Teagle Special Collections Project

This was the third and last workshop sponsored by the Teagle Foundation as part of the Teagle Special Collections Project. The Teagle Foundation grant allowed the Yale Library and several Connecticut colleges and universities to form a partnership to explore and develop best practices for successful student learning using special collections. The project brought together librarians, archivists, curators, faculty, and other professionals who explored current practices and defined the basic challenges of using special and original collections.

The June 16 workshop was convened by Ann Okerson, Associate University Librarian for Collections and International Programs, and Principal Investigator, and held in the Peabody Museum Auditorium, Yale University. Its day-long program included visits to the exhibition “Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas,” currently on view at the Peabody Museum, and to the New Haven Museum & Historical Society.

Susan O. Walker, Assistant Librarian at the Lewis Walpole Library and member of the Steering Committee for the grant, welcomed the participants and summarized the purpose and goals of the project, then introduced the first speaker, Janet Sweeting, Head of the Office of Museum Education, Peabody Museum.

A native of New Haven, Sweeting has a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with concentration in Physical Anthropology and Human Ecology from Cornell University, and a master’s of science in Museum Education from Bank Street College in New York City. She has been at the Peabody for over thirty-five years, where one of her goals was the introduction of informal education experiences for visitors, and to that end she developed the Discovery Room, where visitors can touch materials and observe live animals, etc. When she started working for the Peabody, museum education as a university program did not exist. This, and the lack of an education background, initially made her consider the possibility of moving to another institution; and she decided to stay only after realizing the advantages of working for a museum that is part of a large university: rich collections and good teaching opportunities.

This brief introduction was followed by a behind-the-scenes tour of the exhibition “Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas,” which Sweeting used to explain how such events fulfill educational purposes and fit in the overall outreach program of the museum.

In the second half of her presentation, Sweeting provided a brief history of the Museum and its collections, which mirror the evolution of natural sciences as an academic discipline at Yale. Like most natural history museums, the Peabody started as a cabinet of curiosities. Yale’s first science instructor, Benjamin Silliman, was a lawyer whom in 1802 Timothy Dwight, then president of the Yale College, appointed to the newly-created professorship of chemistry and natural history. Since Silliman had little knowledge of either subject, he spent the next couple of years studying chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. This was followed by a longer sojourn in Britain, most notably at the University of Edinburgh, where he acquired a practical knowledge of geology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, and medical subjects. During this time Silliman collected a large amount of rocks and other mineral specimens, which he eventually brought back to Yale. This collection, initially started for teaching purposes, grew to become the largest of this kind in the United States and was the very beginning of the Peabody. The museum was officially founded in 1866 with a generous donation from wealthy businessman and philanthropist George Peabody. A strong supporter of education and “open access” to cultural institutions, Peabody established endowments to advance the liberal arts and sciences in the United States. He also supported the academic and scientific career of his nephew Othniel C. Marsh, a Yale graduate who in 1866 was appointed to the nation’s first professorship of paleontology. Marsh’s contributions to science go beyond the purely scientific, as he was able to exploit his discoveries and reputation to lobby the government and secure funding for research.

Ten years after its foundation, the Peabody had to close its doors to the public due to the size of its collections, which were growing at an increasingly unmanageable rate. It was only after they were moved from downtown New Haven to the new location on Whitney Avenue, in the mid-1920s, that the public was readmitted; but some degree of incompatibility between the Museum’s public and private faces persists today.

In the 1970s the Education Department started to offer free tours of the museum to kindergarten children, and within a few years the Peabody became a “kindergarten museum.” This led to a decision to change the approach and focus on higher grades. The Machu Picchu exhibition, one of the museum’s most popular events ever, was the first to bring in high school as well as undergraduate and graduate students, who are freely admitted if the visit is related to course-work. Other education programs include courses for schools (kindergarten through 12 th grade) and adults, as well as two-day multidisciplinary workshops for teachers. The next workshop will explore human impact on Connecticut landscape in the past four centuries. Topics will include Native American pre-contact life, Colonial farming methods (as evidenced by stone walls), and the impact of invasive species (e.g., starlings brought over from England by a Shakespeare enthusiast who in 1890 decided that New York should be home to all kind of birds mentioned in the Bard’s plays). Although the museum is in the process of getting a new auditorium, many of these activities are currently conducted in the galleries due to the lack of classrooms (something that museums in general don’t do anymore).

