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.

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.