Tag Archives: community archives

Mass. Memories Road Show heads to Brockton on Saturday, May 18

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Flyer for the Brockton Mass. Memories Road Show event, scheduled for Saturday, May 18, from 10:00 to 3:00 at the Brockton Public Library.

When: Saturday, May 18, 2019 | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Location: Brockton Public Library | 304 Main Street | Brockton, Mass. | Click here for directions.

Do you have a connection to Brockton, Massachusetts? Do you live or work in Brockton? Are your roots in Brockton? Share your memories and take your place in Massachusetts history at this free, public event.

Please bring 2-3 photographs in their original format (digital or print photographs) and your stories to be recorded. We will scan unframed pictures and copy digital images and return the images back to you. All images will be added to the online collection at openarchives.umb.edu.

Local support for the Brockton Mass. Memories Road Show is provided by the Brockton Public Library in collaboration with a number of city agencies and community organizations.

The Mass. Memories Road Show is a statewide digital history project that documents people, places, and events in Massachusetts history through family photographs and stories. It is produced by the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston and is co-sponsored by the Patricia C. Flaherty ’81 Endowed Fund.

Download the flyer for the Brockton Mass. Memories Road Show here and remember to share it with your friends and family members!

Questions? Email carolyn.goldstein@umb.edu.

The Mass. Memories Road Show is a statewide digital history project that documents people, places and events in Massachusetts history through family photographs and stories. In partnership with teams of local volunteers, we organize public events to scan family and community photographs and videotape “the stories behind the photos.” The images and videos are indexed and incorporated into an online educational database. Since its launch, the project has gathered more than 10,000 photographs and stories from across the state. It is supported in part by the Patricia C. Flaherty ’81 Endowed Fund at UMass Boston.

University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston was established in 1981 as a repository to collect archival material in subject areas of interest to the university, as well as the records of the university itself. The mission and history of UMass Boston guide the collection policies of University Archives & Special Collections, with the university’s urban mission and strong support of community service reflected in the records of and related to urban planning, social welfare, social action, alternative movements, community organizations, war and social consequence, and local history related to neighboring communities. To learn more, visit blogs.umb.edu/archives.

You’re Invited! — Making a History of Columbia Point: A Participatory Exhibition

Date
Posted by
Comments0
36.106.1

Title: Columbia Point Community Leaders, 1965. Contributed by Richard Scobie. ID: UASC-0140-0036-0106-0001. Image from the Mass. Memories Road Show, which is produced by University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston.

When: Saturday, May 9, 2015 –  9:00 am – 1:00 pm

Location: Bay Vista Room, Harbor Point Clubhouse, 1 North Point Drive, Boston, MA 02125.

Click here for directions.

Everyone with a connection to Columbia Point—past and present—is welcome to attend this free, public event, sponsored by University Archives & Special Collections, the Joseph P. Healey Library, and the Department of History (Public History Program) at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Graduate students in UMass Boston’s spring 2015 public history seminar will interpret parts of local history through time, objects, photos, and physical sites.

Community members are invited to to review the students’s work and to participate in the process of making a history of Columbia Point. Together, a community history will be created and materials for a future exhibition on the neighborhood identified.

Bring photos, stories, objects, documents, and questions to include in an interactive timeline and in other historical media designed by the student project team.

Download and share the flyer for this event here.

Light refreshments will be served. Free parking is available.

Contacts

Jane Becker, PhD
Graduate Internship Coordinator and Lecturer
History Department, UMass Boston
Jane.Becker@umb.edu | 617-287-6885

Carolyn Goldstein, PhD
Public History and Community Archives Program Manager
University Archives & Special Collections, UMass Boston
Carolyn.Goldstein@umb.edu | 617-287-5929

For disability-related accommodations, including dietary accommodations, please visit www.ada.umb.edu two weeks prior to the event.

UMass Boston Archives staff give presentation at Society of American Archivists annual meeting

Date
Posted by
Comments0
Joanne Riley, University Archivist and Curator of Special Collections in the Healey Library at UMass Boston (left) and an SAA conference attendee discuss the department's poster.

Joanne Riley, University Archivist and Curator of Special Collections in the Healey Library at UMass Boston (left), and SAA conference attendee discuss the department’s poster.

