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.
Along with so many other public history and cultural programs, the Mass. Memories Road Show was forced to pivot away from live events in response to the COVID-19 crisis this spring. Still, the team at UMass Boston has been hard at work behind the scenes to make collections available and to emerge with a stronger program as soon as we can get back on the road again.