Ms. Sweeting’s presentation elicited a number of questions, which allowed further discussion of some of her topics. The museum does not have a specific process to bring groups in, the best way to plan a visit being to contact the Education Office in advance. As for online databases describing the Peabody’s resources, many collections are showcased by virtual exhibitions on specific topics (the most recent being on human origins, to be followed by ancient Egypt and the environmental effects of 9/11). The museum does not publish a guidebook anymore, since it is difficult to gather around, and keep focused on, such a project all the people potentially involved. At the same time, it is not easy to do justice of the museum’s rich collections: about 15 million items, many of which—anthropological materials in particular—are now available online. This was a result of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a Federal law passed in 1990 which requires museums and Federal agencies to “return certain Native American cultural items—human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony—to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations.” The online availability of museum ethnographic collections makes it easier for tribes to identify objects for repatriation purposes.

The museum no longer provides educational brochures either, since information gets updated more quickly on the Web and non-written (i.e., verbal) documents are easier to use than printed materials—as the growing popularity of audio tours clearly shows. A new, five-year program to be launched in 2007 will explore the use of podcasting to enhance museum visits by allowing prospective visitors to download supplemental audio guide material from the Web to portable devices such as iPod or MP3 players, and to play it during their visit.

The second session, Faculty Perspectives on Utilizing Connecticut Special Collections in Historical Societies and Museums, featured two speakers who explored the topic from the point of view of a faculty member (Andrew H. Walsh) and of an archivist-trained consultant to various nonprofit organizations and cultural heritage institutions (Llyn Kaimowitz).

A graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Andrew Walsh holds a master’s degree in the History of Christianity from the Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Harvard University. Walsh is also Managing Editor of Religion in the News, a publication of the Greenberg Center’s Program on Religion and the News Media, and worked as a reporter, bureau chief, and religion writer for The Hartford Courant. He is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion and Assistant Director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College, where his academic interests focus on American religious, cultural, and political history during the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Walsh summarized the “rivalry” between archivists and historians in a laconic and yet eloquent way: “You got it and we want it”—the bone of contention being, of course, the materials preserved by the former and sought by the latter. Although “we don’t know exactly what you’ve got and how we are going to use it,” the quality and availability of primary sources determine the quality of scholarly research and its outcomes. A lot has to do with serendipity, of course. This is what happened, for example, to historian Robert A. Orsi (who has a B.A. from Trinity College, like Walsh, a Ph.D. from Yale University, and is currently Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America at Harvard Divinity School), when he found the papers of Leonard Covello in a Philadelphia archive. Covello was an Italian American teacher, school administrator, and scholar who worked from the 1920s to the late 1960s in a number of schools in East Harlem, a now largely Hispanic section of Manhattan which in the first half of the 20th century hosted the largest Italian American community in the United States. Among other things, Covello’s papers included hundreds of written assignments by his students, as well as transcriptions of interviews with their families, which documented life in their homes and community over several decades—a real treasure trove for historians.

The importance, for both students and scholars, of building relationships with archivists and librarians can hardly be overestimated. At Trinity students are expected to start archival research at the sophomore level, and most of the young men and women that Walsh sends to archives are typically 18-20 years old, at the beginning of their academic career, and with just a little or no research experience. Those enrolled in an introductory (gateway) course to American Studies, for example, are asked to choose a decade and to explore it by looking at a variety of materials using an interdisciplinary approach. The teacher plans the course of the research and identifies relevant resources, informing the historical society or archives of the students’ upcoming visit. The outcome is a brief paper based on primary sources and material culture.

