About Laura Smith

Archivist

Remembering the New England Hurricane, September 21, 1938

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Laura Smith

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The New England Hurricane of 1938 was one of the most famous of weather disasters in the region’s history and for many years the standard upon which all other hurricanes were held. The devastation was enormous: after making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on September 21 it is estimated to have killed between 682 and 800 people, damaged or destroyed over 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at $306 million ($4.7 billion in 2013).

Shown here are a few of the images we have in our collection showing the devastation from the hurricane. More photographs, from other libraries in the state in addition to Archives & Special Collections, are at Connecticut History Online, at http://www.cthistoryonline.org/. We also have an online exhibit showing photographs from the Southern New England Telephone Company Records on how this company responded to this natural disaster, at http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/exhibits/snet/beyondthecall/1938hurricane/index.htm.

A Letter from Thomas A. Edison

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Laura Smith

Letter from Thomas A. Edison to E.E. Dickinson & Co. of Essex, Connecticut.

Recently a researcher visited our reading room to look at the E. E. Dickinson Co. records and brought this letter to our attention. Written on March 16, 1916, from Orange, New Jersey, it is a letter signed by inventor Thomas A. Edison about his recommendation of Mr. V.L. King, who was seeking employment at the E.E. Dickinson Company, a maker of witch hazel and birch oil in Durham and Essex, Connecticut.

The E.E. Dickinson Company was established by Alvin Whittemore, who owned a drug store in Essex. By 1870, partners of Whittemore consolidated under the control of Rev. Thomas Dickinson and his family, including his son E.E. Dickinson, held the company as a family business until the 1980s. By the 1920s the company produced half of all witch hazel produced in the United States.

Archivists and historians value primary sources for their content and context — how they contribute to our understanding of historical events or a historical time. The value of a letter just because it has a famous person’s signature doesn’t usually fit in this category. It has a different sort of value, one where anything that attaches us to a famous person is automatically valuable. In any event, we are happy to know about this letter in our collection and hope you enjoy it too.

The Railroad of “Bankruptcy, Litigation, Fraud and Failure”

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Laura Smith

The “Hookset,” built in 1842 at the Hinkley & Drury Shops for the Concord Railroad. Was Locomotive #1 of the Boston, Hartford & Erie Railroad in 1863, then the New York & New England Railroad’s Locomotive #1 in 1871. From the Frances D. Donovan Papers, Archives & Special Collections, University of Connecticut Libraries.

One hundred and fifty years ago, in June 1863, the Boston, Hartford & Erie Railroad was incorporated with the goal of forming a gateway to western markets for New England goods and of bringing coal from Pennsylvania into New England by way of Newburgh, New York, to Waterbury, Connecticut, and beyond. Its lofty goal disintegrated when it came under the control of “as ribald a bunch of crooks as railroad history has ever produced,” wrote D.W. McLaughlin in his article “Poughkeepsie Gateway,” for the October 1968 issue of the Bulletin of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. The railroad ran into a myriad of troubles, including the realization that building an east-west route across Connecticut would involve navigating the state’s ridge lines, the problem of aligning with the non-standard gauge of track on the Erie Railroad (the western line it would hook up with once the railroad cars crossed the Hudson River), and the lack of a bridge for which to travel over the river. That apparently did not stop the railroad’s promoters from selling stock in the line, which they proceeded to mercilessly raid and pillage. The legislature of the state of Massachusetts was persuaded to give $3,000,000 in grants, odd in that the bulk of the railroad didn’t actually travel in that state, as it went into Connecticut. By the time the graft caught up with all the players, in 1870, the railroad was in bankruptcy with a mere $10.00 left in its accounts, Massachusetts was out all of the money it invested, and very little actual railroad track was ever laid. The remaining assets were transferred to the receivers of the New York & New England Railroad, who rerouted the railroad line from New York City to Boston and eventually became part of the New Haven Railroad system.

Sources for Research on Historic Properties in Connecticut

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Laura Smith

Goodspeed Opera House, East Hampton, Connecticut, from the Connecticut Historic Preservation Collection, Archives & Special Collections, University of Connecticut Libraries.

The architectural surveys in the Connecticut Historic Preservation Collection are a tremendous source for those who are researching historic properties in the state, and one of our most regularly requested collections here in the archives. But there are several other ways to find information about historic properties, including:

The Historic American Buildings Survey at the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/

The National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places: http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreghome.do?searchtype=natreghome

The Connecticut State Library’s database of 1930s WPA Architectural Surveys/Census of Old Buildings in Connecticut: http://cslib.cdmhost.com/cdm/landingpage/collection/p4005coll7

List of Historic National Landmarks in Connecticut: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Historic_Landmarks_in_Connecticut

Let me know if you know of others so that I can add them to the list.

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May 11 is National Train Day!

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Laura Smith

The New England Limited, better known as the White Train, or Ghost Train, which traveled from New York to Boston on the Air Line Division (formerly the Boston & New York Air Line Railroad) of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in the early 1890s. Leroy Roberts Railroad Collection, Archives & Special Collections, University of Connecticut Libraries.

