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Nova (McConnico) Seals, ’99
A Woman of Grace
A Bright Future Rooted in the Past
Archivist Nova Seals is a woman of diverse talents
By Carol McCarthy
[This article first appeared in the June 2007 issue of Grace magazine, a bimonthly publication of The (New London, CT) Day. It is posted here with permission. <http://www.theday.com>]
Although duress prompted his choice that day 30 years ago, it turns out that Isaac McConnico gave his baby daughter a fitting name. He chose Nova, an astronomical term for a variable star capable of intense brightness.
Today, Nova McConnico Seals, a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, is librarian for special collections and archives at Connecticut College in New London and holds two master's degrees. Bright, she surely is.
But that day in May 1977 in Pensacola, Fla., Dad wasn't thinking about advanced degrees; he was thinking about taking care of his wife and baby. McConnico arrived home from an astronomy class to find that his wife, Chong Kim, had just delivered a baby girl two months premature and on her own — as she had seen people do in her native Korea. The harried father rushed them to the hospital and couldn't remember what names he and his wife had discussed. So he named the baby after the topic of study that day: supernovas.
When Seals' mother found out, she was not pleased. Dad had given their daughter a name Mom couldn't pronounce. There is no letter "V" in Korean. The name sometimes comes out "No-bah" when her mother pronounces it, Seals says today.
But she isn't complaining. Her father also had considered naming her Mildred, after his mother.
"You've got to have some chops to pull off that name," says Seals, whose exotic good looks are the result of her parents' Korean and African-American heritages.
Seals, 30, lives in New London with her husband Kelly (CGA ’98), whom she met while they were students at the Academy, and their son Anderson, 15 months.
Before finding her calling as an archivist — which is different from a librarian in that an archivist deals primarily with papers rather than books — she traveled down several other roads. Those experiences, she believes, make her better at her job, which she describes succinctly: "I'm responsible for the historical records of Connecticut College. I think of myself as a gatekeeper to the past."
Best-laid plans
Seals grew up in Pensacola, her father's hometown, and that is where she gained her first exposure to library science. "I would sometimes spend Saturday mornings with my aunt. She was a librarian at our local newspaper. It was fun clipping articles and looking at the newspaper in a different way," Seals recalls.
These days, she views newspaper clippings as an archivist would: the acidity of the paper makes them problematic for preservation. Yet, she says, "I still look at it with a certain fondness."
In high school, Seals participated in Junior ROTC, and this bright and committed young woman soon set her sights on a military academy, though not the one of her dad's choosing.
"My dad was hoping for West Point," she says of the Army veteran. "I chose the Coast Guard Academy for the opportunities for women. And I like the idea that it has a peacetime mission."
During her time at the Academy, Seals joined the sailing team (that's how she met her husband) and did a tour of duty aboard a cutter on fisheries patrol in Alaska. But Seals' Academy commission would not result in uniformed service. A week before graduation in May 1999 she learned that she had a genetic deformity in her temporomandibular joint that prevented her from serving at sea, and she was discharged from service. She had known that her jaw sometimes locked open but she never guessed it would end her dream.
"It was a little traumatic, thinking you know what you are going to do for a career. I'd already been assigned to a ship. Some of my things had been shipped," says Seals, whose amiable nature and sense of humor make her instantly likeable.
Suddenly at loose ends, Seals went to Seattle with a friend and worked as an administrative assistant in a law office and then as a claims assistant on the Exxon Qualified Settlement Fund. There, she learned to master several computer programs and found she liked helping people get what they needed. The experience provided good training for an archivist, although she had no plans at the time to become one.
Soon after, she and Kelly married and moved to Maine, where he was assigned. Seals pursued a master's degree in American and New England Studies, planning to become a teacher. While going to school, she worked with at-risk youth. One day, she sat in on a history class with one of the teens and had an unwelcome revelation.
"It took very little time for me to realize I didn't have the temperament to be a teacher," she says.
Still, she finished the master's program, writing her thesis on marginalized groups (women and minorities) in the maritime heritage of New England.
"I got to visit a lot archives. I just started talking to the archivists and asked one, 'How do you get to do what you do?'" she recalls.
And then one day she joined the teens in taking a vocational aptitude test. Her career match was librarian, with a particular emphasis on special collections.
It was off to graduate school again, this time at Simmons College in Boston to pursue a master's degree in library and information science with an emphasis on archives. In 2002, she was named a Spectrum Scholar by the American Library Association. The national award recognizes members of under-represented groups who excel in the study of library science.
Also during her time at Simmons, Seals was an intern at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston and worked as a project assistant on the Gore Vidal Archives at Harvard University's Houghton Library. At Houghton Library she honed her archival preservation skills. Many of Vidal's personal letters (including one from Tennessee Williams) had been stapled or paper-clipped. Several were folded a number of times. Her tasks included removing paper clips and staples (the metal rusts) and laying the material flat.
"If it's important, don't staple it unless it's an archival staple," Seals advises. And don't use rubber bands either.