For instance, students are asked to look at one year worth of missionary reports available on microfilm, and then write down what they found, avoiding contextual information, interpretation, or secondary sources. This is level one. Largely intended to whet the students’ appetite, it doesn’t involve much interaction with archivists (who are usually contacted and dealt with by the teacher). At level two, junior or senior students taking a research-oriented course are given the opportunity to go out—for example, to the Connecticut State Archives—and find things on their own. This is a big challenge, as students are told that their project will succeed if they find a number of relevant primary sources, and it will fail if they don’t. The next level is represented by a senior thesis project (75-250 pages) which requires serious archival research and at which only the most talented students—i.e., those with developed scholarly instincts—succeed. Usually, they struggle to locate and assess their material, to figure out if it is enough, and to recognize and deal with dead ends, and it would be helpful if the archivists they come in contact with had good interview skills, since the teacher is not there to provide guidance.

As an example of the potential pitfalls affecting undergraduate research, Walsh mentioned the case of a student who found the diary of a woman describing her relocation experiences from a rural suburb north of Hartford to the city itself. This was a valuable document which could be used productively to explore a good topic, namely women’s transition and adaptation to an urban environment in the 1800s. There was only one problem, but serious enough to hinder the research progress: the diarist proved to be a stern evangelical protestant and the student was baffled by this, to the point that she could not take seriously this aspect of her informant’s personality and even lost confidence in her material. This produced a stalemate situation, and to find a way out of it the student had to come to terms with her subject, as well as her own approach to it.

Walsh then pointed out the importance of a location such Hartford for a historian who, like him, teaches mostly religion and urban studies. We know much more about the history of New England’s coastal towns, such as New Haven or Providence, than we do of its equally important cities in the interior. Hartford, in particular, is full of little known and hardly used archives and other repositories of historical materials. One way to fill this gap was the creation, by Walsh and a group of colleagues, of the Hartford Studies Project, whose focus on local resources significantly affects the way historical research is done at Trinity. The presentation ended with a quick tour of the Student and Faculty Papers Web site, which lists—and in many cases links to the PDF version of—papers, theses, and dissertations about Hartford organized by topic (African-Africans, Architecture, Business, Culture, Education, Immigration and Ethnic Communities, Labor, Neighborhoods, Reform and Social Service).

Llyn Kaimowitz’s presentation, Utilizing Connecticut Special Collections in Historical Societies and Museums: The Repository Perspective, focused on the role of repositories in assisting students to do original research on their own, beyond the safe “nest” of the campus library. She used the example of two baby red-tailed hawks growing from “adorable tiny fuzzy balls to full-grown soaring hunters” (an evolution she witnessed with the help of the HawkCam at MIT), as a metaphor for the weaning process that college students have to go through in order to acquire the research skills necessary to become full-fledged scholars. This fledgling process, in which students are sent out of the protected environment of secondary sources and into the real world of primary sources, represents indeed a critical step in the development of informed citizens. One way to promote and facilitate this process is for colleges and universities (and their libraries) to build partnerships or relationships with local cultural heritage organizations, to enrich teaching and learning by providing access to special resources that are not available on campus. Drawing from her experiences as a history major and, later on, as consultant and advisor to various cultural heritage organizations, Kaimowitz outlined different approaches to the topic under discussion. Since the faculty perspective had already been covered by Andrew Walsh, she focused on the point of view of repositories, and considered a list of things that archivists and librarians should make sure that students and teachers know about the research process.

Usually, college students who undertake original research and use off-campus repositories for the first time tend to experience a number of anxieties, such as trying to find an interesting research topic, dealing with the practical aspects of an archives visit (location, parking, access policies, etc.), and not making a fool of themselves in the course of a reference interview with unknown archivists, curators, and librarians. But before they venture into alien repository territory, their first attempts at independent research usually involve the Internet, about which students tend to know less than the news media would lead us to believe. So, when helping students to start their research using this resourceful but also time-consuming, frustrating, and potentially misleading tool, teachers might wish to steer them right away to specific sites, of which Kaimowitz provided a couple of examples:

Connecticut History Online (CHO): A collaboration between the Connecticut Historical Society, the Connecticut State Library, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut, Mystic Seaport, and the New Haven Colony Historical Society, it provides access to about 14,000 images of photographs, drawings, and prints which may be searched or browsed in a variety of ways, including by keyword, subject, creator, title and date.
Repositories of Primary Sources: This is a listing hosted by the University of Idaho Libraries / Special Collections Web page, which links to over 5000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar.

