Malden Mass. Memories Road Show images and stories available for research

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Carolyn Goldstein, Public History and Community Archives Program Manager 

Cole Hayes, History Department Graduate Assistant

The photographs, stories, and videos gathered at the Malden Mass. Memories Road Show are available online now for research.

Bowling Alley Gary, 1990s. “I spent ten years working at the bowling alley and it helped pay for my college. I became known as ‘Bowling Alley Gary’ for my tenure there. It was great to work at a bowling alley because my grandfather was an avid bowler and appeared on ‘Candlepins for Cash.’ Loved using that as a connection with my grandfather.” Location: Grenada Lanes Bowling Alley. Contributor: Gary Christenson. 

Held at the Malden Senior and Teen Community Center on Saturday, April 27, 2024, the event was coordinated by Malden Reads in collaboration with Urban Media Arts, the City of Malden, the Malden Public Library, and the Malden Historical Society. More than two dozen local volunteers–including nearly a dozen members of the Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition youth group–joined a team of UMass Boston staff members, graduate students in public history and archives, and “Roadies” to welcome over 100 adults and children with connections to the city. 

The event coincided with the occasion of the city’s 375th anniversary and represented the culmination of a collecting effort launched during the coronavirus pandemic. UMass Boston and the Neighborhood View arranged for Malden community members to contribute photographs and stories online as part of a Malden Mass. Memories Stuck-at-Home Show.  

Shish kebab cookout, 1975. “Here, on the right is my father Oscar Talanian and on the left is my uncle Leo Nanian (who as an adult owned and operated Leo’s Market, Broadway). Both my dad and uncle were grilling lamb shish kebabs for the family, on a unique grill in our backyard on Rand Street. My father was loaded down with onions, peppers, and tomatoes to add to the lamb skewers. Pictured: my uncle Leo Nanian and my father Oscar Talanian.” Contributor: Barbara Talanian.

Contributors to the April 2024 in-person event shared photographs and stories, chronicling their immigrant heritage and accounts of personal connections to a wide array of countries including Armenia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Nicaragua, and Peru. Many of the images showed important family events such as weddings, birthday parties, and informal gatherings. 

Last cross-country meet of 2023. “This photograph was taken during the run at Mystic River State for a meet and this was memorable because it also happened to be the last meet for cross country of that year. Pictured: Lilian, myself (Estella Guo), Hadjar, Ying Van, Ian Ian Ho, and Emma Yu.” Contributor: Estella Guo. 

Community events–such as road races, sports competitions, high school graduation ceremonies–figure largely in the collection. Demonstrating a strong sense of civic pride, many Malden residents chose to share items to document individual and collective initiatives to improve the quality of life in the city. They brought photographs showing themselves volunteering to organize local arts events such as Porchfest, feed the hungry (Bread of Life), facilitate addiction recovery, clean-up neighborhood parks and playgrounds, and protest the war in Gaza. 

Youth leadership development evaluating progress, 2020. “The American Association of Arab Women created a series of leadership programs and this one was about evaluating progress. Pictured (among others): Mourad Afani, Gabrid Toribio, Carlos Matos, Ose Schwab, Manale Souhir, and Fairouz Farhane.” Contributor: Souad Akib. 

Several contributors shared memories of their experiences at work in Malden and the surrounding area. They submitted photographs and stories of themselves and their ancestors on the job in family businesses such as restaurants, bakeries, libraries, arts and other non-profit organizations.

Nelson’s Bakery, 1940s. “This is my grandfather Frank Favorat, who put many hours into Nelson’s Bakery. Very popular bakery in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Pictured: Frank Favorat.” Contributor: Donna Favorat.

Event participants also shared memories of enjoying the natural environment in Malden and the surrounding area with family and friends, contributing photographs and stories of favorite parks and views. An identifying theme of the collection is environmental activism through activities such as community gardening, park planning and cleanup, forest preservation, and urban planning.

Fellsmere Park. “I go to this place because I live near to there. It’s a very good location. We do exercise there, sometimes we walk along the pond. Now I’m moving to another location.” Contributor: Joanie Huang. 

Browse the Malden Mass. Memories Road Show collection.

