Western Connecticut State University Archives and Special Collections
Documenting the history of WestConn and its surrounding area | Intra veritatem invenire | Established 1977
Harper's Weekly, "The Danbury Disaster" 1869, Danbury Miscellanea, MS 038
The city of Danbury’s quest to preserve a singular architectural landmark of the city’s mid-19th century history will be celebrated when Western Connecticut State University presents a special exhibit highlighting the 160-year-old Octagon House and Orson Squire Fowler,whose 1848 book inspired its construction.
Items on display in the lobby of the Haas Library and in an online exhibit.
Associate Professor of Biology at Western Connecticut State University, Dr. Theodora Pinou has arranged for the transfer to WestConn the Herndon G. Dowling Herpetological Library. 
Dr. Pinou is the Coordinator Secondary Education Science, Herpetology, Snake Systematics at WCSU and was awarded the “Excellence in Teaching” Award by the WCSU Chapter of the National Society of Leadership and Success in the spring of 2014. When Dr. Pinou was a student, Herndon Dowling was her teacher and mentor in herpetology. Dowling’s seventy years of herpetological field studies took him to Mexico, through the United States, Galapagos Islands, Burma, Germany, and India. He was a snake systematist with major interests in snake morphology and its influence upon snake evolution. In addition to fieldwork, Dowling spent much time in museums and working with herpetological collections observing, recording, and analyzing specimens. His notes include measurements, detailed scale counts, osteology, hemipenes, coloration, behavior, and patterning where possible. It is estimated that Dowling examined and recorded data from nearly all known snake lineages and genera. His notes and documentation are unique and invaluable to the field of herpetology.
In addition to Dowling’s notes, there are maps of snake distributions, photographs, statistical data, and original drawings of snake skulls, vertebrae, hemipenes, scale patterns, and hyoid bones. Each drawing represents a dedicated museum specimen or a specimen in Dowling’s osteological collection now housed at Pinou’s research lab at Western Connecticut State University. Tissue samples for most of the later specimens are banked in the research labs at the University of Maryland and Western Connecticut State University. The collection also includes published materials (books and journals) including all of Dowling’s scientific and popular papers and correspondence that span his scientific career.
It is the intent of the WCSU, its Archives and Biology Department that this important collection is utilized by students, faculty, and researchers beyond WCSU. Dowling’s historical research in the field of herpetology is unique among other collections in this discipline and is also unique in subject matter to collections at WCSU. The intimate understanding that Dr. Pinou possesses regarding Dowling’s research makes her a vital component in processing and making these materials accessible to researchers.
(images show Dr. Pinou reviewing pieces from the Dowling collection)
Danbury’s octagon house, built in 1853, is a result of a fad started by Orson S. Fowler. It is one of the few octagon houses (there are 13 said to be remaining in Connecticut) that follows Fowler’s exact instructions for construction in his 1848 book, “The Octagon House: A Home for All.”
The neighborhood that formed around the area where the house was built was home to many of the immigrant hatters. Two of those hatters, the Attick brothers, purchased the octagon house from the Earle family in 1918. The house remained in the Attick family until 1980 when a cousin, Ann Abraham, purchased the house at a bank foreclosure auction.
Though on the National Register of Historic Places, by the summer of 2013 the octagon house was again in foreclosure and the property was becoming increasingly derelict. An article in the News-Times announces that the city of Danbury plans on purchasing the landmark in an attempt to save the octagon house from ruin and improve the surrounding neighborhood.
The City of Danbury has torn down a home built in 1837.
News-Times mention
According to Danbury historian, William Devlin, “It was built by or for Phineas Crosby, a stagecoach operator who was the earliest developer of the current downtown…it was one of the last single-family homes up in that area of Main Street.”
Crosby’s grave site from Findagrave.com
Page from the application for the home to be on the Register of Historic Places
If you have a point of view regarding demolition of Danbury’s historic homes, let City officials hear your opinion.