Yet, even these resources fail to identify most repositories in Connecticut, and students need to establish contacts with qualified people—such as the Connecticut State Archivist, or the State’s Public Records Administrator—who might have a more panoramic and thorough view of state repositories. At the same time, they should not neglect to consider less orthodox sources of information, such as the Connecticut AAA book, which lists dozens of historical organizations by location, providing basic (i.e., practical) information for each one of them.

The next step, after finding a research topic and a repository, is to plan and coordinate a visit to the latter. Teachers can help in this phase too, by alerting students to the need of preliminary arrangements with archivists, librarians, or curators, as well as by assisting them with practical information and advice. Repositories, on their part, can communicate their rules and regulations and expectations up front by posting all practical information on their Web sites, thus allowing prospective users to better plan their visit.

Kaimowitz, in concluding her presentation, suggested that an effective way of enhancing collaboration and interaction between faculty and repositories, would be the use of the Web site of the Teagle Special Collections Project, which is hosted and managed by the Yale University Library, to post relevant information in the form of templates for other institutions.

A number of compelling questions underlined the interest raised by both speakers. Hannah Moeckel-Rieke, of Fairfield University, inquired about any experiences of collaborative research involving undergraduate students and faculty members. Andrew Walsh’s reply pointed out a basic difference between scientists, who are trained to be team players through lab work, and historians, who are individual players rewarded for results pursued individually. More specifically, his experience shows that colleagues tend to be less than enthusiastic about such collaborations, claiming that students don’t have the necessary skills (linguistic, for example) to be good partners.

John McCann (Albertus Magnus College Library) asked Walsh to comment on the difference between good research material and “antiquity stuff”. This, explained Walsh, can be traced back to the diverging agendas of antiquarian and historical interests and concerns. Most historical societies in Connecticut (and elsewhere) used to collected stuff about local ancestors in the belief their place was unique, special. History, however, is not about collecting and preserving vestiges of the past; it has to do with understanding, which relies upon analysis and interpretation. From the very beginning of their academic career, students should become aware of this fundamental truth: that all history is about interpretation. Unlike biology or other sciences, history is still characterized by basic disagreements. A really good professional historian asks the question “So what?” But in order to do so, one needs a good knowledge of historical literature. And students, in preparation for graduate school, need to be aware of this professional dimension, and be able to put it into a professional contest. Trinity College’s “liberal arts secret agenda” requires that a student completing his or her senior year be ready for professional work.

Linda Lerman, Librarian at Norwalk Community College, commented on the fact that it is difficult to even teach students the difference between primary and secondary sources, let alone show them how to use the Internet as a research tool. This difference, replied Walsh, is something that needs to be taught, without assuming or taking for granted that undergraduate students don’t understand it. But (he is often surprised to find out) experiences such as visits to museums and historical societies usually stop at around eighth grade.

Jeffrey Kaimowitz, Head Librarian of the Watkinson Library & Curator of the Enders Collection, Trinity College, remarked that there are about 130 historical societies in Connecticut; quite a large number, which makes research more difficult than in other states. This is typical of American history in general, added Walsh, for which there are an incredible number of sources everywhere. For example, anybody interested in 17 th century New England would be able to find entire buildings loaded with primary sources. The question then, observed Lerman, is how to bring all these institutions together. For example, nothing has been done so far to bring together the eleven historical societies in the ten communities served by her college (Norwalk CC). It would be worth paying a visit to each one of them and provide the College’s reference librarians with relevant information.

Susan Walker, on a different topic, asked Andrew Walsh how the issue of paleography is dealt with by students consulting primary sources. Generally speaking, handwriting does not represent a significant problem since most documents consulted in relation to Hartford studies are from the 19 th century or later. When it does, however, the approach is sink-or-swim.

