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.

Northeast Children’s Literature Collection, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries

One indication that Children’s Literature hasn’t been considered a subject of serious academic interest until recently is the relative youth of the major Children’s Literature library collections in the U.S. Most of the main collections in academic libraries started within the last 50 years or so. And still today, there are very few active, serious collections in U.S. research institutions. Luckily, Connecticut enjoys one of the best.

The Northeast Children’s Literature Collection (NCLC) at the Dodd Center began in the mid-1980’s and has attracted the interest of authors, illustrators, teachers, and researchers throughout the country and abroad. The NCLC collection “includes books, manuscripts, illustrations, correspondence, artifacts,” with “over 36,000 catalogued children’s books and serials, and the manuscript archives of 90 authors and illustrators.” Anyone interested in the various stages in the creative process, from ideas to sketches and drafts, from these sketches and drafts to book dummies, and from book dummies to the final published product, will find the NCLC collections invaluable. UConn students studying literature, writing, fine arts, and psychology all make good use of these resources. Authors use the collections to do research and look for inspiration. All find assistance from the curator, Terri Goldich, who is inspired by the idea that the “NCLC preserves the original output of some of the most creative minds of our time.”

Goldich recognizes that Connecticut is well placed for a Children’s Literature collection. Many famous children’s book authors live in Connecticut. Many, obviously, are quite impressed with the collections and the facilities that have been made available at the Dodd Center. The Dodd Center provides a modern facility with sophisticated processing, exhibit areas, and climate-controlled storage for their special collections. If you need more proof that the community of children’s book authors and illustrators are committed to NCLC, take a look at this list of Honorary Campaign Chairs for the NCLC’s Endowment Fund drive: Jackie Clegg, Tomie de Paola, Leonard Everett Fisher, Steven Kellogg, Hilary Knight, Leonard Marcus, Barry Moser, Robert Sabuda, Marc Simont, Walther Wick, Jane Yolen, and Ed Young.

The list of the NCLC manuscript collections provides further evidence of the value this community of authors and illustrators place in the NCLC. NCLC has received art and personal papers of Natalie Babbitt, Barbara Cooney, Jane Dyer, Tomie de Paola, Leonard Everett Fisher, Hilary Knight, Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson, Loretta Krupinski, James Marshall, Barry Moser, Anita Riggio, Richard Scarry, Marc Simont, Jos. A. Smith, Cyndy Szekeres, and others. Seeing the original artwork of some of these authors is a special experience. Curator Goldich maintains contacts in the Children’s Literature world so that authors in the northeast consider the NCLC when it comes time to donate manuscript material. Anyone interested in the process involved in children’s book creation will be thrilled to see how some of our most popular authors developed creative ideas into popular children’s literature.

Much of this literature can be found in the NCLC’s book collection. This collection includes the Billie M. Levy Collection of Illustrated Picture Books, the Phyllis Hirsch Boyson Collection of Children’s Literature, and the Black Beauty Collection. Billie M. Levy is the co-founder of the collection and has donated over 10,000 books. The Black Beauty collection includes over 450 discrete editions of the classic by Anna Sewell. Collection guidelines call for accumulating “late 19th and 20th century books by notable illustrators, or which represent publishing or artistic phenomena; …contemporary books that have won major national or international awards, [and] contemporary books that were authored or illustrated by individuals associated with the Northeast or the Eastern Seaboard.”

Thanks to the efforts of Goldich, some of these books and manuscripts will soon be digitized for inclusion in the International Digital Children’s Library. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded a National Leadership Grant to the University of Maryland to create digital collections of children's literature. NCLC, Boston Public Library, and the University of Minnesota are partners in a grant to digitize parts of their children’s literature collections for inclusion in the Digital library.

The Dodd Center is quite active in promoting and drawing attention to the NCLC and Children’s Literature in general. Among the major events of the year for the Dodd Center, and in benefit for the NCLC, is the Connecticut Children’s Book Fair. Held each November, the Fair celebrates children and the books they read with two days of presentations, book signings, and children’s activities. The list of famous authors and illustrators participating is always impressive.

The Dodd Center offers Travel Grants for researchers 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.” There is also a Fellowship Grant to provide significant financial support to a promising author and/or illustrator.

To promote the field of children’s book illustration, the Dodd Center co-sponsors the Raab Associates Prize, where students in the Fine Arts department at UConn submit artwork to illustrate a poem. The prize is awarded in the fall in conjunction with the Connecticut Children's Book Fair.