The Mayor’s letter regarding the property to the City Council.
Come to the SB Atrium to view student work/research, have some coffee and take part in this WestConn tradition. For more info http://www.wcsu.edu/wrd
An exhibit of items from the WCSU Archives’ collections. In the Haas Library Atrium until the end of the semester.
In conjunction with Veterans’ Day and the World War I Centennial, Western Connecticut State University Archives presents “100 Years Since the First World War” exhibit on view through December 17, 2014. This exhibit features three cases of material from the archives’ collection. From political cartoons to memorials, the pieces included in this exhibit provide a fascinating glimpse into America during the First World War. See online exhibit.
Woodrow Wilson in August of 1914:
“The effect of the war upon the United States will depend upon what American citizens say and do. Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all concerned. The spirit of the Nation in this critical matter will be determined largely by what individuals and society and those gathered in public meetings do and say, upon what newspapers and magazines contain, upon what ministers utter in their pulpits, and men proclaim as their opinions on the street… The people of the United States are drawn from many nations, and chiefly from the nations now at war. It is natural and inevitable that there should be the utmost variety of sympathy and desire among them with regard to the issues and circumstances of the conflict.” *
This battle for the hearts and minds used the printed word, cartoons, illustrations and photographs as the tools to attempt sway public opinion toward militarily and materially supporting the Allies. Roughly 5% of the U.S. population had been born in one of the Central Power countries** and a significant percent more had ties to those countries. It would take until 1917 for the United States commit troops to the trenches in Europe.
These are some examples of printed matter that arose out of attempts to sway public opinion from the collections in the WCSU Archives. It also includes materials that document the war along with letters and personal effects of one of Danbury’s own who died while “over there,” George Bennett Hawley.
Hawley was born on April 27, 1895, in Danbury and was the only child of George M. and Mary Hawley. The young Hawley was a signal man for company B of the 307th Infantry, one of the first AEF units to join the lines of battle in France. He corresponded frequently with his family back in Danbury.
Through these materials, we have a unique glimpse of the period; 100 Years Since the First World War commemorates the efforts of American soldiers and their experiences in war.
SEP. 23 LECTURE (Hispanic & Latino Awareness Month event):
Associate Professor of English Dr. Donald Gagnon will discuss “Latino Like Me: The History, Challenges and Politics” at 3 p.m. in the first floor meeting room of the Ruth Haas Library on the WCSU Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. The talk will be free and the public is invited. This event is part of Hispanic & Latino Awareness Month. For more information, send an email to dennisd@wcsu.edu.
A recent transfer of Art Department materials to the WCSU Archives contained 8 pieces by Connecticut-artist, R. Allen Hermes. These pieces are on long-term display in the Gallery directly below the Haas Library atrium.
R. Allen Hermes (1913 – 2004) was born in England and came to the United States at 16. He attended school in Buffalo where he won a national poster which entitled him to a four-year scholarship at Syracuse University. He graduated with honors with a degree in fine arts and the Hazard Fellowship, which afforded him a year to study art and architecture in Germany. In 1942 Hermes married Helen Davis, daughter of Dwight Davis who served as Secretary of War in the Coolidge administration and founded the Davis Cup tennis tournament. During World War II, Hermes served in Europe with the Corps of Engineers, during which he spent time painting his fellow peers and officers. After the war, Hermes and his wife Helen settled in Redding, CT where he continued to paint and teach, displaying his art in Silvermine, New York and the Wooster Gallery in Danbury. Hermes’ style encompassed a variety of subjects ranging from still life and landscapers to mythology and religious themes. Stylistically, he described his own paintings as being “closest to Baroque.”
EXHIBITION: Western will host an exhibit of sculptures by alumna Erin Zaffis during library hours in the Ruth Haas Library on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White Street in Danbury. The works on display will be from Zaffis’ show, “MAMA.”
