The party to celebrate the official opening of the Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives was held, of course, in the new center itself which comfortably accommodated the large crowd.What follows is a selection of photographs taken during the party as well as the text of the remarks by Linda Lear at the dedication. The photographs were taken by Vincent Scarano.
Views of the party looking through the glass wall into the reading room.
Linda Lear addressing the guestsRemarks by Linda Lear at the dedication of the Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives, October 23, 2008
Thank you, President Higdon, Vice President Hisle, Dean Brooks, my fellow members of the Board of Trustees, Mrs. Deredita, distinguished guests, and my family. This is an event I never thought would happen in my lifetime. No one is more surprised or delighted than I am to be here and to see this fabulous space come into being and to dedicate it.
This celebration is happening because of three life changing events:
First and foremost because I won the lottery when it came to parents. James and Henrietta Lear wanted to give their only child the finest education available in 1958. Through their hard work, their vision, their stewardship, their generosity and especially their belief in what I might become, this room is ultimately a gift from them. It expresses their gratitude and mine for the education and life experience that I received during my four undergraduate years at Connecticut College.
Secondly, as an undergraduate I came under the influence of two extraordinary people. The first was Rosemary Park, 5th President of the College whose life and work made an indelible imprint on me, and whose personal friendship and nurture changed the course of my life. We were friends until her death several years ago, and no one could have had a finer role model for what a woman could do, or of the pleasures of the life of the mind, or of what it means to be a critical thinker in our contemporary world.
And the third was the opportunity to study under Dr. Richard Lowitt, who was for ten years Associate Professor of American History at Connecticut College . I am so moved by his highly exaggerated tribute, and I am so sorry he cannot be here for I owe him and this library owes him so very much. Dr. Lowitt believed that undergraduates could capably use and beneficially study original texts and documents. He believed undergraduate education should begin with original texts, not end with them in graduate school. But he did something else, he introduced his students here, and hundreds more in those other institutions where he taught in his distinguished career, to the local history of the place where they went to college. While he was at Connecticut College, he gathered primary sources of all sorts on Connecticut’s regional, political, intellectual and environmental history. I wrote an honors thesis on three important evangelical ministers in 19th century Connecticut. With the help of Hazel Johnson, then College Librarian, Dr. Lowitt built his seminars and his students’ research projects around these original collections. Together they made the College Library a research center and a place where manuscripts and archives were open to undergraduates, indeed where their use was required.
But the space designated in the Shain Library for Special Collections was never really adequate to an expanding collection or an especially inviting place to work. I dreamed of recreating a new Center that would be just as beautiful but more functional than my old and cherished and stylish dormer cubical in the third floor of Palmer Library. Its reality first took shape in conversation with Brian Rogers, College Librarian Emeritus, who was willing to guide my thinking about what was required. It was Brian who enthusiastically accepted my manuscript Carson Collection and understood how it would add to the already fine core collections here in the natural sciences and the environment. He has been a guide and cherished friend from the outset.
Laurie Deredita was named Special Collections Librarian, and Dr. Lee Hisle, a big Texan, not quite as tall as Brian, became College Librarian and Vice President for Information Services shortly after my biography of Rachel Carson was published in 1997. Dr. Hisle has taken the lead in shaping my ideas to conform to the physical reality in a library structure that was perhaps less grand than the Gothic ideal I had in mind, but still a space of beauty and functionality. The new electronic age has not always been friendly to rare books and manuscripts which take up space and require special care. Lee Hisle understands these materials as well as mainframes and data bases. I have come to have a deep respect for his expertise and his vision to support the growth and change of a research collection at a liberal arts college as well as how to make it accessible in this electronic age. Our partnership has made this Center possible.
Laurie Deredita has become a star in the world of archival management. Collections do no one any good if they sit in a box without anyone having the faintest idea of what’s in them, or how they might be used and displayed. Laurie has made this archive and special collections usable inside and outside the college community. Her ingenuity on a limited budget has been an inspiration. It was been the greatest honor to work together with her these last ten years and I shall miss her good judgment, her efficient work, and her curiosity tremendously.
Finally I want to thank President Leo Higdon for making the expansion of the college library with this new research center a priority and an essential component of the college’s centennial and a crucial part of its mission for continued excellence in the liberal arts.
May this Center honor my love of this college and serve its faculty and students in the pursuit of truth and knowledge for many years to come.