The Mass. Memories Road Show is a statewide, event-based participatory archiving program 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 13,000 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.

“Artists in the Archive” exhibition now on view in the Grossmann Gallery

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Image of artwork by Margaret Hart, featuring materials pulled from the Thompson Island Farm and Trade School collection at UMass Boston. Includes a collage of text beneath a drawing of Thompson Island, a photograph of a building, and outlines of students.

Thompson Island Boys School, Margaret Hart, from the Scrapbook of Thompson Island Farm and Trade School 1921-1928, inkjet prints and watercolor on rag paper collage, 2024. 

Artists in the Archive, an exhibition opening this week in the Grossmann Gallery on the fifth floor of the Healey Library, features original work by members of the Endpoint Collective–Deborah Carruthers, Gabriel Deerman, Margaret Hart, and Mark Roth–as well as multi-disciplinary and Indigenous artist Erin Genia. All artists worked directly with materials from the University Archives and Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston to address issues of climate change and social justice in this region.

The exhibition is curated by Carol Scollans, Professor of Art and Art History at UMass Boston, and will be on display through January 17, 2025. A reception will be held on Friday, October 25, 2024, from 4:00-5:30 p.m. Members of the university community and the general public are welcome to attend.

The Endpoint Collective is a group of research-based artists from around the world who have found value in challenging traditional subjects and processes in their artmaking practices. One of the central questions they posit is the transition toward a posthuman existence exacerbated by the looming environmental issues we face. Their work explores non-hierarchical positioning of human and non-human beings (such as animals, fauna, and the earth). By means of traditional and inventive research, group discussions, and the creation of artworks, the collective has found a distinct vocabulary for their originative endeavors. Through exhibitions of their shared work, the collective invites the public into a conversation about these thought-provoking concepts as well.

Through their respective works, each of the five artists investigates issues of connection, replication, and structure via process-based mechanisms including printmaking, collage, photomontage, painting, and textiles. The works present a fascinating investigation into these complex issues with multi-layered and process-centered resources while boldly engaging the viewer through rich imagery and provocative methodological approaches.

Image of artwork by Gabriel Deerman showing various images of printing blocks and blue lines.

Looking for Light Under the Ground (diptych), Gabriel Deerman, block printing ink on paper, 2024.  

Gabriel Deerman is a painter, printmaker, and draftsman exploring figurative and landscape based art.  Working from observation, his approach addresses globalization and climate change triggered by scientific and cultural human relationships to time and place. His distinctive approach questions traditional aesthetic experiences of the natural world as a way to bridge the human and nature divide.

Image of artwork by Margaret Hart showing a collage that includes a yellow jewel beetle, outlines of islands in the Boston Harbor, and text.

Boston Harbor Islands Jewel Beetle, Margaret Hart, inkjet print on rag paper collage, 2024.

Margaret Hart is a mixed media artist, using principally photography and collage as a way to investigate climate change, gender, technology, and personal narratives. Her work examines the philosophical potential of a post-human era questioning what the world is and what it could look like where humans are no longer the central characters of existence.

Photograph of various round artwork pieces by Deborah Carruthers hanging on a wall.

Re-Viewed, Deborah Carruthers, Circular birch panels, acrylic paint, 2024.

A Montreal native Deborah Carruthers is an interarts painter, installation artist, and composer who collaborates with scientists and activists around the world exploring environmental issues; particularly the distress caused by the lived experience of environmental change and human intervention called “solastalgia.”

Photograph of artwork by Erin Genia on a wall. Includes a face or facemask with various text statements in blue starts.

Call to Consciousness 3 Erin Genia, Ceramic, MDF board, acrylic paint beads, mixed media, 2024. 

Erin Genia, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and community organizer specializing in Native American and Indigenous people’s arts and culture. Her work is focused on amplifying the presence of Indigenous peoples and seeks to invoke an evolution of thought and practice aligned with the natural world and the potential of humanity.

Group Gather Around Group after “Group Gathers Around Fir Tree” photograph from the Boston Urban Gardeners Collection, Mark Roth, acrylic on canvas, 2024.  

