and town in Connecticut. Starting in the 1830’s, various railroad companies began building rail lines through southern New England and by1872, through consolidation and mergers, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad had become one of the major railroad empires in the United States. The corporate records of this railroad, commonly known as the New Haven Railroad, are now held at the Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut. They are the nucleus of one of the largest railroad history collections in the Northeast.

The New Haven Railroad records span over 2100 linear feet and deal largely with the administrative, financial, legal, and real estate transaction files of the company. Though the records do not include the personnel files many genealogists search for, they do include many corporate records of predecessor and subsidiary lines such as the Central New England Railway, the Providence and Fishkill Railroad, the Housatonic Railroad, and others. The New Haven Railroad remained in business until 1969 when mismanagement and competition from the airplane and automobile led to its failure.

This huge collection of corporate records became accessible to researchers at the University of Connecticut in 1989 and then became a part of the Dodd Center in 1996. As often happens with the establishment of such an important core collection, the New Haven Railroad archives attracts donations of collections from many private collectors, railroad enthusiasts, and researchers. Among the most important of these collections is the Property Valuation Maps created in 1915 by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Railroad Stations and Structures collection. The maps and drawings provide detailed information on the real estate and architecture that were a part of the rail lines at that time. Of particular interest are drawings of many of the stations, freight houses and other structures in the New Haven Railroad.

Photographs make up a particularly valuable and accessible part of the Railroad History Collections. There are approximately 50,000 photos and postcards, with many scenes of stations, locomotives, bridges, and rail scenery. Charles B. Gunn, the official photographer of the New Haven Railroad during the 1950’s, documented the devastation of the 1955 floods. The papers of Harry E. Brown, an electrical engineer with the company, include many photos of the New Haven Railroad’s railroad electrification project. The New Haven Railroad is renowned as the first mainline railroad in the United States to use alternating current electricity that it generated from its own power station at Cos Cob, Connecticut, to power its trains that traveled from New Haven into New York City. Besides the popular photograph collections, other resources include annual reports, leases and other real estate information, ledgers, stock certificates and timetables.

Laura Katz Smith is the curator of the Dodd Center’s Railroad History Collections. Laura sees a variety of researchers, including railroad enthusiasts, hobbyists, modelers, graduate students, genealogists, local history researchers, and Department of Transportation employees. Lawyers handling property disputes, landowners, land surveyors, and rails to trails people are particularly interested in the Property Valuation Maps. Architects and town officials are often interested in the station and rail building photographs and drawings. Laura emphasizes that though she has an interest in and appreciation for railroad history, she approaches the subject first as an archivist and librarian. Most reference questions are unique and require a unique response. Many serious research visits require careful preparation beforehand. Laura does as much as she can in helping people who can’t come in person for a visit.

Railroad enthusiasts can be a passionate group of researchers, but they aren’t the only ones passionate about historical accuracy. Laura says that more than one novelist has contacted her for information on old train timetables. Often the novelist will want to place their character in a historically accurate setting and will want to know where a train went and when, how long the journey took, and how much it cost.

Laura is involved in several projects to bring some of the collection’s materials to the Internet. First, the Railroad History Archive (http://railroads.uconn.edu/ ) is the gateway site to general information about the Railroad History Collections. The UConn Libraries “Digital Mosaic” site ( http://images.lib.uconn.edu/ ) includes digital images of “Steam and Electric Locomotives of the New Haven Railroad, “ part of the Fred Otto Makowsky Papers, and 900 Connecticut maps from the “New Haven Railroad Valuation Maps.” There are 2600 maps in this collection and more maps are being digitized now. Many photographs of Connecticut railroad stations are available on Connecticut History Online ( http://www.cthistoryonline.org/ ). More information on the New Haven Railroad’s railroad electrification project is available at http://railroads.uconn.edu/locomotives/electrification.htm.

For more information on the Dodd Center, see http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/

An edited version of this article appeared previously in Connecticut Libraries.