Let’s get on board to celebrate National Train Day on Saturday, May 11! Amtrak organizes this event to celebrate the ways trains connect us all and to learn how trains are an instrumental part of our American story.

We here in the Railroad History Archive in Archives & Special Collections are celebrating this day by enjoying the rich resources in the collection that document how the railroad was pivotal to the lives of the people of New England in the Golden Age of Railroads in the late 1800s. This photograph shows the New England Limited on the Air Line Division, formerly the Boston & New York Air Line, which was built to provide a direct route diagonally across the state of Connecticut to connect the important financial centers of New York City and Boston. At the time this photograph was taken, in the 1890s, the B&NYAL was taken over by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad and then known as the Air Line Division. The New England Limited reminds us of a time when luxurious trains were ridden by the Gilded Era’s captains of industry.

Enjoy National Train Day at a station near you! For more information about the celebrations, visit http://www.nationaltrainday.com/s/#!/

The Last Steam Trip on the New Haven Railroad, April 27, 1952

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Laura Smith

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In the early 1950s the New Haven Railroad phased out use of its steam fleet in favor of its electric and diesel locomotives. Shown here is a menu and photographs taken on an excursion trip from Boston’s South Station to New Haven, Connecticut, through the route of the old New York & New England Railroad with stops in Willimantic and New London, Connecticut. The photographs were taken by Seth P. Holcombe and Ralph E. Wadleigh, both of whose photographs we hold in the Railroad History Archive.

Menu for New Haven Railroad’s last steam trip, April 27, 1952. Donated by Frank Morrissey, University Railroad Collection, Archives & Special Collections of the University of Connecticut Libraries.

[A Post for April Fool’s Day] — Telephone Operators Trained to Repair Lines

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Laura Smith

Southern New England Telepyohe Operators Practicing their Skills for High Wire Work

Southern New England Telephone Operators Practicing their Skills for High Wire Work

Telephone operators employed by the Southern New England Telephone Company fulfilled an important role for the company with their courteous and efficient service at the switchboards, but it is a little known fact that for a short period of time, from 1934 to 1937, many of the operators were also trained to work on the wire crews with the men. This was done as a precautionary measure by the company, so that in case of times of disaster, such as floods or hurricanes, ample staff was available to repair downed telephone lines. Shown here are operators Jeannette Pascal and Eleanor Hennypenny demonstrating their prowess on a catwalk the company strung between their headquarters in Hartford to an adjacent building. Operator Pearl Carpenter, who worked for SNET from 1931 until her retirement in 1968, reported to the archives on a recent visit that during the Flood of 1936, when operators were called to assist the men in line repair, she scaled a forty foot telephone pole in heels and stockings, successfully restoring telephone service to thousands in the Greater New Haven area.

[April 3: If you didn’t realize already, this post, from April 1, was an April Fool’s Day joke. As far as we know operators were not trained to scale the telephone lines, and we know of none who may have done so in heels and stockings. The real story is this: this photograph was taken in March 1936 when flood waters covered 1/5 of the city of Hartford. The streets were so flooded in front of the SNET headquarters that workers were unable to enter the building through the street level entrances, so this catwalk was erected to connect the headquarters building with an adjacent building and operators had to traverse the catwalk to get to the switchboards. We don’t actually know the names of the two ladies in the photograph — I thought the ruse would be more believable if I could pin names to women — and no operator by the name of Pearl Carpenter ever paid us a visit.]

Photographs from Archives & Special Collections part of an exhibit at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Laura Smith

Employee of the New Britain Machine Company during World War II

Several months ago I worked with Laura Blum, a student at E.O. Smith High School in Mansfield, Connecticut, who needed photographs from the Connecticut Business History Collections for a project she was working on for the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Laura was selected, with fifty other high school students in every state in the country and the District of Columbia, to provide images of how their states contributed to the challenges of World War II on the homefront. Laura chose six photographs from our collections, all depicting Connecticut workers and the efforts they made on behalf of the war effort, and wrote an introduction.

The photographs that Laura chose are available in the Connecticut window of the Salute to Freedom website of the National World War II Museum, at http://salutetofreedom.org/. We are happy that Laura used photographs from our collection for this national-oriented project and very impressed with the good work she did in highlighting and describing the photographs.

The museum blogged about the exhibit on December 31, 2012, available here: http://www.nww2m.com/2012/12/student-scholars-honor-local-contributions-to-wwii/

A Historical Comic Book of the Southern New England Telephone Company

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Laura Smith

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In January 1878 George Coy founded the District Telephone Company of New Haven, Connecticut, less than one year after telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his invention at Skiff’s Opera House in that city. Coy’s new company was the first commercial telephone company in the world.

