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University of Connecticut University Libraries Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

Treasury of the Human Spirit:
An Exhibition of Books and Manuscripts from
Archives & Special Collections,
University of Connecticut Libraries, Storrs


Marking the Dedication of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials.


When the victorious Allied powers convened in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1945 to try Nazi leaders for crimes against humanity, they brought with them a centuries-old background of Western thought and struggle over human rights, law, and the proper relationship between citizens and governments.

Books and manuscripts have long been celebrated as preservers of the cultural memory of humankind, and libraries as treasuries of the human spirit. But libraries and archives are active places as well as repositories. They are workshops for teaching and research, for engagement with the documentary sources of issues that are central to our world today. This exhibition is an invitation to that engagement.

Drawn from the rich holdings of the Archives & Special Collections Department of the University of Connecticut Libraries, this virtual exhibition highlights the documentary legacy of the struggle for human rights. It includes the entire text and selected images from the exhibition on display at the Dodd Research Center from October 15, 1995, through Jan. 31, 1996. In addition, some items are included here that were not included in the gallery exhibition for reasons of space.

Thomas J. Dodd

Senator Thomas J. Dodd

Part One: Thomas J. Dodd (1907- 1971)

The life and career of Thomas Dodd, executive trial counsel at Nuremberg and an advocate for civil rights as U.S. Senator from Connecticut.

Part Two: Human Rights and the Rule of Law, 1670-1945

A survey of some of the documents, events, and ideas that helped form Western notions of rights and law from the 17th century through the Second World War.

 

Exhibition Credits:

"Thomas J. Dodd, 1907-1971" was researched and written by Bruce Stark, acting university archivist.

"Human Rights and the Rule of Law" was researched and written by Richard Fyffe, humanities bibliographer, Homer Babbidge Library. Latin American items selected by Darlene Waller, selector for Latin American and Hispanic Studies, Research and Information Services Department.