Summer vacation for school children around the country will soon be upon us, a time when we look forward to the excitement that summer brings.  It is also a good time to reflect on the importance of our educational instutions, and today we will do that with a brief look at the Montessori school system.   

Copyright Cowles Magazines and Broadcasting, Inc. publishers of LOOK Magazine

 

Nearly 100 years ago Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, inspired the birth of this worldwide educational movement. Dr. Montessori, one of Italy’s first female physicians, became interested in education while caring for mentally challenged children in a psychiatric clinic in Rome. There she combined sensory-rich environments and hands-on experiential techniques in the hopes of reaching children previously labeled “deficient and insane.” The experiment was a resounding success and with it the start of what today is a network of nearly 1,200 schools across the country that have incorporated core elements of her model—multi-age classrooms and early childhood education.

The Dodd Center holds the records of the American Montessori Society, which was founded in 1960 and since that time has succeeded in reviving the Montessori method in the United States and gaining recognition for it as a valid educational system. The society has become the foremost resource in America for Montessori education and teacher training. Check out more information at http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/findaids/ams/MSS20060230.html

An excerpt from Connecticut Campus, May 9, 1945.

So in this moment of triumph in Europe, when human nature practically compells us to feel that the worst is over and apathy is now in order, let us stop and consider. If ever America and the world needed moral, physical, and financial support – it is now.  Now is the time to dig in the hardest for there is a long torturous road ahead.

It is so easy to delude ourselves into feeling anything we could do would make no perceptible difference, but if anything we can do even helps shorten the war by one second and save one boy’s life – it should not have been in vain.

Published by Kent Popular Press and Kent Left Studios Forum in 1980. Cover photo from the Kent State University Archives.

On this day in 1970, the Commons at Kent State University was the place 500+ students gathered to rally against the invasion of Cambodia the day before.  This started a train of events over the next few days that culminated in the death of 4 students and 9 others wounded on what is known as the May 4 massacre.  

What is has become a powerful and pervasive symbol of many things to different people, it is at very least a fascinating event for research.  The strength of the Alternative Press Collection at the Dodd Research Center pertains to the Vietnam era and related unrest with alternative tabloids from the 1960s and early 1970s include Georgia Straight, The Berkeley Barb, and East Village Other.  It’s a great resource to learn more about the anti-war struggle that sparked the events of May 1.  http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/dodda2z/subjectarea.cfm?Area=1

CHPC documentation study done in 2002 of the West Cornwall Covered bridge over the Housatonic River

Have you ever been curious about the architectural and archaeological history of properties in Connecticut? Did you know that the Dodd Research Center is a virtual one-stop-shopping destination for information about thousands of historical properties and of hundreds of archaeological digs in the 169 towns in the state? It’s true! The Connecticut Historic Preservation Collection, a listing of which can be found at http://chpc.lib.uconn.edu, has information about architectural and archaeological studies done by professional archaeologists and historians, located at the Dodd Research Center. We receive them from the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism’s Historic Preservation & Museum Division. The studies date back to the 1970s and are current up to the present. Unfortunately, none of the surveys are available online so you’ll have to come visit us at the Dodd Research Center to take a look at them. We look forward to helping you find the properties you’re searching for!

CHPC documentation study done in 1985 of the Israel Putnam School in Putnam, Connecticut

As the first Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection, Attilio Frassinelli would have had many stories to tell. In this case, it would be about a housewife from Connecticut who saw an ad to buy a car for 1,395 bananas and decided to bring the bananas to the dealership. When they didn’t honor the ad, she went to Commissioner Frassinelli for help.

In a dedication cermony this past Sunday, the Frassinelli family donated the papers of the late Attilio “Pop” Frassinelli to the Dodd Research Center. Frassinelli’s biography is full of wonderful and interesting surprises.

A life-long resident of Stafford Spring, he was a mill worker, business owner, President of the Rotary Club, Justice of the Peace, insurance agent, the Connecticut Boxing Guild’s “Boxing Man of the Year”, dancer and First Selectman to name a few. In 1955 he was appointed as the first Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection and later, in 1966, elected Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut.

In the words of his granddaughter Dianne Bilyak, family and friends gathered in the Dodd Center “not just to honor, remember, and celebrate Pop, but also to gather as a family and be reminded of our collective history.” We are pleased that the family has chosen the Dodd Research Center to care for and house this important collection to the history of Connecticut.

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away

Although recorded 37 years after the release of Kodachrome 35mm silde film, the song “Kodachrome,” written by Paul Simon captures the feeling many people have about the remarkably stable film stock. “Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day….” Kodachrome slides from the late 30s, 40s and 50s have retained their ture color with no fading or color shifting. If you want to see what University life really looked like in that period, make sure you visit the exhibition The University of Connecticut in Kodachrome, 1939-1959 scheduled to open May 26, 2009 in the HBL Gallery on the Plaza. These photographs make those decades seem like yesterday. It’s cliche to say history will come alive, but it will.