{"id":21156,"date":"2025-06-04T10:36:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T14:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?post_type=story&p=21156"},"modified":"2025-06-04T10:36:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T14:36:41","slug":"from-yellowed-clippings-in-a-scrapbook-a-hidden-history-is-revealed","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2025\/06\/04\/from-yellowed-clippings-in-a-scrapbook-a-hidden-history-is-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"From yellowed clippings in a scrapbook, a hidden history is revealed\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Student researchers trace the origins of Worcester\u2019s renowned EcoTarium\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t the kind of research assignment anyone expected would lead to a public lecture or to newfound genealogical records, but when three Clark students were handed brittle newspaper clippings in their Writing History class, that\u2019s exactly where things ended up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To mark its 200th anniversary, the EcoTarium<\/a>, a Worcester museum of science and nature, partnered with Clark\u2019s History Department<\/a> to help recover and reframe its own past. For Weslee Tyler \u201927, Casey Campellone \u201927, and Jenny Marks \u201927, what began as a modest classroom project quickly became an opportunity to uncover stories that history had overlooked and to add their own voices to the telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marchand\u2019s initial assignment was simple: Write a short academic paper and create a few mock social media posts. But when EcoTarium staff reviewed the work, they were so impressed that they invited the three students to present their findings as part of the Lyceum series honoring the museum\u2019s origins. The student researchers delivered their presentations in February to a rapt audience at the Worcester Public Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the decades, what is now known as the EcoTarium bore several different names (it was founded in 1825 as the Worcester Lyceum of Natural History), and its archives were scattered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The starting point for the student research team was a single scrapbook housed in the American Antiquarian Society, filled with old clippings from the Worcester Natural History Society, another of the EcoTarium\u2019s previous names. History Professor Melinda Marchand<\/a> scanned and uploaded pages from the scrapbook, assigning each student five documents and asking them to build a narrative from what little they had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"student
Casey Campellone \u201927<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was like detective work,\u201d says Campellone, a history major whose documents described \u201cfield meetings\u201d \u2014 19th-century public science gatherings where the head of the Society and community members collected specimens and discussed their findings. \u201cNo one\u2019s written about these. You can\u2019t Google your way through this kind of research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The materials Marks was given mentioned M. L. Jenks, a woman involved in both entomology, the study of insects, and ornithology, the study of birds. Despite her contributions to fields that were rare for women at the time, there was almost nothing else on Jenks to be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost women involved in natural science back then were doing things like sketching bodies and flowers from home,\u201d says Marks, who majors in history and women\u2019s and gender studies<\/a>. \u201cBut she was presenting on invertebrates. That really stood out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"student
Jenny Marks \u201927<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The historical record was thin. Marks could not find a full name or birth date for Jenks, and no trail beyond the clippings. Marks was frustrated and nearly convinced she wouldn\u2019t be able to share much about her research subject. \u201cI was thinking, how am I going to talk about someone I can\u2019t even identify?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She turned to Ancestry.com to help bridge the gaps left by the scraps, piecing together enough context to build a presentation. But the story didn\u2019t end there. After her talk at the Worcester Public Library, a retired historian who had attended the event emailed Marchand to say he was intrigued and had taken it upon himself to dig deeper. \u201cHe found out who she was: Mary Louise Jenks,\u201d Marks recalls. \u201cHe even passed along additional research to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marks chuckles at the idea of being handed a research baton she didn\u2019t anticipate carrying, but says it was meaningful to know her work had sparked someone else\u2019s curiosity. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of ripple effect you don\u2019t think about when you\u2019re writing a three-page paper,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"student
Weslee Tyler \u201927<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tyler, also a history major, researched Helen Knowlton, a 19th-century painter, writer, and art instructor. Knowlton was known in Worcester, but nowhere in her public biographies or online presence was there any mention of her work in natural history. Tyler came across a series of clippings that revealed Knowlton\u2019s active involvement with the Worcester Natural History Society, including her service as secretary. \u201cThere was nothing linking her to the Society until we saw these clippings,\u201d Tyler says. \u201cIt had been missing from her story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The discovery didn\u2019t go unnoticed. The Needham Historical Society, which hosts an annual Helen Knowlton Day and preserves her paintings, had been unaware Knowlton was involved in natural science previous to learning about this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presenting at the Worcester Public Library was a full-circle moment for Campellone. \u201cMy research was literally about field lectures,\u201d he says, \u201cand then I was giving one!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campellone is still working with the EcoTarium, where he\u2019s helping organize historical archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marks recalled strangers coming up to her after the library presentation to say how moved they were, with some even crediting her with rekindling their love for history. \u201cThat stuck with me,\u201d she says. \u201cIt reminded me why this matters. \u2026 It wasn\u2019t just about finding facts. It was about giving someone their name back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyler\u2019s research added a missing chapter to Helen Knowlton\u2019s biography and sparked new opportunities in public history. She\u2019s currently working with the Worcester NAACP on an oral history project and will intern at the Plimoth Patuxet Museums<\/a> this summer in an administrative role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re never going to have a complete record,\u201d says Tyler. \u201cBut the gaps are part of the work. If you can\u2019t fill them in, you investigate around them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History is sometimes regarded as static pages in an old textbook, but the three Clark students hope this project offers a different view \u2014 one where history is messy, partial, and sometimes waiting in a scrapbook no one\u2019s looked at in decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou think you need all the answers to start telling the story,\u201d says Campellone. \u201cBut sometimes, starting the story is how you find the answers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student researchers trace the origins of Worcester\u2019s renowned EcoTarium\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21160,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-gray-500)","story_headerImg":21160,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[225,223,245],"displayed_author":[229],"featured":[494],"topic":[181,198,127,121,172],"class_list":["post-21156","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-humanities","category-clark-community","category-social-sciences","displayed_author-justin-schwartz-27","featured-secondary","topic-history","topic-major-in-history","topic-undergraduate-research","topic-undergraduate-students","topic-worcester"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom yellowed clippings in a scrapbook, a hidden history is revealed\u00a0 | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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