Windsor Historical Society Library

As the first European settlement in Connecticut, Windsor is not the biggest or the most famous town, and a few might argue that they might not even be first. But if you are a historian or genealogist and your research involves Connecticut, then you are very likely to end up in this historic town. So many early European-American families got their start here that researchers naturally find themselves searching for information on Windsor’s early history and first families. Luckily the Windsor Historical Society is there to provide many of the resources these researchers are looking for. Town residents, Connecticut citizens, and out-of-state tourists visit for the historic attractions offered by the Society and for the research materials available in its Library.

Founded in 1921, the Windsor Historical Society is a nonprofit organization formed to “inspire public awareness and appreciation of the diverse people, places, and events that contribute to Windsor’s evolving history.” As well as exhibition galleries, a museum shop and bookstore, two historic houses, and a hands-on learning center, the Society has an active Library open to the public. The Library maintains an important collection of books, manuscript collections, cemetery records, regional and state histories, town reports, local newspapers, school yearbooks, city directories, ephemera, and maps. All this material helps tell the story of Windsor and the families that lived there. Though area residents make good use of the Library’s collections for local history research, the library also attracts many people from outside Windsor and outside Connecticut. Genealogists, students, and researchers all make use of the Library’s published collection of genealogies, local Windsor and regional histories, local newspapers, and area historical journals.

Besides collections of these published materials, the Library owns about 60 different manuscript collections. Among them are family papers, church records, cemetery records, and Windsor vital records. The Library owns over 100 account books from 18^th and 19^th century Windsor businesses. The Connecticut tobacco industry is the object of renewed interest recently and the Library has important manuscript material in this area including the Huntingdon Brothers Records and the Records of the Shade Tobacco Growers Agricultural Association. The Library also has been protecting and indexing material in what they call the “Old Document Project.” This collection includes various land records, business documents, legal documents, estate documents, town contracts for road work and school teachers, lists of district school pupils, early military documents, and personal records including genealogies and correspondence. This Project’s materials are well indexed by name, date, and document type. Of particular interest to Windsor residents, and a popular research topic, are the Library’s material on historic Windsor houses. Many Windsor home owners use the Library’s resources for exploring the history of their historic homes and the homes’ previous occupants.

As is often the case with local history collections, the Windsor Historical Society Library has extensive photograph and postcard collections. The Library is also actively accumulating and organizing maps from primary and secondary sources. These materials see heavy use and require special care.

The past newsletters of the Windsor Historical Society have research value in their own right and the Society has indexed and made them available in paper and online via the Society’s website. Also included on the website are descriptions and finding aids for many of the manuscript collections available in the Library. Besides finding aids, the library has a card catalog and is using museum-specific software to compile a database of its holdings.

Barbara Goodwin, Librarian for the Society Library, works on creating more finding aids and in organizing and collecting material for the Library. Goodwin would like to see the holdings of the Library represented in the statewide reQuest database some day. Right now the Library has a budget for new acquisitions and it does accept donations of documents, manuscripts, and other material that “relate to Windsor history, Windsor genealogy, or the object collections of the Windsor Historical Society.” None of the items in the Library’s collections circulate. Goodwin encourages researches to visit the library in person where she can provide direct assistance. She will also assist those who are seeking help by mail or by email and a certain amount of research is provided for free before any research fees kick in. Goodwin gets assistance on specific projects and some genealogy research from a group of about a half-dozen volunteers.

The Windsor Historical Society Library is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. with a nominal admission charge of $5.00. They are closed Sunday, Monday, and major holidays. Find out more about the Windsor Historical Society and its Library at http://www.windsorhistoricalsociety.org.

An edited version of this article appeared previously in Connecticut Libraries.

