Members of English 401H: Honors First-Year Writing (spring 2022) visited UNH's Milne Special Collections and Archives to analyze materials in the Betty and Barney Hill Collection, from typed manuscripts to magazine articles, black and white photographs, paintings, and hand-drawn star charts.
Click on overiews to learn more!
David G. Baker, 1967
“Alien”
Acrylic/Watercolor on MDF
Artworks by David G. Baker, Oversize Box 2, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA
(C) 2022, University of New Hampshire. All rights reserved.
In 1967, a handful of years after Betty and Barney Hill’s famous claim of alien abduction, they commissioned artist David G. Baker for a few drawings and paintings based off of their verbal descriptions of the event. On a 17” x 18” piece of what can be assumed as MDF (a fiberboard), this menacing painting depicts three alien figures, one in focus, from the shoulders up. In the background two other creatures face various directions, with one even wearing what seems to be a hat. They wear simple clothing, all we can see is what can be guessed as gray smocks. The alien in focus is staring at the viewer, and it feels like you are looking through the point of view of the Hills themselves. Through commissioning David Baker for a painting, Betty and Barney Hill successfully disturbed an interest in aliens and UFOs, providing one of the depictions we think of most synonymously with the phrase “alien."
Alexa D.
Paul W. Henderson
Air Intelligence Report
21 September 1961
Report
Air Force Intelligence Report, Folder 1, Box 5, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
The Chief of Combat Intelligence for the United States Air Force, Major Paul W. Henderson, published a report on September 21st, 1961. This report expands on the alleged abduction of New Hampshire residents Barney and Betty Hill by providing an analysis of the events on that night. Additionally, the report touches base on descriptions given by the victims who appeared distraught by the occurrence. This artifact helps to further the reader’s understanding, as given the lack of visual evidence and considering when the report was made public, lots of people wouldn’t necessarily have a background with all the militaristic nuances of these cases. It became the framework for how governments would handle these investigations for years to come. The couple detailed their experience driving back from a trip to Canada, when they were interrupted early in the morning by a peculiar object. The object was said to continually follow their car, in ways that appeared to defy the laws of physics. The Hills remembered a period of insecurity and state of unconsciousness, where they accused the extraterrestrial specimens of abduction. Although the Air Force detected another odd occurrence in a similar time frame, they did not declare it as a threat to national security. While the Hill’s tone sounded genuine, the lack of specific whereabouts and visual evidence leads to an inconclusive response to what occurred that night. At the time of the so-called abduction, the knowledge and scientific evidence of extraterrestrial existence was slim. Have these accusations become less frequent due to the development of a clearer basis for these cases?
Steven C. & Kara C.
Author: Paul Fusco published in LOOK magazine
Title: Betty & Barney W. Delsey & Article About Themselves
Date: 1966
Medium: Photograph
Citation: Box 7, Folder 3, Photographs: Betty & Barney W. Delsey & Article About Themselves, Betty and Barney HiIl Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, Diamond Library, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA.
(C) 2022, University of New Hampshire. All rights reserved.
The undated image from Box 7, Folder 3, Photographs: Betty & Barney W. Delsey & Article About Themselves with a marked location of 954 State Street is of Betty and Barney Hill’s home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The slightly tattered picture pooled memories of a time machine, as Mr. and Mrs. Hill, members of the NAACP and civil rights activists in the 1960s, sat upright on a floral print couch. The couple hold up a newspaper article, clearly titled “New Hampshire UFO Chiller,” as Barney Hill points to the black and white tabloid about the story of their alleged alien abduction. The newspaper was one of the first original publications about the encounter, telling about the experience the couple had throughout their experience. The photo of the interracial couple also features their dachshund, Delsey, meshed in between the two, peering into the flash of the camera. She was present with the couple on the night of the abduction on September 19, 1961. Delsey serves as a connecting point to the audience to show the theme of a “typical American family.” This was one of many photos taken on press day in an attempt to spread news about this abduction. This photo represents just one piece of Delsey’s role in the story of the Hill’s abduction. It allows the viewer to see into the Hill’s life and see the bond of family, as well as the significance of Delsey in their story.
Writen by: Isabelle A., Emily D., Bridget O., and Brianna F.
Image of Notebook Cover
Betty Hill
Notebook of UFO Sightings
1977- 1978
Journal
Notebook of Betty’s UFO sightings, Folder 5, Box 3, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
(C) 2022, University of New Hampshire. All rights reserved.