Painter and curator Mark Roth is based in New York and studies human behavior from a biological perspective. Using formal painting practices, Roth aspires to discover stories resonant to the Anthropocene or the current geological age during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

This exhibition is held in conjunction with the Thinking About Climate Change: Art, Science, and Imagination in the 21st Century conference which will be held in the UMass Boston Campus Center Ballroom on October 25-26, 2024.

 

The Grossmann Gallery is open during Healey Library hours.

University Archives and 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 and 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 and Special Collections, click here or email library.archives@umb.edu.

“Boston’s Little Syria” exhibition tour and reception, Saturday, April 20, 2024

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A tour of the Boston’s Little Syria exhibition and a reception with refreshments will be held in the Grossmann Gallery on the fifth floor of the Healey Library on Saturday, April 20, 2024, from 12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Curators Chloe Bordewich and Lydia Harrington will share reflections on their ongoing research project. The tour and reception are free and open to the public.

Boston’s Little Syria takes viewers on a journey through Boston’s little-known first Arab neighborhood. Located in what is now Chinatown and the South End, Little Syria became home to immigrants fleeing blight and violence in Ottoman-controlled Syria and Mount Lebanon. The exhibition will be open through May 31, 2024. 

Boston’s Little Syria is sponsored by the Syrian American Council, the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library and the Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department at University of Massachusetts Boston.

For additional information on Boston’s Little Syria, visit bostonlittlesyria.org.

The Grossmann Gallery is open during Healey Library hours.

University Archives and 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 and 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 and Special Collections, click here or email library.archives@umb.edu.

“Boston’s Little Syria” exhibition on display in Grossmann Gallery

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Author: Sabrina Valentino, Archives Assistant and graduate student in the Public History MA Program, UMass Boston

Boston’s Little Syria, an exhibition currently on view in the Grossmann Gallery on the fifth floor of the Healey Library, takes viewers on a journey through Boston’s little-known first Arab neighborhood. Located in what is now Chinatown and the South End, Little Syria became home to immigrants fleeing blight and violence in Ottoman-controlled Syria and Mount Lebanon. The exhibition will be open through May 31, 2024. 

The Boston’s Little Syria exhibition uses property maps, photographs, interviews, and memoirs of Syrian and Lebanese Americans who lived in this neighborhood to build a map of the creation and eventual migration of Little Syria, blending the history of the modern Middle East and Boston’s urban history. The items on display not only tell individual stories of the lives of immigrants, but also shed light on a rich cultural center in Boston that has been pushed aside and largely forgotten. 

In the 1880s, immigrants from Ottoman-controlled Greater Syria chose to leave their homes to escape war, famine, and the collapse of the silk industry, leading many to build new homes in Massachusetts. Starting in what is now Ping On Alley, the community grew and created a thriving life for themselves, reaching 40,000 people expanding south down Shawmut Avenue by the 1930s. However, despite the community’s growth and success, the residents of Little Syria faced hardships such as being denied citizenship status, and eventually began to relocate due to the Boston Redevelopment Authority uprooting urban blocks. 

Syrians sitting on a front step on Hudson Street, black and white photograph, photographer unknown, 1909. Courtesy of the Trustees of Boston Public Library.

The exhibition originated from a larger project that began with walking tours in 2022, and eventually grew to include an interactive digital map and a bilingual article published in the online journal Al-Jumhuriya as well as exhibitions at both MIT’s Rotch Library (2022-2023) and the Massachusetts Historical Society (2023). 

The exhibition is curated by Lydia Harrington and Chloe Bordewich. Lydia Harrington received her PhD in Art and Architectural History from Boston University in 2022 and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT in 2022-2023. She is currently the Senior Curator at The Syria Museum, which is one of the sponsors of this exhibition. Chloe Bordewich is a postdoctoral fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute and Critical Digital Humanities Initiative at the University of Toronto and  received her PhD in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University in 2022.

Boston’s Little Syria is sponsored by the Syrian American Council, the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library, and the University of Massachusetts Boston.

For additional information on Boston’s Little Syria, visit bostonlittlesyria.org.

The Grossmann Gallery is open during Healey Library hours.

University Archives and 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 and 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 and Special Collections, click here or email library.archives@umb.edu.

