The Clamshell Alliance, a loosely-knit coalition of antinuclear groups, was formed in July 1976 to protest the construction of a nuclear reactor in Seabrook, New Hampshire. Inspired by successful antinuclear citizen protests in Germany and Western Massachusetts, the Clams put a spotlight on the issue of nuclear power by means of public education and nonviolent civil disobedience, petitions and picket lines, rallies and site occupations.

Committed to a policy of inclusiveness and equality, giving equal weight to every voice, the Clams adopted - and eventually struggled with — consensus decision-making and they deliberately eschewed elected leaders. But perhaps their most important legacy was demonstrating that ordinary people have the right, the ability, and the responsibility to challenge and change the direction of energy policy in the United States.

In 2007 veterans of the Clamshell Alliance marked the 30th anniversary of its founding with the creation of a website To the Village Square: Nukes, Clams and Democracy, which relates the story of the Clamshell Alliance and why it matters today.

The Clamshell Alliance collection contains primary source materials related to the functioning of the organization – correspondence, office records, committee minutes, press releases, financial information - as well as information pertaining to the Alliance’s interactions with the courts of New Hampshire. There are also documents relating to the decommissioning of the Seabrook reactor.

Rest assured, it’s no joke. On April 1, Milne Special Collections officially launched its new website. More comprehensive, with a consistent look on each page, and better integrated into the library pages, the new site is designed to provide seamless access to information about the extensive manuscript and book collections and online resources within the department. To facilitate navigation within the site, collections are listed both by subject and alphabetically, and each page features breadcrumbs that give users a way to keep track of their location.

So, be sure to bookmark the new address: http://www.library.unh.edu/special. And feel free to send us your comments.

Oh, those fairies? Just a hoax to get your attention. The Cottingley Fairies are an interesting story, though.

The Harvard Sitkoff book signing scheduled for 4 pm today in Special Collections has been cancelled due to the weather.

The book signing has been rescheduled for March 7 at 4 pm in Special Collections.

Noted Civil Rights scholar Harvard Sitkoff, professor of history at the University of New Hampshire, will sign books at a celebration of the publication of his new biography about Martin Luther King Jr., “King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop.”

The book signing will be held 4-6 p.m., Friday, March 7, 2008, in the Milne Special Collections, Dimond Library, 1st floor. Copies of Sitkoff’s book will be available for purchase. The event is sponsored by American Studies; African American Studies; Race, Culture, and Power; and the Department of History. It is free and open to the public.

For more information about the book signing, contact Lesley Rains at lesley.rains@unh.edu or (603) 862-2179.

Noted Civil Rights scholar Harvard Sitkoff, professor of history at the University of New Hampshire, will sign books at a celebration of the publication of his new biography about Martin Luther King Jr., “King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop.”

The book signing will be held 4-6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, in the Milne Special Collections, Dimond Library, 1st floor. Copies of Sitkoff’s book will be available for purchase. The event is sponsored by American Studies; African American Studies; Race, Culture, and Power; and the Department of History. It is free and open to the public.

Sitkoff’s biography of MLK has been called the finest brief biography of the civil rights leader. It was published Jan. 3, 2008, by Hill and Wang.

“Martin Luther King Jr. certainly had a far greater impact on my life than any other public figure, and there is no one I more admired than King. I well remember the excitement I felt as a boy reading accounts of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Because of that, I got involved in the movement as a college student, and then went south briefly to march and picket and take part in the movement,” Sitkoff says.

“As a young adult, nothing exhilarated me more than King saying hello to me and shaking my hand at a civil rights demonstration in Virginia in 1962. And I’ll never forget the extraordinary jumble of emotions and thoughts that went through me as I stood in the rain on an Atlanta street as his casket went by,” he says.

For more information about the book signing, contact Lesley Rains at lesley.rains@unh.edu or (603) 862-2179.

UNH is pleased to host the final display of the traveling photography exhibition, Freedom ‘56, which commemorates the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Historic photographs by Erich Lessing capture the spirit of a brief victory from communist oppression by Hungarian demonstrators, followed by the violent Soviet invasion that re-established Hungary as part of the Soviet orbit. In 1989, Hungary emerged as a democracy following the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Contemporary photos of Budapest by Stephen Spinder complement the exhibition. Exhibition opens Feb. 14 with a reception from 4-5:30pm. Honorary Hungarian Consul General of Hungary Gabor Garai will be the guest of honor.