Upcoming Lectures on the Coeducation and the Yale Campus Exhibit

The following post was authored by Michael Lotstein, university archivist in Manuscripts and Archives.

The Yale University Archives, in collaboration with the Yale Alumni Association, are pleased to announce a pair of lectures for the fall semester on the exhibit, “We thought of ourselves as architects”: Coeducation and the Yale Campus, 1968-1973.

Image of an aerial view of the two new residential colleges proposed by the Brewster administration in 1972 that were not built due to opposition from the city of New Haven and Yale students.

An aerial view of the two new residential colleges proposed by the Brewster administration in 1972 that were not built due to opposition from the city of New Haven and Yale students. Yale Events and Activities Photographs (RU 690), Box 17, Folder 267.

Hosted by co-curators Michael Lotstein, university archivist, and Charlotte Keathley, Class of 2022 (Ezra Stiles College), the lectures will delve into the history of coeducation in Yale College through the lens of the buildings and physical spaces of the Yale campus, which were an integral part of this important period in Yale history.

The lectures will be offered on Zoom and scheduled for Thursday, October 14, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., and Wednesday, November 17, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. RSVPs are not required to attend.

Please send any questions to the University Archives at archives@yale.edu.

Zoom link for October 14th:

https://yalelibrary.zoom.us/j/91796381847?pwd=QVArUFRKZGR1Vzd1SVQraGE2VHdXZz09
Passcode: 055595

Zoom link for November 17th:

https://yalelibrary.zoom.us/j/97966310424?pwd=TTQ2ZllDcUZtMGZMM0RoNjgvb0VrZz09
Passcode: 128150

Archival Processing Work at Manuscripts and Archives, July-October 2021

The following information on recent archival processing work at Manuscripts and Archives (MSSA) was written by Alison Clemens, Head of Processing.

Since my last post in July, MSSA staff have made available the several collections and additions to existing collections, including:

New collections

George Bundy Smith Papers (MS 2088)

The George Bundy Smith papers, totaling 1.69 linear feet, document Smith’s life and career as a judge, author, and activist. Materials consist of writings and speeches by Smith; clippings, photographs, correspondence, and ephemera documenting Smith’s career as a judge and lawyer; his activism as a Freedom Rider in Alabama; his work as a writer of legal author and professor; and his education and family life.

Greenwood Plantation and Greenwood Seed Company Records (MS 2089)

The collection, totaling 33.5 linear feet, comprises the records of Greenwood Plantation and Greenwood Seed Company of Thomasville, Georgia. It includes documentation of hybrid corn seed production, business records, finances associated with farm properties and employees, legal records compiled by the Whitney estate, and correspondence. This collection is open to the Yale community for research and teaching. Other researchers require the written permission of the Greentree Foundation to access the collection prior to January 1, 2050, after which the papers are open for research without restriction.

Richard D. Weigle Papers (MS 2090)

The collection, totaling 9.42 linear feet, consists of material related to Richard Weigle’s time as a Yale-in-China bachelor and his service in the United States Army Air Force and the Chinese Army in India during World War II. The collection also contains material related to Richard Weigle’s father, Luther Weigle.

Kent A. Leslie Collection on Robert Bradford Williams (MS 2098)

The collection, totaling 0.25 linear feet, documents the life and career of Robert Bradford Williams, African American lawyer and graduate of Yale College, 1885, who settled in New Zealand. Materials include a copy and transcription of Williams’ diary from his trip to Australia and New Zealand in 1887; published articles about Williams; and correspondence between the donor, Kent A. Leslie and Williams’ granddaughter, Jane Paul.

Gus Hall Papers (MS 2113)

Gus Hall (1910-2000) was an activist, politician, and prominent member of the Communist Party of the United States, and was one of the people arrested in the 1949-1958 Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders. The Gus Hall Papers, totaling 17.5 linear feet, contain the professional papers of Hall throughout his time as secretary-general and president of the Communist Party of the United States of America as well as his personal correspondence to his family during his time in jail.

