The Work Must Be Done: Women of Color and Voting Rights
(March 2025)
Inspired by the words of notable African American reformer and political activist, Mary Townsend Seymour, “The work must be done,” the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History presents exciting new research about the women of color who worked for women’s suffrage.
(Colored Women’s Liberty Loan Committee, October 21, 1917, RG012, State Archives, Connecticut State Library | From left to right, Elizabeth R. Morris, Mary A. Johnson, and Rosa J. Fisher)
As the nation, and Connecticut, celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment which legalized women’s right to vote, attention is growing about the critical need to identify and raise up the stories of the women of color who participated in the fight for suffrage and those who, like their white counterparts, were against the enfranchisement of women. Historically, research about the fight to win the right to vote has focused on the white women who were both for and against this act. Due to the internalized racism of many of the national and state-wide suffrage organizations, women of color, and particularly African American women, were denied agency within these activist organizations. This does not mean that women of color were not involved in the fight for and against suffrage. They absolutely were. Women of color were active leaders who developed their own associations, both nationwide and state-based, to achieve social and political reforms, including working for woman suffrage.
The African American Community at Quinnipiac University
In celebration of the Black Student Union's 55th Anniversary
and Black History Month (February 2025)
On February 22nd, 2025, alumni, students, and friends gathered for an inspiring day to honor the African American community's rich history and remarkable contributions at Quinnipiac. The unique exhibit in the Arnold Bernhard Library spotlighted stories of student excellence, achievement, and enduring impact. It also commemorated the 55th anniversary of the Black Student Union, a cornerstone of empowerment and advocacy on campus, as well as the African American Student-Athlete Hall of Fame.
Explore the rich history of the African American Community at Quinnipiac University through our detailed timeline. This timeline is compiled using data from the Special Collections and Archives, highlights significant events, milestones, and contributions of African American students, faculty, and staff throughout the years. Delve into the stories that have shaped the community, celebrate the achievements, and understand the challenges overcome. In celebration of Black History Month and The Quinnipiac BSU's 55th Anniversary, discover how the African American community has grown and evolved, leaving an indelible mark on Quinnipiac University.
Before We Were Quinnipac
Early 20th Century Women's Education in Connecticut:
Larson College (March 2024)
In March 2024, to coincide with women’s history month, the Arnold Bernhard Library (ABL) at Quinnipiac University will debut exhibits, physical and online, featuring a collection of materials related to Larson College, a two-year women’s college which became part of Quinnipiac in 1952. Larson College is little known, but for 40 years in the early 20th century it provided young women with the opportunity to prepare for careers or transfer to four-year colleges. The history of Larson College has implications for the changing place of women in society, in higher education and in the work force, and for the development of Quinnipiac University. In this planned exhibit ABL staff hope to explore these themes through the lived experiences of women who studied and taught at Larson.
A Connecticut Humanities Planning Grant will support the identification, preservation and digitization of material related to Larson which will then be featured in exhibits. A digitization space will be set up in the library’s storage facility, where much of the Larson material is now housed, with equipment purchased using grant funds. The grant will also help to support a temporary Library Associate, Emma Norden, who will identify, organize, and describe materials to be included in online and physical exhibits. The Associate will work with materials at Quinnipiac but will also travel to local historical societies and museums to look for additional content. This work will be grounded in history through the work of a Public Services Librarian , Robert Young, who has deep ties to the History Department at Quinnipiac. Norden will work with other Quinnipiac University staff to create a program to find surviving Larson graduates and their families who may have material and stories to donate to the collection. Quinnipiac student interns, majoring in history, will work with the project team to help develop the themes and text for the exhibit, and will provide outreach to other students at Quinnipiac. The ABL Associate Director, Kathleen Bauer, will provide project management and digitization expertise (no grant support asked, time to be provided by Quinnipiac), and will oversee the deposit of digital items to the Quinnipiac online repository and the Connecticut Digital Library.
The work done during this project will ensure that content related to Larson College will be organized, described and available to the public now and into the future, both physically and online. The exhibit created from these materials will engage viewers in the history of women and women’s education in Connecticut.
Farmington Canal State Park Trail
The Farmington Canal, also known as the New Haven and Northampton Canal, stretched 84 miles from Northampton, Massachusetts to New Haven, Connecticut. The kickoff for this ambitious project was held on the fourth of July 1825. But the canal companies were a bit late getting underway. By the time of the Farmington Calas’ groundbreaking in 1825, the 363-mile-long Erie Canal in New York was already complete. None-the-less, the groundbreaking initiated a new transportation era in the state and Connecticut’s entry into the national canal craze was underway.
