Category Archives: Special Collections

Salted, Pickled, and Smoked: New Bedford Fishing Heritage images available

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James Costakes. 'This is Jimmy Costakes, called Jimmy the Greek. He was engineer and part owner with Gary Earl of the 'Stephen R." Jimmy lived on Oxford Street in Fairhaven.' Contributor: Dawn Costakes.

James Costakes. ‘This is Jimmy Costakes, called Jimmy the Greek. He was engineer and part owner with Gary Earl of the ‘Stephen R.’ Jimmy lived on Oxford Street in Fairhaven.” Contributor: Dawn Costakes.

The photographs and stories collected at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center’s Digitizing Day are available for research at openarchives.umb.edu, the digital collections site for University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston. The May 21, 2016, event was part of a year-long effort of the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center to digitize the cultural heritage of New Bedford’s fishing community.

The event was a collaboration involving the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center (NBFHC), New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, the New Bedford Free Public Library, MIT Sea Grant, and the Claire T. Carney Library at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Funding for this project was provided to NBFHC through a Common Heritage grant program from the National Endowment for the Humanities and included support for technical assistance from the Joseph P. Healey Library at University of Massachusetts Boston.

Home at last. Manuel F. Sylvia, cook on the 'Moonlight' arriving at State Pier in New Bedford after being lost at sea, without power, for 36 hours. Contributor: David A. Sylvia.

Home at last. “Manuel F. Sylvia, cook on the ‘Moonlight’ arriving at State Pier in New Bedford after being lost at sea, without power, for 36 hours in December 1962.” Contributor: David A. Sylvia.

Thirty-five individuals shared over 75 photographs and other documents related to New Bedford’s fishing industry from the 1950s to the present. Many of the images depict men at work on fishing vessels at sea over the years. Other photographs document the many family enterprises that make up the city’s fishing industry, including processing plants and marine electronics services. Contributors shared documents describing the work, compensation, and union organization of fish lumpers as well as other commercial fishing jobs.

Staff from University Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston and volunteers from the department’s Mass. Memories Road Show program trained volunteers, registered contributors, scanned images, and recorded stories at the event.

The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center will continue to collect digital copies of images and stories from individuals and families connected to the city’s fishing industry. Anyone interested should contact the center at 508-993-8894 or by email at info@fishingheritagecenter.org.

Lost of lobster. Lobster tow on the 'Lillian B.' All in one tow, normally you get only a few baskets, maybe two. Pictured:

Lots of lobster. “Lobster tow on the ‘Lillian B.’ All in one tow, normally you get only a few baskets, maybe two. Pictured, from left to right: Karluf Bendiksen, Bjarne Bendiksen, and Chet Emery.” Contributor: Reidar Bendiksen.

Browse the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Digitizing Day collection.

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.

Eastern Massachusetts Older Women’s League (OWL) records now available for research

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Older Women’s League (OWL) records

Eastern Massachusetts Older Women’s League (OWL) records

University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston is pleased to announce that the records of the Eastern Massachusetts Older Women’s League (OWL), 1988-2015, have been processed and are available for research.

This collection documents the activities of the Eastern Massachusetts Older Women’s League. Materials consist of files kept by staff and include by-laws, conference planning, correspondence, notes, publications, and ephemera.

Founded in 1980, the Eastern Massachusetts Older Women’s League (OWL) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that conducts research, education, and advocacy activities to improve the status and quality of life of midlife and older women. Many of these improvements were aimed towards women’s access to high-quality, affordable health care, ensuring that all women have the tools necessary to build personal economic security, while advocating for the right of all people to maintain control of decisions affecting their well-being through the end of life.

The finding aid for this collection is available here.

For questions about this collection or to schedule a research appointment, please contact library.archives@umb.edu or 617-287-5469.

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.

Boston Urban Gardeners records: Documenting community gardening and urban agriculture

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BUG SC-043-B009-F577-001Post by Corinne Bermon, Archives Assistant

University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston is pleased to announce that the records of Boston Urban Gardeners (or BUG) have been reprocessed and newer accessions have been added to the collection. This collection documents a range of activities, projects, and publications from 1891 to 2004, with the bulk of the records spanning 1976 (when BUG was founded) to 1989. The finding aid for this collection has been updated and is available here.

The City of Boston has a number of well-established community gardens, with over 50 acres that have helped urban dwellers feed themselves and their neighborhoods since the early nineteenth century. These dedicated urban green areas furnish residents with fresh produce, plants, and flowers. The original community gardens founded around the city provided food supplements for low-income families and senior citizens and offered space for community organizing and gatherings.

Boston Urban Gardeners, founded in 1976, began as a project in the modern urban agriculture movement, especially in making the connections between urban food access, land use, affordable housing, desegregation, and other issues. Founders Charlotte Kahn and Wagner and Ed Cooper understood that “because urban gardening is so empowering, it is inherently political.” BUG was launched by people who lived in inner-city neighborhoods and most board members were residents and gardeners themselves.