Thank you, President Higdon, Vice President Hisle, Dean Brooks, my fellow members of the Board of Trustees, Mrs. Deredita, distinguished guests, and my family. This is an event I never thought would happen in my lifetime. No one is more surprised or delighted than I am to be here and to see this fabulous space come into being and to dedicate it.
This celebration is happening because of three life changing events:
First and foremost because I won the lottery when it came to parents. James and Henrietta Lear wanted to give their only child the finest education available in 1958. Through their hard work, their vision, their stewardship, their generosity and especially their belief in what I might become, this room is ultimately a gift from them. It expresses their gratitude and mine for the education and life experience that I received during my four undergraduate years at Connecticut College.
Secondly, as an undergraduate I came under the influence of two extraordinary people. The first was Rosemary Park, 5th President of the College whose life and work made an indelible imprint on me, and whose personal friendship and nurture changed the course of my life. We were friends until her death several years ago, and no one could have had a finer role model for what a woman could do, or of the pleasures of the life of the mind, or of what it means to be a critical thinker in our contemporary world.
And the third was the opportunity to study under Dr. Richard Lowitt, who was for ten years Associate Professor of American History at Connecticut College . I am so moved by his highly exaggerated tribute, and I am so sorry he cannot be here for I owe him and this library owes him so very much. Dr. Lowitt believed that undergraduates could capably use and beneficially study original texts and documents. He believed undergraduate education should begin with original texts, not end with them in graduate school. But he did something else, he introduced his students here, and hundreds more in those other institutions where he taught in his distinguished career, to the local history of the place where they went to college. While he was at Connecticut College, he gathered primary sources of all sorts on Connecticut’s regional, political, intellectual and environmental history. I wrote an honors thesis on three important evangelical ministers in 19th century Connecticut. With the help of Hazel Johnson, then College Librarian, Dr. Lowitt built his seminars and his students’ research projects around these original collections. Together they made the College Library a research center and a place where manuscripts and archives were open to undergraduates, indeed where their use was required.
But the space designated in the Shain Library for Special Collections was never really adequate to an expanding collection or an especially inviting place to work. I dreamed of recreating a new Center that would be just as beautiful but more functional than my old and cherished and stylish dormer cubical in the third floor of Palmer Library. Its reality first took shape in conversation with Brian Rogers, College Librarian Emeritus, who was willing to guide my thinking about what was required. It was Brian who enthusiastically accepted my manuscript Carson Collection and understood how it would add to the already fine core collections here in the natural sciences and the environment. He has been a guide and cherished friend from the outset.
Laurie Deredita was named Special Collections Librarian, and Dr. Lee Hisle, a big Texan, not quite as tall as Brian, became College Librarian and Vice President for Information Services shortly after my biography of Rachel Carson was published in 1997. Dr. Hisle has taken the lead in shaping my ideas to conform to the physical reality in a library structure that was perhaps less grand than the Gothic ideal I had in mind, but still a space of beauty and functionality. The new electronic age has not always been friendly to rare books and manuscripts which take up space and require special care. Lee Hisle understands these materials as well as mainframes and data bases. I have come to have a deep respect for his expertise and his vision to support the growth and change of a research collection at a liberal arts college as well as how to make it accessible in this electronic age. Our partnership has made this Center possible.
Laurie Deredita has become a star in the world of archival management. Collections do no one any good if they sit in a box without anyone having the faintest idea of what’s in them, or how they might be used and displayed. Laurie has made this archive and special collections usable inside and outside the college community. Her ingenuity on a limited budget has been an inspiration. It was been the greatest honor to work together with her these last ten years and I shall miss her good judgment, her efficient work, and her curiosity tremendously.
Finally I want to thank President Leo Higdon for making the expansion of the college library with this new research center a priority and an essential component of the college’s centennial and a crucial part of its mission for continued excellence in the liberal arts.
May this Center honor my love of this college and serve its faculty and students in the pursuit of truth and knowledge for many years to come.
Leo I. Higdon, President of Connecticut College
Lee Hisle, Vice President for Information Services and College Librarian
Roger Brooks, Dean of the Faculty
John Nickum, Michele Pacifico, Linda Lear and Ian Lear-Nickum
Ian Lear-Nickum, Linda Lear and John Nickum
John Nickum and Lee Higdon
Linda Lear and Lee Hisle
Gregory Waldron, Vice President for College Advancement, and Linda Lear
Eric Ward, architect of the Lear Center project, and Laurie Deredita, Ruth Rusch Sheppe '40 Director of the Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives
Ann Higdon and Linda Lear. John and Heidi Niblack in the background.
