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.
Category: Uncategorized
John R. Perkins, May 14th
On May 14th, 1923, the founding Principal (~president) of WestConn, John Russell Perkins, passed away in Danbury at his 20 Terrace Place home. Perkins had been born in Maine, taught at the Gunn School in Washington, CT and had been Principal of Danbury High School. He passed away 20 years after the founding of WestConn.
In 1919, his wife Mary Whittlessey-Brown died during the Spanish Flu epidemic. Their son, John Jr., was an officer in the U.S. Army and daughter, Margaret, studied law at the University of Chicago. She was an attorney with Kirkham, Cooper, Hungerford and Camp in New Britain around 1924 and married Mortimer Camp of that firm in April of 1928.
In September 2011, John Perkins III met with Archives staff and donated some books to WestConn’s collection.
In May 2012, his great-great-grandson, Brian Ugurlu (in purple shirt), toured campus with his cousin.
White and Main
A new building is going up at the corner of White and Main Streets in Danbury.
For many decades a hotel stood at that spot called the Wooster House
After fires and other troubles, it became the site for Feinson’s.
In 1955, it was flooded.
Earth Day
WestConn’s archive has a small collection of scientific illustrations among its holding. There are quite a few drawings of snakes.
This particular drawing is a mid-19th century drawing from:Natural History of New York, Zoology of New York – plates
April 9, 1865
Connecticut troops in the 10th Connecticut Infantry and 1st Connecticut Cavalry were among the troops that were present for Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s defeat and surrender at Appomattox, VA on April 9, 1865. Among them was Charles H. Jennings of Co. H, 1st CT Cavalry from Danbury, CT. (Find-a-grave listing)
The Military and Civil History of Connecticut during the War of 1861-65
Dr. Annie Keeler Bailey: women doctors in Danbury, divorce in the 19th Century, and doomsday!
Read about Library Systems Specialist Stacy Haponik’s research on this fascinating Danbury figure.
https://archives.library.wcsu.edu/omeka-s/s/familydrama/page/overview
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country. Here is a presentation by a Ukrainian-American on the history of the country for the Greater Danbury Intercultural Association in the late 1970s-early 1980s.
Belle da Costa Greene, the first director of the Morgan Library
Belle da Costa Greene, the first director of the Morgan Library, was a trailblazing female Black special collections librarian whose power in the field, then male-dominated, was extraordinary, and in a world where the only way for that to be possible was by pretending to not be Black.
Diversity, little equity, but much-needed inclusion in the War for Independence
When the 13 English colonies in America fought and won their independence and formed the United States, Connecticut had at least 820 Black soldiers in its ranks – roughly 20% of the Black population of Connecticut (~4300).
Enslavement of Black persons was legal in Connecticut, yet the same percentage of Black persons filled the State’s ranks in the Revolution as White persons.
The National Battlefield trust wrote in 2021:
“The main military force, which coalesced under General George Washington as the Continental Army, was not an integrated army until 1776. In November of 1775, Washington barred the enlistment of free Blacks and slaves. Within two months, however, Washington reversed this decision, and despite many attempts to block Blacks from serving their country, hundreds of Blacks enlisted nonetheless. Many Blacks who fought and were enslaved fought for their freedom and independence as a person of color. After the war, many Blacks gave their pensions and enlistment bounties to their former masters as a payment for their freedom. Cuffee Wells is just one example. Wells was a surgeon in the Continental Army and after his service in the Revolution, he paid his enlistment bounty to his former master and lived the rest of his life as a free man in Lebanon, Connecticut.”
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/george-washingtons-integrated-army
U.S. Government Data
Many of the Federal resources that were commonly available are no longer viewable online, and permanent URLs in library records may not resolve.
The Internet Archive has copies of many Government documents, sites, and data sets, but they do not have all the public data that had been previously freely available. Visit: https://web.archive.org/ (Internet Archive) if you are looking for a particular resource. The whitehouse.gov site as it appeared during the previous administration has been archived. You can find it here: https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/