At the JFK library, Seals worked with audio-visual materials relating to Joseph P. Kennedy and Sargent R. Shriver.
"I had a lot of fun working there. Those images are so iconic. And that's when I realized that I like working with photographs," she recalls.
Before she had even graduated from Simmons in 2004, Seals was offered the job at Connecticut College. What she likes most about her job is archiving photographs. That's lucky, because photographs are the most-requested items in Shain Library's Archives and Special Collections, which are housed in a chockfull corner of the library's third floor.
"I like describing what I see," Seals says of the work. "This helps the researchers find what they are looking for."
But it comes with a caveat. "You have to be careful not to interpret too much. I leave that to the researchers. My job is to make information available," she says.
Accurate description, however, is key to cataloguing material, and as Seals puts it, the information "doesn't really mean anything if you can't find it."
Pursuits and passions
When Seals is not working or spending time with her son and husband — he is pursuing his doctorate in electrical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute while teaching at the Academy — she enjoys reading, and with her friend, Alison Peabody, started a book club in 2005.
Each month the members meet at one another's house and take turns selecting books and leading the discussion. This is where it can help to have a librarian in your book club. Peabody says that Seals' broad knowledge of literature can help a host who is stumped on a book selection or who needs background information or ideas to spark discussion.
When the two friends organized the group, they wanted to emphasize that it really was about books, not just socializing and eating good food, Seals says, so they named it "The Women Who Think."
But Peabody, who arrived in New London with her Coast Guard husband [Scott, CGA ’97] around the same time as the Sealses and has been friends with Seals since, says the food is scarcely secondary, thanks to her friend.
"She can cook anything. She sort of set a high bar for the rest of us," says Peabody, who works at the U. S. Coast Guard Academy's Alumni Association in the Institute for Leadership.
Seals is especially adept at making desserts, says Peabody, who mentions as a particular standout a flourless chocolate cake that goes by the moniker The Black Beast and involves a tricky "water bath."
"I have been told that I am a good baker, so I am more than happy to go with the majority opinion," Seals says in response to an e-mail asking about her cooking inclinations. She says her truffle pie is "pretty exciting."
"She puts us all to shame all the time," says Peabody, who allows that having a close friend who is a good cook is nothing to lament.
"It's a rewarding friendship on many levels," she says with a laugh. "She is a very compassionate friend and very funny. She has a well-balanced outlook on life. She does it all (work, family etc.) so effortlessly and with grace."
And cooking isn't her only handiwork. Seals quilts, does calligraphy and, Peabody recently discovered, paints watercolors. "She did watercolor invitations for Anderson's birthday party," she says. "I wasn't surprised, but I didn't know she did that."
Seals' true passion, however, is knitting.
She credits library volunteer and 1952 Connecticut College alumna Janet Kellock of Mystic for getting her hooked on the craft. When Kellock found out that Seals didn't knit, she introduced her to it over lunch with a trip to the crafts store A.C. Moore and then taught her the basics. Seals caught on right away.
"She was a very apt student. She's doing absolutely beautiful, complicated work," Kellock says.
Seals is so devoted to knitting that she even has her own blog complete with photos: www.archivistontheedge.com. She admits that she reads other knitters' blogs, looks at their projects and stays motivated to finish her own by being linked into the knitting subculture.
"It's a little bizarre," she admits.
Kellock confesses, "I made her as obsessed about it as I am."
But Kellock appreciates Seals for more than her knitting prowess. She values how Seals approaches her work. "She's always smiling and patient and helpful. I can't imagine her losing her temper," says Kellock. "I really enjoy working with her. She's a real asset to the college, I think."
With her busy hands and active mind, it is not surprising to learn that Seals' archivist inclinations extend to her home. An avid letter writer who isn't crazy about phone calls or e-mails, she archives all her personal letters and photos.
"If you care about me, you'll write me a letter," she tells her friends.
When she and her husband were dating and he was assigned to an icebreaker in Antarctica, the two exchanged many letters. She has archived all of those as well as the rolls and rolls of film he shot.
"They're basically the letters of our courtship. He'd also talk about his day; it wasn't all mash notes," she says with a laugh.
And, Peabody notes, Seals even has her assortment of yarn beautifully organized.
"I'm somewhat obsessive," Seals admits.
As evidence, her personal archiving is as thorough as her professional work. She creates a finding aid (sort of like a card catalog) to provide an overview of a collection. She uses archival boxes and sleeves, smoothes out letters and eschews the aforementioned staples and clips.
For example, she holds up a photo of her son at his first birthday party in March. He is seated in a high chair with a tower of cupcakes in front of him. The item is catalogued with these key words: Anderson, first birthday, cupcakes. This is no mean task. She and her husband took 300 photos at that birthday party.
"I think my son is cute, and I think everyone else should, too," she says, sharing some photos she just happens to have on hand.
By the time Anderson grows up, his mother likely will have documented and archived both the milestone events and the ordinary moments of his childhood, because for Nova Seals, there is a new bright star in the family.
© The (New London) Day
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