Tucked neatly away inside a bland white box on a moving cart, stowed away within the archives of the University of New Hampshire’s library, lies a spiralized notebook. The pages are marked with a faded orange tint due to age and decorated with elaborate pencil cursive. The cover displays watercolor art of a tiger cub accented with flowers. Scribbled above the tiger cub is “UFO Sightings” inked in pen. The notebook looks as if it was once purchased at the drugstore. A journal designed to fulfill the purposes of jotting down things to do, addresses, daily thoughts, any normal form of life. Yet, locked within the text of the “Journal of UFO Sightings”, Betty Hill uses personal experience, visual imagery, and a factual writing style to document her personal legacy through the lense of extraterrestrial activity. Betty Hill recorded hundreds of strange everyday occurrences by hand. She scribed a log including the date and time of events, such as weird objects in the sky to strange blinking lights. Hill diligently recorded her experiences by hand, and later one devoted more dedication towards typing her accounts into a printed version. Did the author, Betty Hill, know that this decorative cheap notebook would be used to transcribe her everyday encounters with the extraterrestrial? Or did she ever expect that her aging journal would be tucked away within a stack of her precious artifacts?
Written by: Avery H.
Betty Hill
“My Parents”
Date Unknown
Personal Essay
Personal History Documents, Box 3, Folder 1, Betty and Barney Hill papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA
(C) 2022, University of New Hampshire. All rights reserved.
In 1961, a couple named Betty and Barney Hill experienced something extraordinary. They both lived through what they deemed an alien encounter and abduction in which they experienced a lapse of time, memory loss, and other telling signs that something strange had happened to them. After that event, the couple went on through the years to create an empire of information surrounding everything about the event, including other details that came before and after. They created a whole collection of personal statements, detailed accounts of certain events and other documents to explain and support their experience. The document, “My Parents”, shown above was one that was included in the collection. This artifact was written by Betty Hill herself and was included in a grouping of work titled “Personal History Papers” in the Hill collection here at UNH. Within the artifact Betty goes on to explain detailed descriptions of her parents and some of the experiences that occurred when she was growing up. This document was used to provide the reader context to how Betty had experienced other paranormal experiences growing up, and thus how she was more equipped to identify them later on in her life. Therefore, Betty is using this document to convey logical reasoning, detailed accounts of her childhood, and a first-person point of view in order to establish her credentials and show a backstory of the situation that she and her husband went through. Without the help of her collection, would Betty have been able to convince the public of her experience?
Madison A.
Betty Hill
“Our Marriage”
Date Unknown
Essay
Personal History Papers, Folder 1, Box 3, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC
197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library,
Durham, NH, USA
(C) 2022, University of New Hampshire. All rights reserved.
Betty Hill and her husband, Barney Hill, paved much of the way for extraterrestrial studies in the 20th and 21st centuries following their famous abduction experience in the 1960s. Barney passed eight years after the supposed alien encounter; however, Betty went on to continue telling their stories and left a plethora of essays to the University of New Hampshire in hopes that one day, science would expand, and someone would be able to discover things she could not.
One of the essays, titled “Our Marriage”, written years after her and her late husband’s extraterrestrial experience in 1961, describes the couple’s love, marriage, and family life. This essay is the second one in a collection called “Personal History Papers”, all by Betty, about her family tree, early life, love life, and previous supernatural experiences.
Exact dates of and reasons for this essay is unknown, but it is believed that Betty wrote this piece as documentation of herself, her history, and her experiences to represent her credibility as a storyteller and to preserve her stories in case further research were to ever be done after her lifetime.
Betty Hill and Marjorie Fish
Star Chart
1964
Paper, metal, beads, and string
Fish, Marjorie, Betty’s Finished Drawing with Marjorie’s Pattern, Folder 2, Box 6, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
Hill, Betty, Betty Hill’s Star Map 1964, Folder 2, Box 6, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
(C) 2022, University of New Hampshire. All rights reserved.
Betty Hill's Star Chart:
Betty Hill dedicated her life's work and personal belongings to science in order to better develop and understand our world and beyond. In 1961, Betty and Barney Hill stated they had an extraterrestrial encounter. When Betty and Barney were abducted, they had lost two hours of their memories after they had woken up in their car. Three years after the Hill's were abducted, they still had gaps in their memories so they decided it was time to go under hypnosis to see the truth about their experience. When under hypnosis, Betty drew the star chart that she claimed to have seen in the UFO. She said that the star chart was the trade routes that the aliens travel through, with the two large circles being their "home base."
Marjorie Fish’s Research:
In 1966, an elementary school teacher named Marjorie Fish took on the challenge of finding the pattern in the stars. Fish was self-taught in astronomy; however, she was a member of a High-IQ Society. She was extremely gifted in academics and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology with a minor in science (Webb 2). After months of research and modeling, Fish found a correlation between her star model and Betty’s drawing. The accuracy of Betty’s drawing compared to her pattern is astonishing. With only a few slight differences in the angles and distances between the stars, the projection that Fish found matches perfectly. Once Fish found the correct pattern, she started researching the individual stars that made up the star chart. In her research, she found that all twelve stars that were connected with lines had the characteristics of being inhabitable, which led to years of research about the stars. Currently, scientists still are questioning this case and are still wondering what the future holds.