The Dodd Center is open to the public. All collections are non-circulating and in closed stacks. Other subject collections at the Dodd Center include Alternative Press, Artist’s Books, Connecticut History, Human Rights, Railroad History, and many more. For more information on the Dodd Center visit: http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/speclib/ASC/index.html . For more information on the NCLC, visit: http://nclc.uconn.edu/ .

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

Patient Resource Library at the Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center

When Nancy Goodwin, Library Director at Middlesex Hospital, was trying to decide what to name the patients’ library at the Hospital’s new Cancer Center, she considered a more modern name like the “Cancer Resource Center.” Her non-librarian friends, however, helped convince her not to abandon a friendly, welcoming name like “library.” She also realized that a library designed first and foremost for patients should have a name that honestly conveyed that message. The “Patient Resource Library” seemed the best fit.

Designed with librarian input, the Patient Resource Library certainly fulfills the goal of being welcoming and accessible. Located in the Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center on Saybrook Road in Middletown, the Library is one of the first rooms you see when you enter the building. It is considered an integral part of the Cancer Center’s services and Hospital administration gives it the attention and support it requires to accomplish its mission. This mission “is to be the leading resource center for consumers in Connecticut with cancer-related information needs.” Unlike some hospital consumer libraries manned by nursing staff or volunteers, the Patient Resource Library is professionally run and committed to informing and assisting cancer patients and their families.

Janis Leird, a registered nurse and now a degreed librarian, serves as librarian. Jan provides guidance and reference service for all library users, as well as serving on various Cancer Center committees. She also plays a critical role in the Center’s quarterly newsletter. Jan gets involved in the Center’s activities and communicates regularly with Center staff. For instance, Jan worked with staff in the various departments of the Center in order to provide appropriate library material in the various waiting rooms of the building. With a background in public libraries, Jan brings a real public service commitment to this unique, patient library setting.

The Patient Resource Library itself provides books, videos, and magazines on general cancer topics, specific cancers, drug information, grief management, and complementary therapies. In keeping with making its collections more accessible, the Library uses a Planetree classification system, a system specifically designed to organize health-related library material for easy use by consumers. The Resource Library benefits from generous donations from the Clinton Rotary, which allows the Library to purchase far more published material than its book budget would normally allow. In addition, Jan borrows children’s books and books on CD from the Middletown Library Service Center to help supplement her collections

Besides library materials, the Patient Resource Library provides access to numerous cancer-related databases, many not freely-available at home. The Library has several public access Internet work stations where patients can do research or just check their e-mail. Jan provides extensive lists of reliable cancer resources which patients can access over the Internet. Jan’s reference service often involves a concerted effort to assist patients in better understanding a diagnosis or treatment.

Jan is quick to point out that the Patient Resource Library is not just for patients at the Cancer Center. The Library serves all members of the community looking for cancer-related resources. The collections are represented in the reQuest state-wide catalog, and the Library accepts interlibrary loan requests, including those made through reQuest ILL. The Library has its own web page (http://www.middlesexhospital.org/go/prl) with an online catalog anyone can search at home. Also, the Library partners with the Light One Little Candle Foundation to promote reading as a means for people with cancer to connect with the children in their lives. As part of this free program, the Library distributes new children’s books at the Cancer Center.

The Library takes part in many other outreach activities. Library staff promote the Library at staff and committee meetings, they participate in Open Houses and special Cancer Center occasions, and they provide library orientations to staff, visitors and Support Groups. Staff also sponsor Library events such as meet-the-author evenings where authors of cancer-related books discuss their work.

In a time when managing one’s health-care is so much more complicated, the Patient Resource Library serves an important role in assisting cancer patients and their families in becoming better informed and knowledgeable regarding their health-care. The Library, located at 536 Saybrook Road, Middletown, is open to the community Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Questions for the librarian can be e-mailed to cancer_center_library@midhosp.org, or you can call (860) 358-2020.

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

Wesleyan University's World Music Archives

The “world’s finest,” the “world’s largest,” a “one-of-a-kind set of recordings.” The World Music Archives at Wesleyan University’s Olin Library elicit these kinds of collection descriptions. In support of Wesleyan’s famous music department, the World Music Archives has a diverse collection of approximately 10,000 international and domestic recordings, much of it non-commercial, unique, and irreplaceable. And given the world’s growing fascination with the “world music” genre, the Archives is well qualified to satisfy new research demands in this area.