In announcing the lunch break, Ann Okerson expressed her belief that, with the morning sessions, the workshop had gotten very close to the aims of the Teagle project. About Llyn Kaimowitz’s suggestion in regard to the project’s Web site, she remarked that the Teagle Foundation would be thrilled to see this happen, and invited the participants to submit ideas within the next few weeks.

In the first two afternoon sessions, on Historical Societies’ Outreach Programs, the directors of education of two such institutions gave an overview of their collections, services, and community-oriented activities. The tour of the New Haven Museum and Historical Society, by Jennifer White-Dobbs, focused on the Society’s outreach programs and activities, and included a visit to the Library, where Librarian James Campbell described the collections and how they support the research and educational goals of the Society.

The second (virtual) tour was given by Erik J. Larson, Director of Education and Community Programs, Fairfield Historical Society, and a graduate of the Cooperstown’s two-year program in History Museum Studies. Using the Society’s Web site as a reference, Larson described the institution’s make-up, collecting strategies, and initiatives in light of the community served. In addition to a museum and a research library, the Society operates the Ogden House and Gardens, a restored and furnished mid-18th century farmhouse, and manages six historic structures owned by the town, including three on the Old Town Hall Green and the Burr Homestead, a Georgian building erected around 1790 on the foundations of a previous structure burned by the British in 1779. The Ogden House and Gardens are used for community events such as the Summer History Day Camp in August, the Colonial Fall Festival in September, weekend tours, birthday parties, etc., while the Burr Homestead can be rented for art fairs, weddings, and parties. Revenues benefit this as well as all other historical facilities managed by the Society, and Larsen pointed out the advantages of using properties such as these, which are static, connected to nature, and subjected to seasonal change. In implementing its outreach program, the Society tries to develop initiatives and activities that go beyond the limited scope of Fairfield County history. Primary contacts with local colleges and universities (Fairfield University, Sacred Heart University) are through internship programs, which also bring students from institutions farther away (e.g., Harvard). Among recent or ongoing internship projects are a historical walking tour of the town, prepared by two senior students from Fairfield University; a PowerPoint presentation on 20 th century women in Fairfield; and an interpretive master plan of the Town Green. Internships, however, are not only about history, and students are offered a wide range of opportunities to work with the Society and its various units (including the marketing and business offices) in a mutually beneficial way. Needless to say, the Society’s collections are integral to all these projects. Because of the new Fairfield Museum and History Center, which is scheduled to open next summer on the Town Green, the Society is carefully looking at its business plan, to identify things that could and should be done better. As part of this effort, they hired a marketing firm in Stamford, to lead them through an extensive rebranding process.

Ann Okerson, commenting on Larson’s remarks on the lack of communication among the over 130 historical societies in Connecticut, suggested that efforts should be made to gather these institutions around some project that they could not be implement individually. From a librarian’s point of view—and librarians tend to be hyper-organized—it has become increasingly evident that cultural organizations cannot work independently from each other anymore; they need to communicate and cooperate in order to operate efficiently. This has been happening in the library world—and particularly in the academic library segment—for some time. Why historical societies cannot adopt a similar approach? Another important reason why cooperation should be pursued, observed Linda Lerman, is to seek grant funds. Most historical societies, in fact, don’t receive any financial support from their towns and depend upon private gifts. Moreover, there is currently a downward trend in financing at the state and local levels. John McCann pointed out that a lot of this lack of cooperation, or even communication, is a consequence of the fact that historical societies are the last vestiges of antiquarian societies, whose mission, programs, and activities are rooted into a particular locale or historical period. Jeffrey Kaimowitz observed that a coordinated, integrated approach would reinforce the sense of solidity and stability, and the State would commit funds. Ann Okerson suggested that four or five committed individuals consult with librarians who have experience in grant writing, to draft a proposal to submit to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Initially, the proponents could be a small group of historical societies with links to their communities; there is no need to involve all 130 of them. The remaining, added Linda Lerman, could follow the example of the pioneers, if they were successful.

