Erastus Hibbard Phelps Collection

The winning bid on the Archive of Civil War paymaster Erastus Hibbard Phelps, Middlebury Class of 1861, was made at auction by Andy Wentink, Curator of Special Collections & Archives. The archive was one among nearly 350 lots of American History, including Civil War, materials offered by Cowan’s Auctions in Cincinnati, OH, last Friday morning, December 2. The Phelps Archive comprises 334 letters, 4 diaries (3 from Civil War years), 2 bound volumes including a photo album containing portraits of graduates of the Middlebury Class of 1861, many of which are inscribed to Phelps. The archive also includes two photos of Phelps previous to his years at Middlebury, his paymaster sidearm (a Colt 1851 Navy 36 caliber pistol), what is believed to be his sheepskin winter jacket worn on duty, and a leather documents trunk carried during his service.

Andy also made the winning bid on another Civil War archive, 54 Letters of 2nd Lieut. Ephraim L. Hackett, Wisconsin 1st Light Artillery. Born in Maine in 1837, Ephraim L. Hackett was living in Baraboo, Wisconsin, in August 1861, when he enlisted as a Sergeant in the 1st Independent Battery, Wisconsin Light Artillery. Small in number and mobile, the Battery recruited barely over 100 men before being sent into the field in Kentucky that Fall, then went on to fight up and down the Mississippi Valley until the end of the war.

These two important Civil War collections significantly enhance Middlebury’s already impressive Civil War era archival holdings including the Aldace Walker (Middlebury Class of 1862) Letters, the Calvin Parker Letters, the Civil War Archive of Professor Kit Wilson, and nearly 100 Civil War era letters from individual writers.

The purchase of the Phelps and Hackett archives was made possible through the generous partial funding from the Friends of the Davis Family Library, the Middlebury College Museum of Art, the Julian W. Abernethy Fund, and the Davis Family Library.

Tuesday, May 31-Thursday, June 2      By Appointment Only

Friday, June 3                                           Open 1-5 p.m.  for Reunion Weekend

Saturday, June 4                                      Open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. for Reunion Weekend

June 5-19                                                  CLOSED

Monday, June 20-Friday, August19     By Appointment Only

Monday, August 22-Friday, September 2    CLOSED

CLOSED WEEKENDS DURING THE SUMMER

Thursday, April 28, 2011
4:30 – 6pm
Davis Family Library 201 – Watson Lecture Hall

James L. Haley, author of Wolf: the Lives of Jack London, and Anne Trubek, author of The Skeptic’s Guide to Writers’ Houses, join Reginald L. Cook Professor of American Literature Brett C. Millier, to discuss the legendary American author from a variety of perspectives.

This event is being held in celebration of recent Jack London materials gifted to the Abernethy Collection in Special Collections, by Whit Bond, grandson of the man whose dog inspired Call of the Wild. There will be an exhibit of these materials in conjunction with the symposium.

Join us for the opening of a
Jack London Exhibit in the Atrium of the Davis Family Library
and a reception in Special Collections
immediately following the symposium.

Also of local/Middlebury College interest: the music on the video is by Middlebury alumna Anaïs Mitchell from her recent “folk-opera”, Hadestown.

On view in Special Collections, Davis Family Library, Lower Level

Faculty and Staff are welcome fo review our most recent acquisition of primary source materials incuding rare books and first editions, historic periodicals, manuscript collections, journals, diaries, antique maps, ephemera, etc.

Everything from the Illustrated London News to American travel letters to Victorian hair jewelry to NY Poet Frank O’Hara.

Special Collections materials are selected for their relevance to courses taught across the curriculum as well as for faculty research.

• Suggestions for future acquisitions are welcome.
• Tours of the closed stacks available upon request.

Please stop in anytime  9:00 AM-5:00 PM,  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, August 31-September 2, 2010

We look forward to seeing you.

In collaboration with Vergennes boat builder Douglas Brooks, Special Collections is offering a new short-term exhibit The Two Pointers of Dead Creek : A Tradition of Trapping and Boat Building in Addison County.  Assistant Curator Danielle Rougeau is working with Douglas Brooks on mounting the exhibit on the Lower Level of the Davis Family Library. The exhibit officially opens on Wednesday, September 1, 2010, and will be on view through Friday, October 1.

During the 2009-2010 academic year, Brooks and three Middlebury College students, Renee Igo ’11, Christian Woodard ’11 and Ben Meader ’10.5, interviewed trappers and their descendants in an effort to document the culture of muskrat trapping in Addison County, with an emphasis on the “two pointers”, the double-ended boats that trappers built.

After a training program with the Vermont Folklife Center, the researchers began recording interviews and examining historic boats. Over twenty historic trapping boats were identified in the region.  Eventually several boats were carefully measured and one was chosen for replication. The students displayed an historic boat at the 2010 Middlebury College Student Research Symposium.

In the 2010 spring semester, Igo, Woodard, and Meader, guided by Brooks, built this trapping boat in studio space at Middlebury’s Old Stone Mill. The boat was launched on Commencement day, May 27, 2010.    

I’m therefore pleased to announce that the name for this area is now Research and Collection Services (RCS). While many portions of the website still reflect the old names — and it will take a while before we’ve eradicated all remnants of Collection Management/Academic Consulting Services from the website, email distribution lists, HR/Banner information, etc. — please consider the name to be effective immediately.  We’ll try to get the changes made expeditiously.

As a reminder, RCS includes:

• Reference and Instruction Librarians
• Special Collections
• Vt. Collection
• Government Documents
• Inter-library Loan
• Cataloging/Acquisitions/Serials
• Preservation & Processing
• Collection Development

Library hours are reduced during the period between spring and summer semesters. Check here for hours.

PLEASE NOTE! The Libraries will close at 12 noon on Monday 5/24.

Special Collections will be closed Monday 5/24 through Friday 6/4; opening Saturday 6/5 from 10-2 for Reunion weekend, and resuming regular hours Monday 6/7.