Middletown & local history resources

While the Wesleyan University Library does not collect local history in depth, its holdings nevertheless include a considerable amount of information on the history of Middletown and occasionally on neighboring localities. They are found in various parts of the library, but Special Collections & Archives, which maintains a centralized paper index, is a good place to start. References in the online and card catalogs are incomplete and often confusing.

SC&A holdings, most of which are kept adjoining the reading room and do not require retrieval forms, include:

• The "Middletown" collection of about 560 cataloged printed books and pamphlets. Unclassified, it includes works printed in Middletown as well as works about Middletown.
• Middletown city directories from 1868 to 1927. Directories include alphabetical lists of names and, depending on the period, street and business directories and many business advertisements.
• Leaflets, ephemera, broadsides, clippings, photographs, a few manuscripts, maps and views, and student papers on Middletown subjects.

Many primary sources on Middletown history may be found in the Microforms Center; among them are Middletown newspapers, censuses, vital records, and imprints to 1820. In the open stacks of Olin Library are city directories after 1927, as well as any city governmental or administrative publications held by the library (these are not actively collected; a few older ones may be in storage).