Author Archives: Laura Smith

About Laura Smith

Archivist

UConn’s mascot — a ram?

Posted on by
Reply

UConn mascot

It’s a little known historical fact that in the mid-1930s, when the Connecticut State College (an earlier name for what became the University of Connecticut) was pondering what would be its mascot, the ram shown above, named Sir Ram-a-lot, was seriously considered, edging out in student polling over the next most likely mascot, the Eskimo husky dog known as Jonathan.  The student newspaper quoted freshman Francis Pickering as saying “What kind of stupid name is Jonathan for a dog?  I think Sir Ram-a-lot would invoke the kind of fear and respect we need on the football field against opposing teams.”  Fortunately the students’s preference for the ram was contested by the new college president, Albert N. Jorgensen, who made the decision to allow the animals to decide between themselves with a vigorous game of rock/paper/scissors.  Jonathan was victorious, thus beginning his eighty year reign as UConn’s beloved mascot.

[We hope you enjoyed this April Fool’s Day post.  For the real story of what’s going on in this photo, visit our digital repository and see the photo at http://archives.lib.uconn.edu/islandora/object/20002%3A199722613]

Civil War diaries in the digital repository

Posted on by
Reply

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

Page from the diary of D. Alonzo Smith

Page from the diary of D. Alonzo Smith

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

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

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

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

Rollin Charles Williams, UConn’s first African-American professor

Posted on by
Reply

Faculty and staff at UConn's School of Social Work, ca. late 1950s

The first African-American professor at the University was Dr. Rollin Charles Williams, who was served as a professor in the School of Social Work from 1957 to his retirement in 1985.

Born in 1922 in Kansas City, Missouri, Dr. Williams was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, graduating from high school as its valedictorian and solo violinist in its orchestra. He graduated from Howard University and served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he earned the rank of sergeant major. He earned his master’s degree in social work from Boston University and then worked as a medical and psychiatric social worker for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Williams was the first psychiatric supervisor at Norwich State Hospital. Soon after that he was recruited by UConn to do field training for the School of Social Work, and asked to join the faculty in 1957.

Upon his retirement in 1985 Dr. Williams returned to his first love – music, particularly classical and operas. When he died in September 2012, at the age of 90, UConn President Susan Herbst wrote that he “exemplified the highest ideals of service, scholarship and integrity, and [left] a legacy that we can all strive to emulate.”

This photograph, from the late 1950s, shows Dr. Williams third from the right. The man who is third from the left is Harleigh Trecker, dean of the School of Social Work from 1951 to 1968.

Harrison Fitch, the first African-American basketball player at Connecticut State College

Posted on by
Reply

Harrison "Honey" Fitch, the first African-American basketball player at the Connecticut State College, 1934

Harrison B. “Honey” Fitch was a basketball standout at his high school in New Haven, and in 1932 enrolled as a freshman at the Connecticut State College (the name changed later to the University of Connecticut).  He was a strong member of the CSC basketball team yet endured racism and harassment at times from the players of opposing teams, most notably in a game, on January 28, 1934, against the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London.  The Academy refused to play the game if Fitch was on the court, arguing, as Mark Roy wrote in the February 2, 2004, UConn Advance, that “because half of the Academy’s student body was from the southern states, they had a tradition ‘that no negro players be permitted to engage in contests at the Academy.'”

Fitch’s teammates threatened to leave the basketball court if he was not allowed to play, and Fitch joined them in warming up for the game, while the officials argued and delayed the start of the game for several hours.  Although the Coast Guard relented, and CSC won the game 31 to 29, the team’s coach, John Heldman, inexplicably kept Fitch on the bench the entire game.

Fitch left CSC at the end of the 1934 academic year and transferred to American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts.  He then worked in research for the Monsanto Corporation, married in 1939 and had two sons, and died in the early 1990s.  His son, Brooks Fitch, told Mark Roy that his father told him he had a good experience as a student at the CSC and was always a fan of UConn basketball.

Updated finding aids

Posted on by
Reply

We’re always working on our finding aids, the guides that help our researchers pinpoint materials in the collections.  Here are those that have been recently updated, some because content has been recently added to the digital repository, or additional materials have been donated:

Albert E. Waugh Papers (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/Waugh/MSS19880059.html)

Katherine Shelley Orr Papers (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/orr/MSS19940012.html

Hartford Electric Light Company Records (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/Hartford_Electric/MSS19960010.html)

Feenie Ziner Papers (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/ziner/MSS19980220.html)

New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Valuation Maps (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/ValMap/MSS19980378.html)

Tomie dePaola Collection (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/depaola/MSS19990033.html)

Bob Englehart Collection (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/Englehart/MSS20040026.html)

Wendell Minor Papers (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/Minor/MSS20040075.html)

Connecticut Soldiers Collection, George W. Hanford Papers (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/Hanford/MSS20050140.html)

American Montessori Society Records (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/ams/MSS20060230.html)

New Britain Machine Company Records (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/nbmc/MSS20070049.html)

Joe Snow Punk Rock Collection (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/snow_punk/MSS20130052.html)

Edward J. Ozog Railroad Collection (http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/ozog/MSS20140044.html)

You can find a complete listing of all of our finding aids at http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/dodda2z/AToZ.cfm

Alan Thacker Busby, the university’s first African-American student

Posted on by
Reply

Alan Thacker Busby, the university's first African-American student, 1990

In 1914 Alan Thacker Busby of Worcester, Massachusetts, enrolled at the Connecticut Agricultural College, the first African-American student to attend what would become the University of Connecticut.  He worked his way through college by milking cows, feeding hogs and cutting ice from the campus pond and was an honor student and a member of the football team his Junior year.  In 1918 became the college’s first African-American graduate. After he graduated from college he served in World War I as a member of the Army’s all-black Field Artillery Unit, which stayed in France months after the war ended. After his military service he was an Animal Husbandry professor at Bordentown Industrial School in New Jersey, Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in Alcorn, Mississippi, and Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Busby Suites, a dormitory on the Storrs campus, was named in his honor.

This photograph shows Prof. Busby back at the University of Connecticut, when he returned to his alma mater in Fall 1990 to act as Grand Marshall of the Homecoming Parade.

Riding in style

Posted on by
Reply

Are you traveling during the holidays?  Wouldn’t it be great to take a cross-country train trip riding in this fancy parlor car?

New Haven Railroad parlor car 2129, ca. 1904

New Haven Railroad parlor car 2129, ca. 1904

This parlor car, owned by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, would be so luxurious you would never want to get to your destination.

You’ll find this image and more in the digital repository, in the New Haven Railroad Glass Negatives Collection.