The World Music Archives has its roots in the collections of Wesleyan professor David McAllester, who brought his Native American field recordings to the University in the 1950’s. McAllester’s donation included one of the largest collections of Navajo recordings in the world. These recordings are a treasure to researchers and to the Navajo themselves. The Navajo periodically request copies. Besides the Navajo collection, the Archives has additional Native American recordings including those from the Comanche, Cherokee, and Northwest American tribal groups, most recorded during the 50’s and 60’s.

Today the Native American recordings make up only a part of the Archives’ collections. The World Music Archives website describes some of them :

Other important collections in the Archives include the only recordings in the United States of the Ulahingan, an epic of the Bagobo people in the Philippines; important collections of Iranian, Japanese, Spanish, Shetland Islands, Greek, Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe) mbira music, and North Indian (Hindustani); and exceptional collections of Indonesian and South Indian (Karnatak) music, two specialties of the world music program at Wesleyan.

Often the recordings are of complete performances in places and in circumstances that make commercial recording impossible. Many of these recordings come from the field research of Wesleyan faculty, alumni, and students, and are important resources in the current ethnomusicology program at Wesleyan. In particular, students make extensive use of the large collections of Indonesian and South Indian recordings. These collections are some of the largest and most extensive collections in the world. The Archives also received a recent donation of Afghan music.

Though the World Music Archives gets its name from its extensive international recordings, the Archives has diverse variety of domestic recordings. Among these include vintage tape recordings of one of the giants of jazz, pianist “Fats” Waller. Donated to the Archives by Clifford Morris Jr, a Connecticut jazz musician himself, this collection includes one-of-kind recordings made by Waller in the late 30’s and early 40’s. Other jazz recordings come from performances at Wesleyan by jazz artists Bill Barron, Ed Blackwell, Jay Hoggard, Anthony Braxton, Dave Brubeck, Joe Morello, Eddie Higgins, and others. Indeed, recordings from campus concerts and student recitals make up another large part of the World Music Archives collections. The concert collection includes Wesleyan concerts dating back to the1960’s.

The newest addition of domestic recordings comes from the Towne Crier Café, in Pauling New York, famous for jazz, folk, blues, country, cajun, zydeco, bluegrass, and world music performances by well-known and up-and-coming musicians. World music currently is one of the hottest and fastest-growing music genres. Collections such as this will attract increasing research interest. The Archives hopes to obtain grants to process this substantial collection.

Graduate students, researchers, and faculty are frequent visitors to the World Music Archives in Olin Library. As one might expect with these rare and hard-to-find recordings, most works have some restrictions on their use and are available for in-house listening only. Some recordings, like those of the Navajo, have especially stringent access restrictions. Other recordings, however, have fewer restrictions and sometimes may be copied after receiving necessary permission. Thanks to various grants, including two from the National Endowment for the Humanities, much of the World Music Archives collections have been preserved, and cataloged, and are available for searching through Wesleyan library’s online catalogs, and in OCLC. Researchers may search the catalog for relevant material before planning a visit.

The World Music Archives collections take up surprisingly little physical space and include videotape, open-reel, cassette, Digital Audio Tape, and compact disc media. Currently the Archives staff are beginning the process of transferring many of their recordings to a digital format. This will improve access to the collections through the use of streaming audio. Existing access restrictions will carry over to this digital medium. Nonetheless, researchers will appreciate the remote access that digital technology makes possible.

The World Music Archives is located in Middletown on the third floor of the Olin Library, Wesleyan University. Archives hours are normally Monday thru Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Staff include the Director, Alec McLane (who is also the Music Librarian), Jody Cormack Viswanathan and Jennifer Thom Hadley, Archives Assistants. Wesleyan graduate students assist the staff. Visit the World Music Archives website at http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/srhome/srwma.htm . For information on the Olin Library, see http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/ .

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

John W. Ramsay Research Library at the New England Air Museum

It must be a dream of many librarians to work in a place where books and the physical artifacts which the books examine coexist. Given an interest, who wouldn’t enjoy working in an art library surrounded by artwork, or in a naval library in an historic shipyard, or in an aviation library housed among historic airplanes? This latter library exists right here in Connecticut, and it is as large and as special as it is unfamiliar to many librarians.

Is it possible to have a library of over 20,000 volumes, 96,000 issues of periodicals, 5000 technical manuals, 600 videos, over 30,000 photographs, prints, and artistic renderings, and hundreds of boxes of archival material and not have any paid staff, and no real budget to speak of? Yes, if it is a labor of love like the Ramsay Research Library at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks. The Library’s Director, Bob Foster, and a staff of 17 volunteers “collect, preserve, catalog, and make available the history of aviation; especially, but not exclusively, as it relates to the New England area.” You might expect such a library to be named after a famous pilot, aviation pioneer, or perhaps a wealthy benefactor, but librarians will appreciate that the library’s board named this library after a former Library director, John W. Ramsay.