Larson explained that cooperation occurs in some ways and to some extent, but it is difficult. For example, it took him two years to get in contact with his counterpart in Westport. He also noted that even private gifts are not easy to obtain, since history doesn’t look as attractive as other disciplines to prospective donors. For instance, the actor, benefactor, and Westport resident Paul Newman, who recently gave $50,000 to Sacred Heart University, in the past supported theatre (Westport Country Playhouse) among the various cultural/artistic options offered by Fairfield County. Most financial support to the Fairfield Historical Society (this in reply to a specific question by John McCann) comes from endowments, fundraising, and gifts. A small amount (some $25,000) comes from the Town of Fairfield, but for example the Discovery Museum gets more money. To another question by Ann Okerson about internships funding, Larson explained that currently the Society does not offer any paid internships.

The fifth and last session of the workshop was a presentation by Linda P. Lerman, Director of Library Services, Norwalk Community College, on the topic Librarian Perspectives on Accessing Special Collections in Other Repositories. One of the things that Lerman learned while working at a community college is that these institutions have less funding and therefore less resources than their private or public counterparts. Donations to their library collections equally represent a problem, since community college libraries usually don’t have the funds to process them and make them available to their users. So these donated materials tend to remain stored in boxes, until libraries get the funds to hire a professional librarian or archivist to catalog them. What these libraries can do, though, is to reach out to other sources—and librarians are good at finding relevant and authoritative sources on the Internet—in order to bring to their students and faculty the resources they need to study the history of Connecticut, which is the topic of today’s workshop. Many college libraries like Lerman’s have to come up with solutions to provide access to resources that lie outside of their collections. One solution, adopted and implemented at Norwalk, was to create an umbrella of select electronic resources related to the history of Connecticut. Lerman’s presentation was about the selection of such resources, their relevance and reliability. She started with the American History and American Studies page of the Yale Library Web site, which lists numerous resources from outside of the Yale collections. The good thing about using the Web site of a major academic / research library is that its reference librarians have previously researched and compiled comprehensive subject guide pages, listing many sources both inside and outside of their home institution.

Another valuable resource is the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut Libraries. This is the typical resource which the Norwalk Community College reference librarian would bookmark to be able to answer students questions about Connecticut history. The Connecticut State Library has an Information Services Division which includes history and genealogy and an affiliated Museum of Connecticut History. All these divisions, including the Connecticut State Archives, have relevant information and materials on Connecticut history.

The Connecticut Heritage Foundation, for example, has a log-book on slave traders. The Foundation supports the Connecticut History Online project, which has been mentioned before. Their image database has grown somewhat recently, although it is still limited to twelve organizations that have given rights to their digitized images. This database and its use could be expanded dramatically if more institutions either donated their images to Connecticut History Online or linked to its Web site. Lerman asked whether any cultural heritage organization in Connecticut had taken advantage of this opportunity, thinking that maybe the New Haven Historical Society donated a couple of images, but the technical requirements (physical conditions of the prints, minimum acceptable resolution, etc.) may be a problem in many cases.

The New England Library Network, or NELINET, a cooperative of more than 600 academic, public, and special libraries working together to promote the advancement of libraries and to facilitate the ongoing sharing of library and information resources and services. NELINET is creating a digital collection of materials related to the six New England states, by working with its member institutions. Some collections are related to New England, while others were created in the region. Only member institutions can contribute materials, although the site itself is open to the public. Among others, Quinnipiac University contributed a series of digitized full-text books. Other institutions could link to this site, or create their e-book collection by listing links to individual texts offered by this site. By copying these electronic records into their online catalogs, libraries will facilitate the way user research their topics and access relevant materials.

Lerman ended her presentation with a general Internet search, which is the most natural way for an undergraduate student to do research. This was to show what kind of resources one may find, as well as to prove that even an apt combination of search terms may fail to retrieve important sources, or may retrieve them on the second or third page. For example, a valuable resources such as the New England Archivists appeared as 21 st (third page) on the list of items retrieved by a Google search for “special collections in Connecticut”. This is a type of resource that only a reference librarian would know about, and how to find in a timely and efficient way.

Ann Okerson thanked everybody, speakers and participants, and reminded all of the possibility to spend more time visiting the New Haven Historical Society, and to fill and hand in the workshop evaluation form.