UConn Archives

Happy Juneteenth! This holiday commemorates the day that enslaved people in Galveston finally learned they were free, over two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Just 1 year after this event, Fisk University opened in Nashville, TN, the first U.S. University open to both men and women, regardless of race. The students were primarily former enslaved Black Americans, and by 1870, the school was financially struggling.

In 1871, George White, a Fisk music professor and the University Treasurer, formed the Jubilee singers, a group of students who embarked on a musical tour in the U.S. and Great Britian to raise money to fund the University. The group was so successful that they were able to raise about $40,000 in their initial tours. The group continued touring until 1878.

In 1875, the story of the Jubilee Singers was published, along with many of their songs. The UConn Archives and Special Collections holds several editions of the publication, two of which (the 1875 edition, as well as a later 1883 edition), are a part of the Samuel and Ann Charters Archives of Blues and Vernacular African American Musical Culture. The stories and songs of the Jubilee Singers during the reconstruction period following the end of the Civil War provide interesting insights into the ways in which young formally enslaved Black Americans forged a life for themselves in a political, legal, and social system that was set up to disenfranchise them, and the ways that these same students and teachers told their own story in publications like this one.

Request to view this item in our reading room: s.uconn.edu/jubilee_singers

Today is National Mascot Day! So today, as we do every day, we celebrate our mascot Jonathan the Husky, in both his canine and his costumed form.

Here we see Jonathan the Husky leading a cheer during the Sophomore Welcome event on the Student Union Mall on Aug. 28, 2021. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Every year, on June 9, we here in the UConn Archives celebrate International Archives Day! On this day we think about the importance of preserving archival sources to our lives, to retain the historical record, to safeguard cultural memory, and to hold governments accountable.

This year's theme is : Rights, Memory & Futures, so we thought it appropriate to show this photograph from the U. Roberto (Robin) Romano Papers, of young Mexican migrant workers working in an onion field in Texas in 2003. This photograph is from his series "Stolen Childhood." You can see more photos by Romano in our digital repository at https://ctdigitalarchive.org/node/25916

Connecticut's WFSB Eyewitness News team did a spot on Japanese-American students who were welcomed at the University of Connecticut during and immediately after World War II. Graham Stinnett, our Human Rights Archivist, was interviewed about the sources we hold in the UConn Archives about the students.

You can watch the spot at https://www.wfsb.com/2026/06/02/concentration-camp-ceo-uconn-alums-journey-through-internment/

Edwin Way Teale (June 2, 1899 - October 18, 1980) was an American naturalist, photographer and writer. His works serve as primary source material documenting environmental conditions across North America from 1930–1980. He is perhaps best known for his series The American Seasons, four books documenting over 75,000 miles (121,000 km) of automobile travel across North America following the changing seasons.

Teale's papers were donated to the UConn Archives & Special Collections in 1981, and consist of field notes and drafts for each of his books, early childhood writings, professional writings for magazines, newspapers and book reviews, correspondence, both personal and professional, personal and family documents, scrapbooks, and memorabilia, as well as his photographs (prints, negatives, and transparencies) and his personal library.

You can find many of Teale's photographs in our digital repository at http://hdl.handle.net/11134/20002:MSS19810009