Category Archives: Announcements

Announcements from University Archives & Special Collections.

Call for Collection Donations: Boston Harbor and the Harbor Islands

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University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library welcomes inquiries from individuals and organizations who are seeking an archival home for materials that may now be riskily stored in basements or old file cabinets but that would serve as valuable research materials for scholars, students, and the general public.

UMass Boston’s Archives and Special Collections collects, preserves and makes accessible materials that document our coastal location, urban mission, and strong support of community service.  This includes systematically expanding our collections related to the history, geography, geology, and cultural heritage of our “neighbors to the east”, the Boston Harbor Islands.

UMass Boston’s existing research collections that document Boston Harbor and the Islands include:

We have begun adding photographs, documents, and oral history interviews collected over the years by the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands along with the Friends’ own early organizational records, and aim to expand the collection to include many of the partners who have made possible the establishment and stewardship of the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area, as well as individuals who have documents, records, photographs, or stories to contribute.  Please contact library.archives@umb.edu for more information.

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.

Tangible Things in University Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston

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Laurel Thatcher Ulrich at the Mass. History Conference. Her keynote talk was titled "Upstairs, Downstairs, and All Around the House: Making Work Visible."

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich at the Mass. History Conference. Her keynote talk was titled “Upstairs, Downstairs, and All Around the House: Making Work Visible.” Photograph courtesy Mass Humanities.

At the recent Massachusetts History Conference keynote speaker Laurel Thatcher Ulrich encouraged attendees to consider the “tangible things” in history.

As I look around our collections, several items catch my eye – a 1940 Fun with Dick and Jane reader, an aerial photograph of Columbia Point, c. 1960, and membership lists of the Saturday Evening Girls. Here reside our tangible things that serve as our window into the past.

Fun with Dick and Jane. Library Call #: PE1117.K2 G731 (Special Collections).

Fun with Dick and Jane. Library Call #: PE1117.K2 G731 (Special Collections).

The Dick and Jane reader becomes more than a book on a shelf, it is memories of struggling to unlock the words that will eventually broaden our world; memories of cuddling with a parent or beloved sibling while reading; memories of a world that may have looked very different than our own.

Views of Columbia Point in the 1960s offer insight into Boston’s rural past, urban planning, and the future of higher education.

The Saturday Evening Girls, created in 1899 as a reading group at the North Bennet Street Industrial School and later an educational club of the Boston Public Library, became a progressive movement to educate and socialize young women. Best known for establishing the Paul Revere Pottery, the organization also published a newsletter, sponsored events, and trained women for leadership responsibilities. The Saturday Evening Girls membership lists are more than a series of names on a page; they open for us a world of arts and craft pottery, immigrant life, and reform movements in early 20th century Boston.

Aerial view of Columbia Point, circa 1960s. UASC-UAPHO-0001-0172

Aerial view of Columbia Point, circa 1960s. UASC-UAPHO-0001-0172

We encourage you to explore the tangible things in your own world. You can start with Laurel Ulrich’s free EdX course at Harvard University, called Tangible Things: Discovering History Through Artworks, Artifacts, Scientific Specimens, and the Stuff Around You. In this online and openly available course, Ulrich encourages participants to “discover new ways of looking at, organizing, and interpreting tangible things in your own environment.”

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.

Who’s Who? — Alumni Board of Directors and Alumni Board Officers, February 1978

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As part of UMass Boston’s 50th anniversary celebrations, students working with University Archives & Special Collections have been digitizing, describing, and making available photos from the school’s past. View our collection of University Archives Historic Photographs.

While every effort is made to identify individuals and events pictured, we can always use your help filling in some of the gaps! Every week we will post a new photo with missing information, and if you recognize the people or event simply make a comment below or email library.archives@umb.edu telling us what you know. With your help we can create an even better record of UMass Boston’s history!

This photograph from February 22, 1978, was taken at an alumni reception for the Alumni Board of Directors and the Alumni Board of Officers. Pictured, from left to right: unidentified man, unidentified woman, Franklin Patterson, Chancellor Claire Van Ummersen, Alumni President Albert H. Russell, and an unidentified man.

If you can help identify individuals in the photograph, please comment below or email library.archives@umb.edu.

An alumni reception given for the Alumni Board of Directors and the Alumni Board of Officers. Left to right: unidentified man, unidentified woman, Franklin Patterson, Chancellor Claire Van Ummersen, Alumni President Albert H. Russell, and an unidentified man.

An alumni reception given for the Alumni Board of Directors and the Alumni Board of Officers. Left to right: unidentified man, unidentified woman, Franklin Patterson, Chancellor Claire Van Ummersen, Alumni President Albert H. Russell, and an unidentified man.

Mass. Memories Road Show in the news, accepting applications for 2015

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Carolyn Goldstein, interviewed on Chronicle for the Mass. Memories Road Show.

Carolyn Goldstein, interviewed about the Mass. Memories Road Show as part of an episode about UMass Boston for WCBV Boston’s Chronicle. Click the image to view the video.

The Mass. Memories Road Show was featured last week on WCBV Boston’s Chronicle as part of a segment produced on the occasion of the university’s 50th anniversary. The episode included photographs from the collection and recorded footage from a number of Mass. Memories Road Show events, including last year’s stops in Lexington and Provincetown.

Are you interested in bringing a Road Show to your community? We are now seeking applications for events to be held in 2015. The deadline to apply is July 25, 2014, and applicants will be notified in early September. Click here for information about how to apply, or email carolyn.goldstein@umb.edu with any questions.

Volunteers and contributors at the Lexington Mass. Memories Road Show

Volunteers and contributors at the Lexington Mass. Memories Road Show, March 2013

Mark your calendars for our next two events in two Boston neighborhoods:

Allston-Brighton Mass. Memories Road Show
Veronica B. Smith Multi-Service Senior Center
20 Chestnut Hill Avenue
Sunday, October 26, 2014

West End Mass. Memories Road Show
West End Museum 
150 Staniford Street
Saturday, November 15

 

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.

 

Introducing Patricia Bruttomesso, new Archival Collections Project Manager

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Patty BruttomessoWe are very pleased to announce that Patricia Bruttomesso has joined University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston as Archival Collections Project Manager.

Patty needs no introduction for many in the local history and cultural heritage communities in Massachusetts and beyond. For more than twenty years, she has worked in local and regional historical organizations in the Northeast and Midwest, most recently with Mass Humanities and, before that, the Bay State Historical League. Her impressive organizational skills and deep commitment to public local history are evident in the annual Massachusetts History Conference, which Patty has coordinated for a number of years, and which attracts hundreds of attendees from scores of organizations throughout the Commonwealth. The conference features panel discussions and workshops on topics of interest to historical organizations and those who work with them.

In her work at UMass Boston, Patty brings her experience and expertise to bear on managing the University Archives & Special Collections department’s physical collections, including overseeing an extensive renovation project to enhance and expand our collection storage, processing and research facilities – no small task!

Patty received her undergraduate degree in history from Brown University, and a Masters in History from the University of Delaware through the Hagley Program in the History of Industrial America. Her doctoral work in U.S. History at the University of Chicago (ABD) focused on the reciprocity of technological and social change in Iowa’s woodworking industry from 1865 through 1925.

Welcome to UASC, Patty!