From the Price of Service, CT History Review:

Hearing that a contingent of Danburians was planning to join the Bonus March on a warm and partly cloudy June 7th, local representatives from the VFW, John P. O’Keefe and American Legion, J. Irving Conley, joined a crowd of 300 that had begun to gather at 8AM at City Hall Square on Danbury’s Main Street.  Mayor G. Walker Morgan had allowed a flier to be posted by bonus-seeking vets on the bulletin board at City Hall, announcing their imminent departure for Washington. Reporting in the Danbury Evening News the day before stated that sixty veterans had signed up to make the trip to Washington, and that two-hundred were expected to take part.  Additionally, the Salvation Army were promising to provide the would-be marchers with sandwiches and doughnuts. Atop the Civil War monument in the square, a statue of a lone Union flag bearer was a silent witness as O’Keefe, Bethel’s former State Junior Vice Commander representing the VFW, and Conley, representing the local Legion post, attempted to dissuade vets from joining the thousands then gathered in Washington and the thousands reported to be on the way.  Conley in 1932 was relatively well off; he owned his house and worked selling radios and electronics.  He was also a Republican who had been a hatter before he turned 16 and who had served in France with the 56th Artillery.  O’Keefe, a carpenter and combat veteran of the 106th Infantry, came armed with a telegram from the present VFW State Commander, informing those assembled that joining the march would hurt every veteran’s effort to receive a bonus. All were aware that the BEF had grown into a more significant demonstration since its modest beginnings in Oregon.  Over the past week, local coverage of the march had increased in scope and volume; that day, the Danbury Evening News carried its first pro-Bonus March editorial. What had a week before been written off as a minor, symbolic and disjointed demonstration had animated veteran communities around the country, and now had animated Danbury. The assembled crowd and Tuesday morning passers-by watched as O’Keefe and Conley on behalf of their veterans’ organizations tried to dissuade the estimated seventy-five or so potential Bonus marchers lined up on the green from joining the demonstration in Washington. 

In 1988, Robert Keeshan, known for his portrayal of Captain Kangaroo, was invited to speak at WestConn’s commencement.  Not everyone appreciated the choice.  Read some of the commentary from the April 1988 Echo.

The WestConn Archives was thrilled to receive a box of lantern slides via a donation this month.  The slides are mostly of places around Danbury, but notably it includes many images of the 1902 New Milford fire damage, and two images relating to Danbury in the Civil War.  One these images shows four men, perhaps veterans, standing on a hillside with an American flag planted in the ground at their feet.  The image is labeled, “Battlefield of Charcoal Run .”  Likely, the image was captured in 1911 on the 50th anniversary of the “battle.”

Another image in the collection shows the Danbury company of the First Connecticut Volunteer infantry, whose veterans were involved in the Charcoal Run “battle.”

Coincidentally, Mike Allen will be hosting a program about the “battle” at the Bethel Public Library [in the Parloa Room,  189 Greenwood Ave, Bethel, CT, 06801] and on Zoom
Monday, April 20, 2026 — 6:30—7:30 PM.  Register online.

All the slides are viewable online thanks to the work of WestConn student archives assistant Mckaila McAleer and SCSU library science intern Rachel Ohring.

Another archivist preserving decaying floppy disks – “It’s a race against time (and magnetic decay) to preserve decades of cultural history stored on obsolete hardware…”

Read article here: https://www.popsci.com/technology/floppy-disk-archivist-project/

A summer “Wheelhouse” broadcast.  The guests:

Thomas Balcerski, professor of history at Eastern Connecticut State University and director of the Center for Connecticut Studies
Kathy Craughwell-Varda, director of Conservation ConneCTion, Connecticut State Library
Andrea Rapacz, chief curator of collections, Connecticut Museum of Culture and History

This episode originally aired on Aug. 20, 2025.

As the semester comes to a close, we’re remembering September – not 2025 – September 1969, when there were IBM cards and beanies for first-years.

– An article regarding negotiations regarding the institute’s association with WestConn in 1995.   This article and others on Jane Goodall are available from the Haas Library databases (Access World News).

The Juneteenth holiday does not come up in a search of the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America database, scoped to Connecticut newspapers before 1963.

However, historically it appears that communities in Connecticut did celebrate, but referred to the celebrations to mark the abolition of slavery resulting from the Union military victory in the Civil War as “Emancipation Day.”  It appears that the “Emancipation Day” was sometimes observed in January, April, June or August.

Below are a sampling of the oldest Connecticut clippings found regarding the observance of the holiday.  Please be advised that the language and attitude of the articles is frequently racist. 

More importantly, however, these clippings document the persistence of the holiday, which remained part of the nation’s patriotic celebrations, despite being ignored or denigrated by the White press over the past 160 years.

The Hartford Courant, August 3, 1865 – an August celebration in Brooklyn, NY, 4 months after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, VA.

Litchfield Enquirer, January 4, 1872 – January celebration in New Haven

July 19th, 1872 – Willimantic Journal

August 8, 1873, the Connecticut Western News decided to be particularly racist in referring to the celebration.

August 7, 1874, the Willimantic Journal reports on Frederick Douglass’ presence at the Bridgeport celebration.

August 8, 1880, Morning Journal Courier reported on the celebration at Elmira, NY.

Aug 2, 1881, Morning Journal Courier again…

April 28, 1882.  The Willimantic Journal placed the celebration in Washington, D.C. in April, and with a racist flourish.

Stamford Daily Advocate, September 23, 1896

 

August 27, 1908, Stamford Daily Advocate – twenty days after the fact.

July 7, 1925, the New Britain Herald, 100 years ago, mentions “Emancipation Day” in Oklahoma as being celebrated on June 19th.  In the story, a Black man was sentenced to die on the Juneteenth holiday, but the Sheriff who was to carry out the execution forgot, and arrangements had to be made to execute the prisoner at a later date.

Newspaper and archival collections provide a means to explore topics such as this.

A week later, six men from Danbury arrived to join the thousands of veterans who had already gathered in Washington to push Congress to pre-pay a soldiers’ bonus that had been awarded in 1924.