Started in 1960, the Research Library is a growing and thriving library run in support of the mission of the Museum. Though now a valuable asset to the Museum and to Connecticut, the library nearly disappeared after the tornado of October 3, 1979. The tornado tore off the roof of the hangar where the library collections were housed, but did not damage the collections themselves. Since that time the library space has expanded as the Museum has expanded. Currently the Library takes up about 7,000 square feet and includes a reference/reading room, work rooms, and stack and archive space at the Museum.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this library with no paid staff, no budget, and limited public hours must be un-used or un-impressive. This is one of the largest non-governmental aviation libraries in the world. Nearly every item in the collection is a gift donated by people who were involved in or who loved aviation. The volunteer staff work diligently to identify and catalog these donations. They are caring for the items in a space that every librarian would recognize as a bit cramped and a bit unorthodox. The book collection, for example, shares hangar space with historic civil aviation aircraft. Offices are cramped and drafty. And Library staff know when it is time to retire when they can no longer negotiate the steep stairs to the main collections.

Some notable treasures from these collections include a rare book collection that emphasizes early ballooning, technical aviation manuals, pilot operating handbooks, and a reference file collection covering 740 different aviation topics. The periodical collection includes a large number of hard-to-find private and short-run aviation publications that are no longer published. The photograph and artwork collection includes 21,000 black and white prints, 7,800 slides, photographs, and artwork documenting the history of aviation. The Library’s archive collections include papers from many New England aviation pioneers, including Burnelli, Whitehead, MacClain, Wittiman and others. The archives also houses the historic documents of the Connecticut Aeronautical Historical Association, the new England Air Museum, and others.

The researchers who depend on this Library include pilots, engineers, aviation enthusiasts and the general public. Though the stack areas are closed to the public, researchers may use the various finding aids available in the reading room. More importantly, staff will assist researchers with their questions. The Research Librarian will do limited amounts of research for patrons and will answer both e-mail and snail-mail reference questions. The only cost to patrons is for document reproductions. Museum displays often spark research requests, including recent interest in the Lafayette Escadrille, the group of American aviators who fought with the French in the early years of World War I. Also of special interest is the Library’s materials on early women aviators.

Thanks to some recent cash donations, Library staff have acquired computers to begin the long task of providing a future online catalog. In the meantime, much of the volunteer staff time is taken up with the sorting and identification of donated items so that they can be housed and cataloged or sold in a Library book sale. The Library can’t keep all the donations it receives, so the Library hosts seven book sales per year and uses the proceeds to help support the library. Aviation book collectors are frequent visitors during these times.

For more information about the John W. Ramsay Research Library at the New England Air Museum, see their website at www.neam.org/exhibits/research.asp . The Library is open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 2pm and is located off Route 75 in Windsor Locks.

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

Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center

There has been a lot of nonsense written about Native Americans over the years. Fortunately, most libraries have been weeding out the dated and inaccurate texts in favor of more up-to-date and culturally-aware material. It might seem unlikely, then, that a library at the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation would be keeping all library material on native peoples, whether it be good, bad, or worse-than-bad. But the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center libraries keep everything in order to preserve the historical record of all writings on Native Americans.

The Information Resources division of the Research Center includes three parts, a Research Library, Children’s Library, and Archives & Special Collections. All share the mission of “preserving and reclaiming the cultural heritage of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation as well as collecting the written histories of other Native North Americans.” The libraries serve tribal members and their families, other Native people, museum staff and researchers, research fellows, students, student groups, and the general public. Considering the great interest in Native American studies, Connecticut is fortunate to have such extensive collections available locally.

The Research Library, for example, contains over 40,000 titles, 800 periodicals, and a large collection of microforms providing current and historical information on the histories and cultures of indigenous peoples in North America. The monograph collection includes a very popular Pequot Collection and Local History Collection covering Native history material as well as local town histories and colonial studies. The Native American Studies collection largely remains in the closed stack area, but is accessible for retrieval and use in the spacious reading room. Patrons use the online catalog to locate items and this catalog is available for searching on the web. None of the material in the libraries of the Research Center circulates.

Just off the reading room and Reference area is the serials collection, where researchers have access to one of the largest collections of newspapers and newsletters from tribal organizations. In addition, many historical tribal newspapers are available in microform. Besides these newspapers, the microform collection includes Bureau of Indian Affairs records, oral history collections, personal papers of individuals, and a large collection of early American imprints. In addition to the microform, there is a collection of visual and audio recordings as well as access to a number of electronic databases. A list of these Online resources is available on the Center web-site.