State Education Resource Center Library

If you didn’t know anything about the State Education Resource Center Library on Industrial Park Road in Middletown, you might assume from its unassuming name and location that this must be some sort of warehouse of books for teachers and that there probably would not be any trained staff to help with research. Luckily, you would be wrong. The SERC Library is no warehouse and is instead a very welcoming library with staff trained to assist with any and all research in the education of children and youth in Connecticut.

Legislated into existence in 1969 as the Special Education Resource Center, SERC evolved into a resource for both special and general education, including early childhood education and school improvement. In 2005, as a result of a change in State legislation, SERC changed its name (if not its acronym) to better reflect this broader mission. SERC “is known for providing high-quality, research-based professional development to educators, service providers, families, and community members as part of its commitment to improve the achievement of Connecticut's children and youth.” The Library is a central component in this mission as SERC consultants try to incorporate library resources into the work they do in their programs and initiatives. Much of this activity involves helping school districts respond to the various state and federal education requirements and much of the SERC Library collections support this specific function.

Despite the more formal role that SERC plays in supporting school districts, the Library “is open to the public and provides access to a wide variety of educational resources to all educators, parents, student support services personnel, administrators, prospective educators, and other interested individuals in Connecticut and its surrounding states.” From Ph.D. candidates to high school students, from working teachers to parents, the Library serves a varied clientele with different needs and research abilities. Approximately 11,000 Library members borrow materials as individuals and most items in the SERC Library collections circulate.

The more popular of these collections include: Testing material, often used to respond to specific educational requirements and given to students in schools by trained personnel; Instructional material, used directly by teachers in classrooms ; and In-Service Education material, used by working teachers for professional development. Other resources include: Professional Books, Family Books, CD-ROMs, Vertical File Resources, School-Family-Community Partnership Resources, and Young People's Books. All these collections are represented in the SERC online catalog. Also, the Library has a number of major online databases available for use in the Library, including H.W. Wilson's Education Index and EBSCOHost’s ERIC, Education Research Complete, and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection databases. Journal articles may be accessed via these databases or by using the extensive collection of education journals available in house. Many of these specialized journals are not available in electronic form.

The SERC Library is much more than a just a depository of education-related library materials. As the SERC Library’s “ Beliefs and Values” statement says, “We seek to acquire the best and most comprehensive collection of materials in the field of education. We are dedicated to making our Library as user-friendly as possible by providing exceptional personalized assistance to our patrons.” It is the customer-concerned, service-oriented staff that make this library a treasure. Each person using the library gets individual attention and assistance. A long list of bibliographies, prepared by staff, are available to help jump-start research on common topics. The online catalog may be available over the web, as are the bibliographies, but a visit to this Library is often much more focused and effective than what one is accustomed to in academic libraries with similar collections. Library staff also welcome visits by classes and will visit organizations to promote the use of SERC Library services. In addition, the Library helps SERC disseminate a wide variety of government and non-government pamphlets and other resource materials on special and general education topics.

In planning for the future, the SERC Library is looking to expand its offerings of online resources. SERC also wants to make the Library a more integral part of its professional outreach service. A new community room will allow the library to bring programming specifically to its library customers and community members at large.

The staff at the SERC Library includes Co-Coordinators Donna-Lee Rulli and David Cormier, Library Assistants Megan Bozzi and Yolanta Garcia, and Library Associates Susan Cohan, Barbara Wallach, and Diana Whitehill.

The SERC Library is open six days a week and is located at 25 Industrial Park Road in Middletown. For more information, go to their web site at http://www.serc.org/library.


An edited version of this article appeared previously in Connecticut Libraries.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Library

When Harriet Beecher Stowe researched the experience of slavery while writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she wrote Frederick Douglass and asked him to recount his own memories as a slave. This letter to Douglass and many other manuscripts of special interest to researchers in 19th century history are available for study in the Stowe Center Library. The Library, with a collection of over 12,000 books, 4,000 pamphlets, and 180,000 manuscript items, as well as 12,000 photographs, prints, and other images concentrates on 19th century women’s history, the Stowe and Beecher families, 19th century African-American history, and on Victorian architecture and the decorative arts.