Seventy-five years later, in 1953, the company now known as the Southern New England Telphone Company produced a charming comic book — Pioneering the Telephone in Connecticut — to celebrate its history. In 1998 the company records were donated to Archives & Special Collections of the UConn Libraries, and the comic book was among the materials.

Here are just a few cells of the comic book, a captivating way to learn about this important company’s history.

121st anniversary of the Train Wreck at East Thompson, Connecticut, on December 4, 1891

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Laura Smith

East Thompson train wreck, December 4, 1891

Known as “The Great East Thompson Train Wreck,” it involved four trains of the New York & New England Railroad: the Long Island and Eastern States Express from New York to Boston; the Norwich Steamboat Express from new London to Boston; the Southbridge Freight, a local train to Southbridge, Mass.; and freight train no. 212.

It started with the eastbound 212. To keep it from delaying the eastbound Long Island and Eastern States Express and the Steamboat Express, conductor William Dorman got orders in Putnam, Connecticut, to shift to westbound track no. 1, pass East Thompson and switch back to the eastbound track no. 2 in East Douglas, Massachusetts, 19 miles away. But no one notified the East Thompson station that an eastbound train was on the westbound track. As the train crew was coupling cars to the Southbridge freight train on the westbound track, Dorman’s freight train slammed into the engine. Several cars jackknifed and one was thrown across both tracks.

Moments later, the Long Island and Eastern States Express rounded the sharp curve at about 50 mph and crashed into the thrown car on track no. 2. The engine spun around, vaulted off the embankment, struck a telegraph pole and crashed. Steam plowed the soft gravel for about 150 feet and destroyed a home.

That crash killed Express engineer Harry Tabor and fireman Jeremiah Fitzgerald of Boston. Dazed trainmen tried to send a flagman to signal the Norwich Steamboat Express but it was too late. That train barreled around the curve and drove nearly 8 feet into the rear Pullman sleeper of the Long Island and Eastern States Express, setting the sleeper and engine cab on fire.

All this occurred in the space of 5 minutes.

Hundreds of passengers were injured. All four engines were destroyed, as were the sleeper and a baggage car, and the track was torn up for about 500 yards east of the passenger station.

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The Railroad History Collections here in Archives & Special Collections have a wealth of history about the railroads of southern New England, particularly the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, better known as the New Haven Railroad. For more information about the collection of 50,000+ photographs, 4000 linear feet of records, 5000+ maps, and innumerable timetables and annual reports in the collection, visit http://railroads.uconn.edu/.

National History Day, “Turning Points,” and connecticuthistory.org

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Laura Smith

In the years that I have been a curator here in Archives & Special Collections I have been fortunate to work with a wide array of researchers, from academic scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and genealogists to railroad fans, lawyers and preservationists, but I admit to you all right here and right now that I get the most satisfaction when I work with middle school and high school students, those who are at the early point of discovering the wonder and power of primary sources. And one of the ways we get to work with young students is to help them find the resources they need for National History Day projects.

Never heard of National History Day? Here is the description of the contest from the website at http://www.nhd.org/:

“Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide participate in the NHD contest. Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries. These products are entered into competitions in the spring at local, state and national levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators. The program culminates in the Kenneth E. Behring National Contest each June held at the University of Maryland at College Park.”

The theme for the 2013 contest is “Turning Points in History: People, Ideas, Events,” and connecticuthistory.org, a project of Connecticut Humanities, is helping provide primary sources to NHD students by creating a new series of essays called “Turning Points.”

Thomas J. Dodd at the Nuremberg Trials, 1945-1946, from the Thomas J. Dodd Papers

We here in Archives & Special Collections are collaborating with connecticuthistory.org by choosing materials from our collections and providing these sources and essays for students to use for their NHD projects. Two of the essays are currently online (with more to come), which include:

Connecticut Lawyer Prosecutes Nazi War Criminals at Nuremberg, which describes the work of Thomas J. Dodd, who served on the Executive Trial Council at the Nuremberg Trials following World War II, and the tragedy of Kristallnacht, a turning point that unleashed the persecution of European Jews by the Nazi regime.

Reporting News of Pearl Harbor, which tells of how Andre Schenker, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut and a commentator for Hartford radio station WTIC in the 1940s, reported this shattering world event — a turning point in history if there ever was one — to his Connecticut listeners.

There are more “Turning Points” to come, so stay tuned. Also, if you haven’t tooled around connecticuthistory.org then spend a few minutes with this extraordinary resource, reading the essays and looking at the unique photographs and documents. There is a lot to learn there about the history of Connecticut!

Laura Smith, Curator for Business, Railroad and Labor Collections

Last week of “Workers at Play” exhibit

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Laura Smith

Hartford Electric Light Company duck pin bowling team, 1950s

October 19 is the last day to view the Workers at Play exhibit, now showing in the Dodd Research Center Gallery anytime the building is open, Mondays through Fridays, 8:30a.m. to 4:30p.m. We’ve had a great response to the exhibit and appreciate all of the nice comments everyone’s given. Come see it before it’s outta here!