The staff of the Research Library will assist researchers with the use of the collections and will accept reference requests by e-mail. In addition, Library staff have created bibliographies covering a tremendous range of subjects. These bibliographies, many available on the Center web-site, are a reference librarian’s dream-come-true since they cover many of the most popular and most asked-for topics in Native American studies. Some examples include “Connecticut Tribes & Bands Mentioned in Historical and Contemporary Sources”, “Contemporary Native American Art”, Native American Food & Recipes”, “Native American Literature”, and the “Pequot War”.

This attention to detail, extensive resources, and helpfulness at the Research Library are duplicated in the Children’s Library. Additionally, this library is a lot of fun too, with a Storytelling Room and plenty of CDs and CD-ROMs to explore on-site. The Children’s Library provides an introduction to the Tribal Nation and other Native American nations and serves children through eighth grade, adults who work with children, and researchers of children’s literature. The collections include a Native American Historical Collection that, again, includes the good, the bad, and the worse-than-bad in literature on Native Americans, an Education Collection for educators, and most valuable of all a Native American Research Collection which contains materials written, illustrated, published, or endorsed by Native Americans. All collections are searchable in the Center’s online catalog.

Besides the work of maintaining and preserving their collections, the Children’s Library staff provide library-oriented programs for children and for adults. Of particular note to librarians and educators are the workshops available on how to evaluate children’s literature on Native Americans. And again, staff have created valuable bibliographies to support the use of the Library’s collections and assist in further research.

Besides the wealth of secondary source material found in the libraries discussed above, the Research Center supports an Archives and Special Collections division for the acquisition, preservation, and use of primary source material. This division shares the goals of the libraries in supporting research into Mashantucket Pequot history as well as other Native North American histories and cultures. “Research topics currently supported by the collections include social and political relations between Native Americans and non-Natives: the use of occupancy of lands by Native Americans: the roles of the colonial, federal and state governments…in Native affairs; the presentation of Native American in popular culture; early depictions of Native Americans, as well as other subjects.” The Archives collects and protects many valuable documents, maps, and manuscripts that might otherwise disappear in the popular private market in Native American material.

Archives researchers are encouraged to make advanced appointments. Staff will accept e-mail reference requests. Many of the collections are searchable through the Center’s online catalog.

Of special additional note, the Center sponsors a Native American authors series which “gives readers a chance to hear literature come alive through the voices of Native writers.” Recent events have included Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki), Ed McGaa (Oglala Sioux), Wilma Mankiller (Cherokee), Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel (Mohegan), and Evan T. Pritchard (Mi’kmaq). Next to visit, this October, is Barrie Kavasch, from The Institute for American Indian Studies. Go to the Center’s website for more details on this series.

The staff of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center Information Resources section include Betsy Peterson (Head, Information Resources/Exhibit Projects), Gabriella Kaye (Reference/Children's Librarian), Sara Niesobecki (Senior Reference Librarian), Nora Costello (Reference/Information Technology Librarian), Julia Campisi (Acquisitions/Serials Librarian), Janet Everett (Library Technical Assistant), Amy Langlois (Assistant Archivist), Laura Nemergut (Archives Technician).

For more information on the Research Library, Children’s Library, and Archives and Special Collections of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center visit their website at http://www.pequotmuseum.org/Home/LibrariesArchives/ and online catalog (www.mpmrc.com). Research Library and Archives hours are 10 AM to 4 PM, Mon.- Fri., and Children’s Library hours are 11 AM to 4 PM, Mon.– Fri.

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

East Granby Public Library Historical Room

Are the collections of the East Granby Public Library’s Historical Room unusual? No. Unique? Yes. As is typical of many of the small towns in Connecticut, East Granby has a local history collection housed in the town’s public library. And though this town’s history is not so unusual for a rural New England community, it is unique to East Granby. As such, the library’s history room provides an important example of what is possible and valuable in having a local history collection in the local public library.

The East Granby Historical Room has been a part of the Public Library since 1983 when the town first published a local history book. Betty Guinan, the co-author of the history, just happened to be the Director of the library and she wished to make the source material from the project available to the public. The history room began at that time, thanks to private donations and the continuous work of Mrs. Guinan who, now retired as librarian, still works on the history collection. She is assisted by Anne Borg, former assistant director of the Kent Memorial Library in Suffield where she, similarly, still works on Suffield’s local history collection.