The library is located in the Katharine Seymour Day House, next to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s residence in Hartford. Katharine Day, Stowe’s grandniece and famous in her own right as an artist, preservationist and philanthropist, established the library and museum and provided a core collection. Since then, the collections have grown as the Stowe Center collected materials related to the world in which Harriet Beecher Stowe was such a major figure.

Anyone who questions Harriet Beecher Stowe’s importance in 19th century history, in the women’s movement, and in the abolitionist cause, need only look at the 26 volumes of petitioning signatures that Stowe brought back from a visit to Britain shortly after publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Filled with names of British women moved by her portrayal of slavery, the volumes fill more than a dozen shelves in the Stowe Center storage vault. This large, climate-controlled storage area houses the bulk of the Stowe Center Library, including an extensive collection of editions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The most treasured edition, of course, is the first printed book edition. The modest, and plain appearance of this edition belies its great influence on American history.

Besides the various editions of Stowe’s most famous work, the Library has first editions of Stowe’s other works, as well as interpretation, criticism, and a variety of 19th century publications written in response (both pro and con) to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Other publications trace the 18th and 19th century attitudes toward African-Americans, and recount the abolitionist struggle during those years.

Though known for her work on behalf of the abolitionist cause, Stowe and her sisters and friends were active in many important women’s issues of the day. The Stowe Center Library is particularly strong in material related to 19th century women’s history. Among the material available at the center are books, letters, and manuscripts from: the founder of the Hartford Female Seminary Catherine Beecher; the founder of the New England Woman Suffrage Association Isabella Beecher Hooker; the Civil War nurse Margaret Foote Hawley; the freed fugitive slave and abolitionist Harriet Ann Jacobs; the children’s library pioneer Caroline Hewins; and the poet Lydia Huntley Sigourney. The Center also has extensive correspondence from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Various members of the Beecher family, such as Harriet’s father Lyman Beecher and brother Henry Ward Beecher, played major roles in the intellectual and social history of the time. The Stowe Center Library has hundreds of letters, manuscripts of sermons and lectures, newspaper clippings, photographs, and other documents that help researchers examine the world in which the Beecher family lived and worked. Other famous Hartford families of the period are represented in the collections, including the Hookers, Footes, and Gillettes. Of particular note is the outstanding collection of letters, manuscripts, typescripts, and play scripts of the actor and playwright William H. Gillette. The Stowe Center continues to receive collections donations from the various descendants of the Beecher and other famous Hartford families.

As seems appropriate for a library housed in a beautiful Victorian building, the Stowe Center Library has collections of research materials for the study of Victorian architecture and design. The holdings include architectural journals, builders manuals, manufacturer’s catalogues, and samples of wallpapers, stenciling, and carpeting. There are original drawings, elevations, and plans from local architects, including George Keller, Hartford’s leading architect of the period.

As Collections Manager, Elizabeth Giard is the gateway to the varied collections at the Stowe Center Library. Giard maintains the collections, does the cataloging and indexing, helps with acquisitions and donations, and provides reference assistance. She will provide a limited amount of research via mail, phone, or email.

Though Giard has already started digitizing parts of the collections, she is exploring ways to expand collection digitization. Currently parts of the collection are represented in the University of Virginia’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture” web resource
( http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/utc/ ), and the book collection is represented in the iCONN reQuest catalog. Giard also assists with the exhibition of parts of the collection in the Stowe Center and elsewhere. The collections are used largely by graduate students and writers/researchers, as well as some high school and college students.

Located at 77 Forest Street in Hartford, the library is open to the public by appointment Monday through Friday. All collections are non-circulating. For more information call Elizabeth Giard at 860-522-9258 ext. 313 or visit the website at http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/collections/ .

An edited version of this article appeared previously in Connecticut Libraries.