Search and Research

Back in Hanover for a recent mini-reunion, retired public relations and advertising man Warren Hallamore '32 decided to see if he could track down a special paper that he had been assigned 60 years earlier. It was an unlikely mission at best,,, but one with a surprising conclusion.

The story goes that in his freshman year he missed six weeks of classes because of a stay in Dick's House—the aftereffect on his eyes of a case of measles. While he made up most of his work without too much trouble, that wasn't true for Citizenship—a now almost forgotten required course. But after negotiating with Professor Truxal he was allowed to substitute a research paper for the 18 sessions of what we all used to think was bull-throwing even if it went under the name of social studies. Warren's subject: The History of Howe Library.

Today Howe Library is located in a new brick building south of Lebanon Street, but back in 1929 it was housed in the historical mansion of Eleazar Wheelock, built in 1773 on the site of the present Reed Hall and moved to its present site on West Wheelock Street in 1838 (by one Otis Freeman, who had bought it for $825).

Wan-en sifted through a sheaf of yellowed letters (including some of Wheelock's), researched town records and books on architecture, read old newspapers and College records, interviewed people, and brought forth a concise and illustrated document of history and comment. He got an A in the course and was asked to make a copy (in those pre-xerox days) for Baker Library. He then forgot about it for the next 60 years.

Would Baker have kept a freshman paper for 60 years? Well, there was nothing in the card file under "Hallamore." But then with a certain exhilaration he found a reference under "Howe Memorial Library." After a lengthy search, the librarians produced a slim but substantially bound volume—not from the stacks but from one of the locked glass cases in the Treasure Room. "I almost fell through the floor," says Warren. "I sat there in a comfortable chair and read what I had written when I was 19. And, you know, I couldn't do as well today."