Works Cited
Marjorie Fish, Betty’s Finished Drawing with Marjorie’s Pattern, Folder 2, Box 6, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
Marjorie Fish, Betty Hill’s Star Map 1964, Folder 2, Box 6, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
Walter N. Webb, Analysis of the Fish Model, Folder 1, Box 6, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
Betty Hill's UFO Star Chart
By Samantha P., Caleb M., Kaylen L., and Madeline B.
Look Magazine
Betty and Barney with The Interrupted Journey / Drawing of UFO
October 1966
Photograph
Betty and Barney with The Interrupted Journey, Folder 8, Box 7, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
Betty, Barney, Drawing of UFO, Box 7, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA
(C) 2022, University of New Hampshire. All rights reserved.
In October of 1966, Look magazine started a new publication on an interracial couple who were claimed to have been abducted by aliens. The couple, Barney and Betty Hill, were driving home from Canada through the White Mountains at 2:00 AM when they were abducted, and then two hours later were released, with no memory of what happened. Firstly, the couple was photographed in their own home displaying aspects of their mysterious encounter. One of the items they were displaying was their drawing of the UFO they claimed to see. Barney Hill described it as a “huge pancake, about 40 feet in diameter”. While many skeptics believed the Hills did not see a UFO, the depiction of what the couple “saw” later became the archetype image for UFO sightings across the nation. In the second photo, the couple sits together while grasping their tell-all memoir written about their extraterrestrial encounter, authored by John D. Fuller. The book was published in 1966, about five years after their original incident. Barney sits next to his scowling wife while flaunting the slightest of smirks. He holds the book in his right hand and Betty holds it in her left, united as one to carry their story together, one that might not have been told without the strength of their partnership.
Written by: Kaylee F., Will C., & Margaret M.
John G. Fuller, 30 November 1913- 07 November 1990
"Aboard A Flying Saucer [parts I & II]"
Oct. 4th and 18th 1966
Look Magazine
“Aboard a Flying Saucer” by John G. Fuller, Look, Oct. 4, 1966, pp 33-56, Oversize box 2, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
“Aboard a Flying Saucer [part II]” by John G. Fuller, Look, Oct. 18, 1966, pp 111-119, Oversize box 2, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
At the second floor of the UNH Diamond Library lies the beloved UNH Special Collections Archives. Tucked away neatly in their olive folders lie two October 1966 additions of Look, a popular lifestyle magazine. Among the vibrant, shiny pages advertising cigarettes; brightly colored, low-lying cars; and new-fangled appliances lies the story of Betty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple from New Hampshire. The pages stand out with black words and a red, large title: “Aboard a Flying Saucer [parts I &II]”, contrasting the browned, rough paper. The articles detail Betty and Barney’s alien abduction experience, with mention and focus on the medical hypnosis of the couple. These articles, written by John G. Fuller, indicate the sensational nature of the abduction, and the context in which it was analyzed by both psychiatrists and the general public. They include excerpts of Betty and Barney’s conversations with Dr. Simon, a credited psychiatrist, in which they reveal previously unknown details about the abduction. Despite the articles’ poor page layout, through the October 4th and 18th issues, John G. Fuller successfully uses the articles’ and his subjects’ credibility, logical dialogue excerpts, a neutral tone, and empathy-invoking introductions and descriptions to inform and persuade the reader about the validity of Hills’ experience. In a time when the public was captivated by extraterrestrials, the Hills and Fuller’s articles reflect the public’s desire for unworldly fantasy in their lives.
Written By: Madison H. and Fiona R.
Betty Hill
Press Release for A Common Sense Approach to UFOs
1996
Typewriter paper
Press Release for A Common Sense Approach to UFOs, Box 4, Folder 9, Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006, MC 197, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
(C) 2022, University of New Hampshire. All rights reserved.
In a dusty folder of the UNH Betty and Barney Hill archival collection lies a file entitled Press Release for A Common Sense Approach to UFOs. Typed on two pages of typewriter paper, this press release was written by Betty Hill, supposed alien abductee, for her book published in 1996. Hill claims to have been abducted in 1965 with her husband Barney, and right from the start, this story gained far more attention than she intended. Her abduction experience was published in Boston newspapers without her permission and later written about in John Fuller’s book The Interrupted Journey. Hill was, for a long time, left with little say in how her story was told and perceived by the public. In writing her own book just 9 years before her death, she takes back her narrative. The press release for her book demonstrates her excitement and enthusiasm for sharing her story on her own terms while allowing Hill to brand herself as a UFO expert, rather than the somewhat insane person she was characterized as in the media. It ultimately doesn’t matter much if she was really abducted or not, just that she finally got the opportunity to share her story with the world.
Carrie H.