Carolyn Davidson Hill Diary and Family Papers (MS 2122)

The Carolyn Davidson Hill diary and family papers, totaling 3 linear feet, consist of the diary Hill kept during the Battle of Shanghai in 1949. The diary, photographs, and related material document the experiences of Hill, her husband Horace “Hod” Hill, and other workers at the Caltex Oil Terminal outside of Shanghai as the Nationalist and Communist forces engaged in intense fighting. The diary also discusses the Nationalist bombing of the Anchises, a British freighter in the Huangpu (Whangpoo) River on June 21, 1949. Carolyn subsequently compiled and edited the diary and wrote an introduction to it, which is part of this collection.

L. Paul Bremer III Papers (MS 2123)

The collection, totaling 22.25 linear feet, documents the career of L. Paul Bremer III in the United States State Department and his work in the private sector. The bulk of material in the collection centers on Bremer’s tenure as administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from May 2003 until June 2004. This material includes subject files, correspondence with his family, contemporaneous notes, speeches, and his daily schedules while in Iraq. Material related to the writing of his 2006 memoir, My Year in Iraq, is also part of the collection. Additional material including editorials, interviews, working papers, and notes provide insight into United States foreign relations during the final decade of the Cold War and the global war on terrorism. For more information on the Bremer papers, see the recent blog post by Joshua Cochran, archivist for American diplomacy in Manuscripts and Archives: L. Paul Bremer III Papers (MS 2123) Now Available for Research at Yale Manuscripts and Archives.

Additions or significant revisions to existing collections

Balmori Associates Records (MS 1885)

The records, totaling 185.8 linear feet and 15.5 megabytes, were reprocessed to incorporate its multiple accessions into a single organizational scheme. The records document projects completed by Balmori Associates in the United States and Europe under principal Diana Balmori, as well as the professional papers of and writings by Diana Balmori. Series I is comprised of project records; Series II is comprised of writings; Series III is comprised of Balmori’s professional papers; and Accession 2019-M-0052 is comprised of born-digital office and project records, publications, publicity files, and lectures and presentations.

Accession 2018-M-0033 of the Harold Jackson Gordon Jr. Papers (MS 246)

This series consists of index cards containing biographical information of early members of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), Freikorps members, police officers, figures on the political left, and others during the Weimar Republic and later.

Accession 2020-M-0019 of the Johnson family Papers (MS 305)

This series contains letters written to Anna Muirson Johnson Bellamy (1839-1922) upon the death of her sister, Katherine Livingston Bayard Johnson (1845-1906), 1906. Also includes four volumes on the history of the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Dorchester, Massachusetts and photographs of Grove Street Cemetery and Connecticut by Robert Bayard Severy.

Accession 2020-M-0026 of the Francis Griffith Newlands Papers (MS 371)

This accession contains an article titled “John Caldwell Kirkpatrick and the Palace Hotel,” 2017, by Richard L. Kirkpatrick, with related notes and images. John Caldwell Kirkpatrick managed the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California. He was a relative of Clara Adelaide Sharon Newlands, first wife of Francis Griffith Newlands.

Accession 2020-M-0028 of the George Alexander Kubler Papers (MS 843)

Letters from George Kubler to Barbara Anderson, 1972-1992. Kubler was Anderson’s PhD adviser in Yale University’s Department of the History of Art in the 1970s. The letters pertain primarily to their professional lives and work and include Kubler’s thoughts on publications and events in art history.

Accession 2021-A-0003 of the Yale College Records of Classes (RU 491)

Letter from Alyse Otvos Baker, Yale College class of 1972, to Henry (Sam) Chauncey reflecting on her experience as an early woman student at Yale, 2020.

Accession 2022-M-0003 of the World War II Collection (MS 688)

Scrapbook containing several hundred newspaper cartoons related to the United States war effort during the Second World War. Cartoons illustrate efforts to encourage the United States in joining the war effort and to mobilize the homefront for the war.