When the town of East Granby built a new library building, the town chose to build a bigger and better room for the history collection. Guinan and Borg provided input for the eventual design of this space and the town listened to their advice. This is not a stuffy, disorganized room with a static collection, but a room with a growing collection of materials donated by town residents and researchers. And unlike the plight of some history rooms, care is taken to properly house, catalog, and index new materials as they come in. In particular, the photograph collection is well organized and safely preserved.

This sort of care costs money and few small public libraries have this in abundance. Luckily, private donations help cover much of the Historical Room’s ongoing costs, but the town library has a line item specifically for history room expenses and no matter how small the amount of money, this establishes an important commitment by the town to support this project in the future.

As is typical of many local collections, East Granby’s includes maps, genealogies, local, regional, and state histories, family files, church documents, cemetery records, street directories, account books, slides, and photographs. One of the more unique items include title searches for the town’s historic homes. These searches are indexed by owner, so researchers can find out who owned what and when. Real estate agents have found this resource especially useful for finding out the previous ownership of historic houses. Also valuable and somewhat rare in small-town collections is an oral history collection. These tapes, with transcripts, were part of the material generated during the research for the recent town history project. Another unusual holding is the original Civil War letters of Sidney Hayden, a volunteer in Connecticut’s 16^th infantry regiment and an unfortunate veteran of battlefield defeats and of Andersonville Prison. He returned from the war only to die a week later from the diseases contracted while a prisoner.

Every town has at least one or two unique historic places and East Granby is no exception. Old Newgate Prison and Copper Mine, owned and operated by the State of Connecticut as a tourist site, lies in the northwest part of town. Researchers use the public library’s history collections for source material on the prison and the history room’s documents have helped establish some new and fascinating historic finds. First, with the help of old photos, documents, and oral testimony, historians recently rediscovered the small prisoner’s graveyard. This search provided the New York Times with a great story. For those interested, the article is available via an iCONN for “New-Gate Prison”. Similarly, through various documents, Guinan and others believe they have found the true location of the Copper Mine’s stamping mill where men processed the mine’s ore in the 1700’s. Though originally believed the be in Simsbury, maps indicate that the site is probably in East Granby.

As is so often true of the history collections in small towns, much of true value of the collections is to be found in the people that work or volunteer their time there. Guinan, for example, is the official Town Historian and is always ready to assist researchers and genealogists no matter where they are from. Guinan and Borg answer mail, phone, and e-mail reference questions and will assist in searching for specific information. In return they only ask that researchers provide them with copies of any material written or published that the researchers eventually produce.

There are bigger local history collections (Suffield’s is a good example), and there are collections with more primary materials, more photographs, and more resources on general Connecticut history. But what you won’t find in any other local history collection is so much useful local history and local genealogy material about East Granby and it environs. This is what makes these collections so valuable. Nowhere will you find as much materials and expertise on the history of a specific area than in a local history collection. And nowhere will this valuable information be more available for use than in the local public library. A collection locked away in a building not open or accessible to the public is of no value to a community’s citizens. In most cases, the public library is the best place a local history collection can be.

The East Granby Historical Room is open by appointment. See the East Granby Public Library’s website http://www.egpl.org/ for more details.

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

Watkinson Library, Trinity College

Special Collections libraries seem irrelevant in modern times….until you spend some time in one. After just a half-hour viewing the Watkinson Library’s latest exhibition, Catalysts for Religious Change: Monuments of Reformation Printing most thoughtful visitors will see how relevant history captured in print really is. The religious, political, and social changes of the Reformation, as seen in the printed books of the 15th and 16th centuries, remain relevant today as modern society struggles with its own outbreaks of religious and sectarian strife. Intolerance, bigotry, censorship, propaganda, satire, all important elements in the Reformation, are more than just reflected in the printed books of the period; these books helped make history just as surely as the intolerance, bigotry, censorship, propaganda, and satire (e.g. Danish cartoons of Mohammed) of today’s media are helping make modern history. This is one of the reasons why the special exhibitions and collections of the Watkinson Library at Trinity College provide such a valuable resource in Connecticut.

The Watkinson Library is not just the special collections library of Trinity College, it is also a library intended for public use. The “nearly 200,000 volumes….include late medieval manuscripts and early printed books, a vast array of 18^th and 19^th century British and American publications, important 19^th and 20^th century literary manuscripts, diverse ephemera collections, a comprehensive collection of ornithology books, and a large collection of modern private press books.” Founded in 1857 for “all citizens and other residents and visitors in the State of Connecticut”, the Watkinson Library still serves these patrons as well as providing the Trinity College community with convenient access to some of the finest research collections in New England.