Community Garden, 1978 (West Springfield Community Garden in Boston’s South End). Photograph from BUG collection.
Community Garden, 2016 (West Springfield Community Garden in Boston’s South End). Image from Google Maps.

Almost immediately, BUG’s activities began to broaden beyond gardening to the larger social, economic, and political issues that reflected the concerns of its founders, staff, and board members in their surrounding neighborhoods. The list of projects sponsored by BUG is impressive in its scope: community gardens, play-lots, wildflower meadows, a job training program in landscape contracting and management, studies for the landscape of public housing, low maintenance landscapes for highway rights-of-way, and an open space study for Roxbury.

Cover from BUG SC-043-B009-F566-001

Lead in the Soil pamphlet. Click to view a PDF.

Among the projects BUG instituted were Lead in the Soil and Project HUMUS (Help Us Make Urban Soil). Both of these initiatives focused on helping communities learn about their immediate environments. Lead in the Soil educated citizens on the risks of heavy metals in both indoor and outdoor environments through pamphlets, articles, and newsletters. The collection in University Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston offers a first-person view into this project, with BUG’s staff files documenting their work on the task force. In tandem with the Lead in the Soil project, Project HUMUS (see image above) worked with the Division of Land Use of the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture to attempt to create a large-scale urban composting site to provide rich soil to urban gardens and a clean waste disposal facility. This series in the collection contains BUG’s compost project staff’s files which document the project from 1978 to 1982.

In 1990, BUG conveyed its funds and properties to the Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN), which is now an Affiliate of The Trustees of Reservations.

The BUG records consist of files kept by project and regular staff and include annual reports and other reports, proposals, correspondence, by-laws, minutes, articles, newsletters, photographs, and leaflets/pamphlets, material published by BUG, flyers, clippings, contracts, maps, plans and drawings.

View a map of Boston’s Community Gardens here.

View the finding aid for the Boston Urban Gardeners Records here.

For questions about this collection or to schedule a research appointment, please contact library.archives@umb.edu or 617-287-5469.

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.

Remembering historian and public history professor James Green

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UMass Boston Labor Resource Center staff in 2001. Left to right: Administrative Coordinator Jean Pishkin, CPCS Professor and LRC board member Terry McClarney, Labor Extension Coordinator Tess Ewing, Director Pat Reeve, Program Director James Green, Researcher Deb Osnowitz, and Researcher Mary Jo Connelly.

James Green with UMass Boston Labor Resource Center staff in 2001. Left to right: Administrative Coordinator Jean Pishkin, CPCS Professor and LRC board member Terry McClarney, Labor Extension Coordinator Tess Ewing, Director Pat Reeve, Program Director James Green, Researcher Deb Osnowitz, and Researcher Mary Jo Connelly.

We’re sad to hear of the passing of James Green, labor historian and professor emeritus of history at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Professor Green was a long-time supporter of University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston, as well as a regular collaborator. Read the Boston Globe’s obituary for James Green here.

In 2011, Professor Green donated his papers to University Archives & Special Collections. This collection details the scholarly career and activist history of Professor Green, dating from 1964 to 2010. Scholarly materials consist of research materials related to his published books, as well as essays, published articles, book reviews, public addresses, political speeches, papers presented at conferences, and correspondence with scholars and colleagues. There is also a significant portion of the collection devoted to his administrative duties as director of the Labor Resource Center and his duties within the College of Public and Community Service. In the spring of 2008, Professor Green joined the History Department at UMass Boston, where he created and directed the graduate program in Public History.

View the finding aid for the James Green papers here.

There are several photographs of Professor Green on our digital collections site, as well as a short interview Professor Green contributed as part of our UMass Boston Mass. Memories Road Show in 2014, in which he describes his work at UMass Boston and as part of union activities on campus.

James Green at the UMass Boston Mass. Memories Road Show: Video Interview from UMass Boston Archives on Vimeo.

UASC-0140-0062-00012-0001-VID

Exhibition in Healey Library explores Thompson Island histories

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Thompson's Island, 1927. Image from the Thompson's Island collection in University Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston.

Thompson Island, 1927. Image from the Thompson Island collection in University Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston.

Exhibition: Learning By Doing – Thompson Island Histories: A student curated project

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 12, 2016 | 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Location: Walter Grossmann Gallery, Joseph P. Healey Library (5th floor) | 100 Morrissey Blvd. | Boston, Mass. | Click here for directions.

Since the 1830s, Thompson Island has been home to successive educational institutions that have shared a commitment to “learning by doing.” These schools have left a rich collection of historical materials—today stewarded by the Healey Library at UMass Boston in partnership with Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center.

There is no single way to tell the history of Thompson Island. Five graduate students in the History Department’s “Interpreting History in Public” course each offer a unique approach to the history of UMass Boston’s island neighbor. Our student curators have prepared exhibition proposals and two sample panels exploring a chosen historical theme.

Please join us in exploring Thompson Island history.

Sponsored by the Public History Track in the Department of History and by University Archives & Special Collections in the Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Supported in part by the Patricia C. Flaherty ’81 Endowed Fund.

Download the flyer for this exhibition and the opening reception and help us spread the word.

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.