{"id":1363,"date":"2011-02-16T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doddcenter.wordpress.com\/?p=1363"},"modified":"2011-02-16T08:00:44","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T12:00:44","slug":"the-nature-of-archives-and-the-delight-of-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/2011\/02\/16\/the-nature-of-archives-and-the-delight-of-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"The nature of Archives and the delight of discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most fascinating aspects of working in an archives is what you discover while looking for something else.\u00a0 And I’m always looking for something!\u00a0 As University Archivist and Curator of a wide variety of collections, I am frequently poking around in boxes and folders in our (secure and climate-controlled!) stacks in search of the odd document, image, report, study, letter or bit of ephemera needed to answer a question, illustrate a point or present to a class.\u00a0\u00a0 On a recent hunt for something interesting and unique to post for the January “Item of the Month” I thought to combine the desire to highlight a recent acquisition and resulting inventory with the upcoming 150th anniversary of the American Civil War (hostilities began April 12, 1861).\u00a0 Recalling a series of notecards labeled “Connecticut Civil War soldiers” in the recently inventoried Albert Van Dusen papers, I thought how perfect this would be.\u00a0 A newly accessible collection and primary materials brought to light in time for this significant\u00a0anniversary!<\/p>\n

As you can see from the images below, our conscientious copying of Dr. Van Dusen’s box labels \u00a0was not useful in my search for Civil War materials but I did discover a new resource to share with those interested in Connecticut’s involvement in the American Revolution.\u00a0\u00a0 A wonderfully unique and delightful discovery–but not what I was looking for.\u00a0 And so it goes.\u00a0\u00a0 Keep this in mind if you’re interested in commemorating the 236th anniversary of the beginning of the War for American War of Independence on April 19, 2011!<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Betsy Pittman, University Archivist<\/p>\n

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Ensign Nathan Haynes Whiting, 9th Connecticut Continental Line, 1777-1781<\/p><\/div>\n

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Private Stockman Sweat, 2nd Light Dragoons, 6th Troop, 1777-1783 <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most fascinating aspects of working in an archives is what you discover while looking for something else.\u00a0 And I’m always looking for something!\u00a0 As University Archivist and Curator of a wide variety of collections, I am frequently … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}