Last week, archivists from University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston headed to Washington, D.C., for the joint annual meeting of the Council of State Archivists (CoSA), the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA), and the Society of American Archivists (SAA). On Thursday and Friday of this year’s conference, called ARCHIVES*RECORDS: Ensuring Access, Andrew Elder, Jessica Holden, and Joanne Riley presented as part of the professional poster session on our efforts to establish successful ongoing relationships with community archives and organizations.

SAA PosterOur poster, titled “University Archives and Community Organizations: Ensuring Access through Collaboration,” looks closely at our ongoing relationship with The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA) and our collaborative efforts to preserve and provide access to 79,000 mortuary records from the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. Elements of the collaboration included shifting stewardship of the records from the Foresters to TIARA to UMass Boston, integrating TIARA’s efforts in processing and indexing the records into the Archives’ workflow, providing in-person and electronic access to the records, and hosting public events that celebrate the partnership and educate the public about the records. This poster illustrates the lessons learned during the records’ journey from an active business to a community organization to an archives and special collections department at a large, public research university.

View the poster and handout here.

University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston collects materials related to the university’s history, as well as materials that reflect the institution’s urban mission and strong support of community service, notably in collections of records of urban planning, social welfare, social action, alternative movements, community organizations, and local history related to neighboring communities.

University Archives & Special Collections welcomes inquiries from individuals, organizations, and businesses interested in donating materials of an archival nature that that fit within our collecting policy. These include manuscripts, documents, organizational archives, collections of photographs, unique publications, and audio and video media. For more information about donating to University Archives & Special Collections, click here or email library.archives@umb.edu.

Wayland Mass. Memories Road Show collection online now

Date
Posted by
Comments0
Doll carriage parade, 1950 'At one time every year, Cochituate had a doll carriage parade. Pictured: me and my daughter Paula Athanas. Contributor: Polly Athanas.'

Doll carriage parade, 1950 ‘At one time every year, Cochituate had a doll carriage parade. Pictured: me and my daughter Paula Athanas. Contributor: Polly Athanas.’

The images and stories gathered at the Wayland Mass. Memories Road Show on March 8, 2014 are now available for research. Held at the Wayland Middle School, the event was organized by the Town of Wayland’s 375th Anniversary Committee. Two dozen local volunteers collaborated with a team of UMass Boston staff members and “Roadies” from past Mass. Memories Road Shows to welcome adults and children with connections to the town.

More than 125 individuals contributed 375 photographs documenting personal memories of friends and relatives in Wayland and beyond. A large number of contributors shared photographs of themselves and their families engaged in a wide range of community activities over the years. Adults and children at play on Dudley Pond and Lake Cochituate, performing in musical bands and orchestras, and competing in sports events–these photographs demonstrate a series of strong connections established among the town’s residents. The collection also includes photographs of town events such as Halloween parades, road races, high school graduation ceremonies, and Riverfest, an annual celebration of the Sudbury River which runs through the town.

Pictured, from left to right: Pat Tally, Ken Keyes, and John Russell. Location: 101 Pelham Island Road. Contributor: John Russell.

Mud football aftermath, early spring 1984  Pictured, from left to right: Pat Tally, Ken Keyes, and John Russell. Location: 101 Pelham Island Road. Contributor: John Russell.

Other photographs and stories portray young and old at work enhancing the quality of life in their town: building playground structures, planting trees, and conserving open space. Contributors further shared memories and images of the founding of Shir Tikvah (the first Jewish temple in Wayland), the construction of the Islamic Center of Boston, and sharing learning experiences with Boston students in the METCO program. Local businesses such as Russell Garden Center, Raytheon, Liberty Pizza, Nisbet’s Variety Store are well represented in the collection, as are public service agencies such as the police and fire departments.

Overall, the Wayland Mass. Memories Road Show collection provides a rich window on everyday life in this suburban town west of Boston.

Browse the Wayland Mass. Memories Road Show collection.