Touted as a commercial and political coup, investors hoped to get much of the Connecticut River Valley produce and merchandise trade to the New Haven/ New York ports and markets by passing the Connecticut River traffic through Hartford.
By 1828, the first sections of the canal were in use and the parade of people and commerce began. The canal boats were moved along by their “one horsepower” engine; that is, young boys who led mules along the pathway, or flat-topped berm, along one side of the canal with a rope adjoining the boat. This berm was a solid bank of earth with a sufficiently wide surface and was called the towpath.
By the late 1830s the canal was complete. Some years were better than others. Wet years enhanced the water supply for the system. Droughty years saw sections close down. The canal had a solid impact on local businesses and industries that adjoined it. Farmers, clockmakers, miners and many more tradesmen of the day enjoyed expanded markets for their goods along the canal’s path. Local children found great summer amusement through fishing and swimming in the four-foot-deep waters and had winter fun by skating for miles over the frozen waterway.
There was significant elevation change from Massachusetts to New Haven and these step-downs, or step-ups depending on direction of travel, were accomplished with the use of locks.
The early and mid-1840s saw good years when there was sufficient water and no washouts. Commerce annually was measured in the millions of pounds of goods transported. But railroads were looming on the horizon. Unaffected by rainfall and thus more reliable and ultimately more rapid, rail transportation made its inroads and incrementally the canal was phased out of business. 1847 was the last full year the canal company did business.
The rail companies bought the canal rights-of-way and used the existing towpath from their railbeds. The new railroad era dated from the late 1840s through the 1980s when the railroad rights-of-way was abandoned. Since that time, a varied group of sponsoring organizations has guided the growth and success along today’s canal trail corridor. Thus, the present multi-use recreation trail is the third iteration of use for this line.
Today, the Farmington Canal State Park Trail is divided into two parts. The multi-use trail is 5.5 miles long and extended from Cornwall Street to Todd Street in Hamden. The Canal Trail is an entity unto itself and not part of the local road system, but users should be aware of the numerous crossings. Todd Street marks the southern reach of the state park property, but the multi-use trail continues south from there as municipal property. An additional 3.9 miles in north central Cheshire, from Route 68 to Interstate 691, is also part of the park but is not yet developed for recreation.
August 30 - October 6, 2017
Link: Guide to Activities at the Netter and Arnold Bernhard Libraries
This fall the Netter Health Sciences Library and the Arnold Bernhard Library are hosting the National Library of Medicine’s traveling exhibit “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine.” This exhibit draws on works by 15th and 16th century thinkers to explore science and medicine through the lens of Harry Potter. It connects the fantasy and magic depicted in the Harry Potter series to the Renaissance traditions of alchemy, astrology and natural philosophy. The exhibit consists of rare manuscripts, printed works and images reproduced from the National Library of Medicine’s collection.
The Netter library will host the exhibit for three weeks from August 30 through September 17, and sponsor a series of lectures and related exhibits. The exhibit will then travel to the Arnold Bernhard Library where it will be available for three weeks from September 18 through October 6. An opening will be held on September 20 with gifts and refreshments, and David Valone, professor of history, will give a lecture tilted “More to Magic Than Waving Your Wand: Harry Potter and the Magical and Medical Traditions of Renaissance Hermeticism” on October 3. The Student Programing Board will also be sponsoring a showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on September 27.
Visualizing Irish Independence : The Moran Collection of 19th Century Political Cartoons Thru Spring 2017 Semester
Cartoons are a great way of explaining - and satirizing - the political situation. In this way they are a form of visual propaganda that can delight and disgust in equal measure.
Ireland's Great Hunger Institute and the Arnold Bernhard Library's current joint exhibition is "Visualizing Irish Independence," which features a collection of political cartoons from the last two decades of the nineteenth century, when the Home Rule Movement was at its height. The collection was donated to Quinnipiac University by the Irish historian, Dr. Gerald Moran. They depict in stunning detail many of the leading political figures of the day, including Charles Stewart Parnell and William Gladstone.
Most of the cartoons were drawn by 'Tom Merry,' the pen-name of illustrator William Mecham (1853 -1902). The cartoons appeared as the centre intallment in issues of The St. Stephen Review, a journal that was opposed to Irish Independence.
The exhibition is free and open to the public. Hours are Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8pm., Friday from 8am to 5pm, Saturday from 9am to 5pm, Sunday from Noon to 8pm.
March 23, 2016 - October 7, 2016
September 6, 2016 - October 7, 2016