Jeffrey Kaimowitz and the staff of the Watkinson Library are actively involved in promoting the research value of the Watkinson. This is the motivation for the regular exhibitions that they design and organize approximately twice per year. These exhibitions usually highlight existing material, but sometimes the staff will purchase or borrow items to help complete the story described in the exhibitions. A recent exhibition, Alternative Voices: Artists’ Books, Comix, and Zines, an exhibition of contemporary work from the Watkinson collections, was of special interest to librarians and others interested in the book as an art form. This exhibition helped show how artists have used the physical book as a vehicle for artistic expression.

The current exhibition on Reformation printing highlights an impressive collection of early printed books from German, Swiss, French, British and other printers. As stated in the catalog introduction “it begins with pre-Reformation criticism of the Catholic Church, in particular that of Savonarola, Sebastian Brant, and Erasmus. There follow cases on Luther and Lutheranism, Swiss Protestantism, especially Zwingli and Calvin, free thinkers and dissenters, the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and the Reformation in England, and the English Bible from Tyndale to the Authorized Version.” By design, the book choices illustrate mostly the religious debate and struggle of the Reformation. At the same time, the books themselves helped make history as their existence affected the religious, social, and political change of the period. The Reformation may be the first major historical event where a new information technology played a crucial role in promoting change, just as the internet today seems to play a similar role in affecting modern events. Exhibitions like this one helps us remember how the past so clearly repeats itself, no matter how hard we try to avoid such condemnation.

All of the works that make up the Reformation exhibition come from the Watkinson’s own holdings. These holdings include an impressive number of manuscript books of hours, 200 incunabula and over 1000 16^th century books. Much of this material demonstrate the development of fine printing methods and include many illustrated books. Librarians interested in the book arts would do well to explore the Watkinson holdings.

The Watkinson library is famous for many other collections. The Library’s Americana, especially 19^th century material, is the library’s strongest subject area. Included here are collections on the Civil War, slavery and abolition, Indians of North America, schoolbooks, etiquette, and popular and church music. Other important subjects are botany, architecture, archaeology, Bibles, British History, children’s literature, the classical tradition, jazz, religious history, voyages and travels, women’s studies, and World War I. The Watkinson is well represented with print literature from famous English and American authors, and has many examples of major private press titles of the 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th century. Besides print material, the library has extensive manuscript collections from Charles Dudley Warner, Robert Frost, E. A. Robinson, Lydia Sigourney, Sir Walter Scott, and others. Manuscript collections also include the papers of the Connecticut famous, such as the politician Odell Shepard, the musician and composer Nathan Allen, author James Hammond Trumbull, and educator Henry Barnard. The Watkinson Library also houses the Trinity College Archives.

Perhaps the Watkinson Library is most notable for its ornithology collection. Considered one of the best in the country, the Ostrom and Alice Talcott Enders Collection has over 7,000 monographs dating from the mid-16^th century to the present, and includes major ornithology periodicals, manuscripts, papers, and a small group of original paintings created for book illustration. With a generous endowment specifically for the Enders collection, the Watkinson Library continues to build in this subject area. The Gurdon Russell Natural History Collection complements the Enders Collection and includes John J. Audubon’s stunning elephant folio Birds of America.

Located on the A-floor of the Trinity College Library, the Watkinson Library is open 9:30 to 4:30, Monday thru Friday, and occasional Saturdays (call the library for details). Researchers register as Library readers and may consult reference staff for assistance. The Library has open house programs during the year and both exhibitions and open houses are free and open to the public. Be sure to pick up the excellent exhibition catalog when you come for a visit. For more information on the Watkinson Library, visit their website at www.trincoll.edu/depts/library/watkinson/ or call 860-297-2268.

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

History and Genealogy Unit of the Connecticut State Library, Hartford

Connecticut has its share of libraries devoted to Connecticut history. What makes the History and Genealogy Unit (H & G) of the State Library different is its owner. the citizens of Connecticut. H & G’s mission and its duty to Connecticut citizens is "to preserve and make accessible the records of Connecticut's history and heritage." Any citizen wishing to research this history and heritage can do no better than to start at the reference desk of H & G in the State Library building in Hartford.

Taxpayers should not fear that the State of Connecticut has wasted money in providing spacious parking and luxurious facilities for those visiting H & G. Parking is limited and the basement location is Spartan at best. Nevertheless, visitors to H & G find a wealth of primary and secondary material and a staff of nine ready to assist with inquires.