'A group of BEElieve beekeepers poses for a picture at [my] house after the group's first hive opening in Spring of 2012. Hive openings at backyard beekeepers' homes are a large part of educating the public about the hardworking and friendly bees. Many who have hesitated about beekeeping for years need to witness only one hive opening to make up their minds and get started. Pictured, from left to right: Janet Hading Pian, Anne Harris, unidentified, Kaat Vander Straeten, and Janot Mendler de Suarez.' Contributor: Kaat Vander Straeten.

‘A group of BEElieve beekeepers poses for a picture at [my] house after the group’s first hive opening in Spring of 2012. Pictured, from left to right: Janet Hading Pian, Anne Harris, unidentified, Kaat Vander Straeten, and Janot Mendler de Suarez.’ Contributor: Kaat Vander Straeten.

The Mass. Memories Road Show is a statewide digital history project that documents people, places and events in Massachusetts history through family photographs and stories. In partnership with teams of local volunteers, we organize public events to scan family and community photographs and videotape “the stories behind the photos.” The images and videos are indexed and incorporated into an online educational database. Since its launch, the project has gathered more than 8,000 photographs and stories from across the state. It is supported in part by the Patricia C. Flaherty ’81 Endowed Fund at UMass Boston.  

University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston was established in 1981 as a repository to collect archival material in subject areas of interest to the university, as well as the records of the university itself. The mission and history of UMass Boston guide the collection policies of University Archives & Special Collections, with the university’s urban mission and strong support of community service reflected in the records of and related to urban planning, social welfare, social action, alternative movements, community organizations, war and social consequence, and local history related to neighboring communities. To learn more, visit blogs.umb.edu/archives.

The story behind the photos: Video interviews from the Mass. Memories Road Show

Date
Posted by
Comments0

The Mass. Memories Road Show team is thrilled to announce that the video interviews collected at Mass. Memories Road Shows over the past 10 years are starting to become available at openarchives.umb.edu. For this progress, we thank Lael Dalal, a summer intern from the archives program at Simmons College’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science, who has developed a workflow for editing and cataloging the videos and for uploading them to our online platform. So far, Lael has uploaded the videos for Brewster, Halifax, Irish Immigrant Experience, Milton, Stoughton, and, most recently, Provincetown.

In this blog post, Lael shares her experience working with the video interviews in the collection:

While at UMass Boston, I have had a chance to work with what I think are the most intriguing elements of the Mass. Memories Road Show collection–the video interviews. Before I arrived, I had only a vague idea of what a Road Show entailed. I quickly discovered that at each event participants bring photographs to be scanned and cataloged. In addition, they can sit for a short interview and explain the “story behind the photos” in front of a video camera. These wonderful videos, most of which were recorded by Jack Lerner and Liz Clancy of Best Dog Ever Films, offer invaluable context for the photographs and written stories in the collection.

Andre Rouse and his daughter Trinity at the Stoughton Mass. Memories Road Show

All of the videos record contemporary personal stories for posterity. Some are endearing and heartbreaking. One of my favorites is of Andre Rouse and his young daughter Trinity at the Stoughton Mass. Memories Road Show. They brought photographs of themselves over the years at Stoughton events and family gatherings. While the photos show them participating together in community activities, the video captures their sweet relationship and shows how a loving father has raised his daughter after his wife passed away.

Lawren F. Cohen at the Brewster Mass. Memories Road Show

Other very personal videos also provide a sense of what a community was like at a particular period in history. One of my favorites is from Lawren F. Cohen in Brewster, where he shares memories growing up by the ocean during the Great Depression. He describes the hardships he endured–including hunting for his family so they could eat– yet recalls the time fondly. He lights up and laughs when he recalls working at an old country store as a young man, where he and other “rouges” would hangout and cause a ruckus.

Cornelius McEleney at the Irish Immigrant Experience Mass. Memories Road Show

Cornelius McEleney at the Irish Immigrant Experience Mass. Memories Road Show is another video near to my heart. This thematic event focused on a particular cultural group, rather than on a town or city in Massachusetts. McEleney came from Ireland many years ago and towards the end of the video sings a beautiful song about the trials and tribulations of Irish immigrants who came to America. The song is a unique complement to the photos that he contributed.

The videos tell varied and multi-faceted stories and serve as important documents connecting the past to the present. You can view the videos at openarchives.umb.edu by browsing each Road Show and by searching for “video” in each Road Show’s collection.