Chief Research Archivist Judith Schiff took part in a discussion on the history of New Haven and the New Haven Register on the WNPR radio talk show Where We Live. Click on the link that follows to listen to the broadcast (Judith enters the discussion 6:25 into the show).
Where We LIve (December 6, 2012)
Manuscripts and Archives offers dozens of collections pertinent to New Haven history. Among the more heavily used are:
- Oral Histories Documenting New Haven, Connecticut: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ru.1055. The materials consist of audio recordings and transcripts of oral histories conducted by New Haven Oral History Project staff with New Haven, Connecticut, citizens.
- Buildings, Grounds and Landmarks in New Haven Photographs: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ru.0685. The materials consist of maps, photographs, engravings, drawings, slides, and lithographs of New Haven, Connecticut scenes, residences, buildings, and landmarks. The bulk of The materials consist of photographs of New Haven and surrounding environs from 1860-1930s. Included are aerial views, scenes of the New Haven Green, photographs of streets, and various individual residences. Of particular interest are the snapshots of houses used for tax purposes, or as documentation of the structure before demolition.
- Yale Student papers Collection: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ru.0331. The collection consists of research papers and essays by Yale students. Included are many prize-winning essays on New Haven and Yale history.
- Richard C. Lee Papers: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0318. The papers contain correspondence, memoranda, position papers, reports, speeches, appointment books, photographs, scrapbooks, and films documenting the career of Richard C. Lee, mayor of New Haven, 1954-1969. The Lee Papers document the professional and public life of Lee, not his personal life. The papers contain correspondence and other materials on the practice of urban politics, urban renewal, New Haven’s efforts in the war on poverty, civil rights and race relations, town-gown relations, and his interaction with local and state Democratic Party leaders. The papers also include campaign files covering the period 1949-1968, appointment books, photographs documenting the course of redevelopment, a small amount of material on Lee’s life after he left office, and political scrapbooks.
- New Haven Redevelopment Agency Records: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1814. Project files, minutes, correspondence, and property records, documenting the work of the New Haven Redevelopment Agency, primarily from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Another valuable resource for New Haven History is the New Haven Museum, located at 114 Whitney Avenue. Collections related to the founding of the New Haven colony to its present are accessible at the Museum’s Whitney Library. To plan a research visit, please see http://www.newhavenmuseum.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38&Itemid=103.