When asked who these visitors usually are, Richard Roberts, the director of H & G, lists the usual suspects, high school and college students, genealogists, and historians. More surprising are the frequent visits from environmental scientists and surveyors, and this gives a clue to why H & G is so unique. Unusual collections are usual here. The aerial photograph collection, starting with photos from 1934, provides valuable information to homeowners, surveyors and environmental scientists and is only available at H & G. Other unusual collections include coroner’s reports from the late 1800s, railroad commissioner’s reports, divorce records into the 1960s, broadsides, coats of arms, and large collections of pictorial archives (including advertising and business cards, artwork (1875-1942), bookplates (1770-1935), government photographs, postcards (1890-1930), travel posters (1920-1969), and World War I and II posters..

H & G can provide this variety of source material partly because it provides reference services and access to the Connecticut State Archives. In fact, several times in the past, Archives has been folded into H & G in the State Library’s organizational structure. Currently, though, the State Archives program is part of the Office of the Public Records Administrator and H & G now assists researchers in the use of Archives collections.

H & G has its origins in four separate State Library history projects. The first project, started in early 1900s, resulted in a file of vital records now known as the Barbour Collection. This collection includes most Connecticut vital records (births, marriages, and deaths) to about 1850. The second project, known as the Hale Collection, provided vital information from headstone inscriptions in over 2,000 Connecticut cemeteries. The third project involved the gathering of Connecticut probate records. The State Library holds most extant pre-1850 probate estate papers and, for much of the state, papers dated into the 1900s. And finally, the fourth project gathered church records. The State Library holds original or copies of the records of over 600 Connecticut churches, many of them dating back to the 17th century. These four State Library projects, all started as separate endeavors, eventually became the responsibility of a History and Genealogy department of the State Library.

H & G has become more than a convergence of records projects, however. It is very much a library with excellent collections of local histories and genealogies that cover Connecticut and much of the northeast. H & G actively develops these collections with new purchases. Other important published and non-published collections include city directories, historic newspapers, military records, census records, ship’s passenger lists, genealogical charts, historic manuscripts, and historic maps. Many of these materials exist in microfilm and do not require use of original copies. Original copies, when needed, are pulled daily from the Archives and used under supervision of H & G staff.

Richard Roberts and the H & G reference staff provide a gateway to the use of all these collections and researchers and genealogists are encouraged to visit and ask for assistance. If people cannot visit in person, H & G staff provide a limited amount of reference service via phone, mail, and e-mail. The staff also travel to libraries, schools, and historical societies to conduct outreach programs on Connecticut history and genealogy topics. Those wishing to start their research at home should first visit H & G’s web site (http://www.cslib.org/handg.htm) to find descriptions of collections and rules for use. The published works in H & G collections are searchable in the State Library’s online catalog, CONSULS http://csulib.ctstateu.edu/), and some books may be obtained through interlibrary loan. Other historic records are made available through iCONN (www.iconn.org), including census records on Heritage Quest. Some digital resources are available on-site to H & G patrons, including Ancestry Library Edition ( a genealogy database to complement Heritage Quest), and New England Ancestors (a database of New England genealogical resources).

Though digitization of historic records has been fueled mostly by an increasing demand for genealogical resources on the internet, H & G is actively pursuing opportunities to digitize other parts of their collections. In two separate projects, the State Library is digitizing both the 1934 aerial photograph collection and a census of historic Connecticut houses. This census took place as part of a WPA project in the 1930s and involved providing photographs and descriptions of historic homes in every town and city in Connecticut. The State Library is also contributing to Connecticut History Online (http://www.cthistoryonline.org/) and hopes to contribute Connecticut scenes, individuals, and cities photos as well as Matthew Brady photos, historic CT postcards, and two surveys from the World War I era that provide valuable source material for research on Connecticut immigrant and minority populations.

Recently, H & G staff have noted a decrease in activity with census microfilm after these records became available on the internet. Don’t expect all this digitization to reduce visitation to H & G, however. The digitization process is slow and costly, and further digitization of H & G collections may only increase interest in its other collections not yet digitized. So besides the importance of funding more digitization projects, Connecticut taxpayers won’t be able to dodge that parking problem. And even Connecticut citizens who can’t visit H & G will be able to appreciate that the State of Connecticut is using some of its resources to preserve Connecticut history at the State Library.

History and Genealogy, Connecticut State Library
231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106
Tel: 860-757-6580, Fax: 860-757-6677
Monday through Friday: 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and Sat.: 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

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