Connecting Ties: A Transatlantic Friendship on Display in the Grossmann Gallery

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Connecting Ties: A Transatlantic Friendship and the Northern Ireland Peace Process, an exhibition opening next week in the Grossmann Gallery on the fifth floor of the Healey Library, illustrates through textile language the human dimension to the relationship between the United States, Ireland, and the Northern Ireland peace process.

A collage featuring three arpilleras at the core of this exhibition; 'Pat Hume', 'Tip O’Neill' and 'John Hume, Peacemaker'. (Design and photo: Leisa Duffy, Copyright Conflict Textiles)
A collage featuring three arpilleras at the core of this exhibition: Pat Hume, Tip O’Neill, and John Hume, Peacemaker. (Design and photo: Leisa Duffy, Copyright Conflict Textiles)

The exhibition is co-curated by Conflict Textiles, a unique transnational collection of textiles focused on conflict and human rights abuses, in partnership with John Hume & Thomas P. O’Neill Chair in Peace, INCORE, Ulster University, and the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston. It will be on view from November 17, 2023 through May 2024. Prior to the exhibition opening, the Tip O’Neill textile will be unveiled at the Golden Bridges 2023: Conference Luncheon, where John Hume, Peacemaker and Pat Hume will also be displayed.

A reception with refreshments will be held in the Grossmann Gallery on Friday, November 17, 2023, from 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm, during which the exhibition will be officially opened by Dr. Tom O’Neill. RSVP at the following link to the invitation: Official launch of the Conflict Textiles Exhibition (Boston) Tickets, Fri 17 Nov 2023 at 4:30 | Eventbrite.

The Northern Ireland Conflict (“The Troubles,” 1969-1994), which focused on the division of the island of Ireland, left more than 3,600 people dead, many more injured, and impacted all sectors of society. From the mid-1970s, key individuals from the United States, including Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and Massachusetts Congressman Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, were involved in discussions and negotiations during the peace process, culminating in the Good Friday Agreement signed in April 1998. In supporting peace in Northern Ireland, Tip O’Neill worked closely with John Hume, the Nobel Peace Prize winner from Northern Ireland. This unique friendship and the contribution of John Hume’s wife Pat are illustrated in the exhibition.

Tip O’Neill, by Lisa Raye Garlock, 2023. Recycled, hand-printed, and hand-dyed fabrics (cotton, linen, silk, wool), Irish linen, felt, and neckties (provided by the O’Neill family), Conflict Textiles collection. (Photo: Lisa Raye Garlock)
Tip O’Neill, by Lisa Raye Garlock, 2023. Recycled, hand-printed, and hand-dyed fabrics (cotton, linen, silk, wool), Irish linen, felt, and neckties (provided by the O’Neill family), Conflict Textiles collection. (Photo: Lisa Raye Garlock)

The exhibition showcases three specially commissioned textiles highlighting the interconnections and work of these essential people in the peace process. The three textiles entitled Tip O’Neill, Pat Hume, and John Hume, Peacemaker are accompanied by several Northern Ireland textiles depicting the conflict and search for peace in the late twentieth century. Four of these pieces, on loan from Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Museum Collection, were created in workshops in Northern Ireland in 2012 and 2013, during which two Northern Ireland communities explored the legacy of the conflict through textile language.

These textiles and many others on display draw their inspiration from early Chilean arpilleras, which are appliquéd picture textiles, handsewn from scraps of fabric onto hessian or burlap. Three Chilean arpilleras from the 1980s and 1990s narrate ordinary peoples’ experiences of the oppressive seventeen-year-long Pinochet dictatorship, which seized power in September 1973. An arpillera from neighboring Argentina
articulates the human rights violations of the Videla regime (1976-1983) and the enduring, courageous protests by the Abuelas (Grandmothers) de Plaza de Mayo.

Selected highlights from the Disappeared Children in Argentina: Rita Arditti’s Interviews with the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo collection and the Padraig O’Malley papers held at UMass Boston are also featured.

The Grossmann Gallery is open during Healey Library hours.

University Archives and 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 and 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 and Special Collections, click here or email library.archives@umb.edu.