OPEN ARCHIVES NEWS | Category | Exhibits

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University Archives & Special Collections (UASC) in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston opened a new exhibit, “Bicycling: Highlights from University Archives & Special Collections,” featuring selected materials from the department’s bicycling collections. The exhibit—developed by Sara Davis, a graduate student from the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College—showcases photographs, brochures, newsletters, postcards, publications, memorabilia, and ephemera related to cyclists, as well as materials related to bicycling inventions, innovations, and history from a number of bicycling-related collections currently held at UASC. And though modest in size (encompassing two display cases in the Healey Library’s Grossmann Gallery), the display offers a glimpse into the range of collections and materials related to bicycling and bicycling history in the department.

Browse the gallery below for a selection of items displayed in the exhibit.

The objects on display demonstrate America’s love of bicycling and bicycling’s place in American culture, as well as on the international level, from the late 19th century through to the present day. The exhibit reveals how bicycling shaped society and society has shaped the bicycling world by highlighting women in bicycling, inventions, social innovations, and ephemera and memorabilia from popular culture. In the advent of its popularity, socializing became a major component of bicycle culture, with social events such as scheduled bicycle rides, rallies, and competitions, as well as the creation of cycling groups such as the League of American Wheelmen and the Charles River Wheelmen.

Cycling enthusiasts also emerged as activists for change, especially for the greater good of communities. Women such as Kittie Knox, Phyllis Harmon, and Eva M. Bindrim tested society’s norms since bicycling’s height of popularity in the U.S. by introducing new fashions for women cyclists, participating in bicycle races and clubs despite gender, race, and age constraints, and holding key positions within national and local organizations. As a result, bicycle enthusiasts created and continue to create inventions to make bicycling safer and more enjoyable. Browse the gallery below for a selection of items on display.

David Porter Vincent, circa 1880-1899

David Porter Vincent, photograph, circa 1880-1899

League of American Wheelmen membership card, 1897

John Player & Sons 1839-1939 Cycling Card Set

Eva M. Brindrim pins, circa 1894

Bicycling postcard, “You Can Count On US, Solider ! We’ll Keep ‘Em Rolling!”, circa 1920-1950

American Youth Hostels, photograph of bicycling tour, circa 1950-1959. Pictured are a group of cyclists on a tour coordinated by the American Youth Hostels.

The Wheelmen, at League of American Wheelmen/Charles River Wheelmen Rockport Rally photograph, 1969

This exhibit offers only a sampling of the types of archival materials readily available for research. To view all the images from this exhibit, click here.

Some of the department’s bicycling-related collections are still being processed. To view our research guide for an updated list of collections available, click here.

University Archives & Special Collections in the Healey Library at UMass Boston holds a substantial amount of information for bicycling research and aspires to expand upon these collections and to become a national resource on bicycling history. For questions about these collections or to schedule a research appointment, please contact library.archives@umb.edu or 617-287-5469.

The exhibit is on display in the fifth floor flat exhibit cases in the Healey Library at UMass Boston from November 2015 through June of 2016. The exhibit is free and open to the public during library operating hours. For a complete and up-to-date list of hours, visit www.umb.edu/library/about/hours.

Announcement prepared by Sara Davis.

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.

Exhibition tells story of Carol McEldowney’s anti-war activism and role in Women’s and Gay Liberation movements

Date Tuesday Nov 3, 2015

Posted by Andrew M Elder

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This display of diaries, writings, photographs, and ephemera on the 5th floor of the Healey Library reveals the accomplishments and insights of activist and self-defense educator Carol McEldowney.

University Archives and Special Collections at UMass Boston is excited to unveil several new exhibitions in the Walter Grossmann Gallery on the 5th floor of the Healey Library, all of which highlight materials from the department’s extensive archival holdings. I will describe these new exhibitions in a series of news posts over the next week.

The first exhibition I’d like to highlight, in one of the gallery’s upright display cases, is entitled “‘A PERSONAL MANIFESTO … OF SORTS’: The Diaries of Carol McEldowney” and explores the life of activist, writer, and women’s self-defense educator Carol McEldowney.

Although she died in 1973 at the young age of 30, “the spunky Carol McEldowney,” as she was described by Todd Gitlin in his book The Sixties, was outstanding in her accomplishments. In 1967, McEldowney was one of only two women in a small contingent from the U.S. to travel to Vietnam where she studied Vietnamese society and the consequences of war.

Pages from McEldowney’s Hanoi journal.

The diary that McEldowney kept during this trip was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2007. Elizabeth R. Mock, who co-edited McEldowney’s Hanoi Journal for publication, held several positions in the Healey Library at UMass Boston from 1973 until her retirement in 2010. From 1981 to 2010, Mock was the University Archivist and Curator of Special Collections, having established the archival program for the library. The book is available through the Healey Library here or through the UMass Press here.

In 1971, McEldowney moved to Boston where she immersed herself in the emerging Women’s Movement, playing a central role in the establishment of a Women’s Center in Cambridge. During this time she came out as a lesbian and immersed herself in the Gay Liberation Movement.

McEldowney (center, in tank top) in a martial arts or self-defense class.

From 1971 until the end of her life, McEldowney studied martial arts and taught practical self-defense classes to women and children, becoming one of the founders of the movement to use self-defense for rape prevention. An original contributor to Our Bodies, Ourselves, a source book on women’s health, McEldowney participated in one of the first women’s martial arts exhibitions in the country during International Women’s Day, in 1973, in Boston.

The Carol McEldowney collections in University Archives and Special Collections includes McEldowney’s personal papers relating to her activism, as well as several diaries and journals. The papers range in date from 1960 to 1973.

This exhibition uses selections from the McEldowney’s various diaries and journals – as well as photographs, ephemera, and other writings – to tell the story of a woman at the forefront of anti-war activism and the emerging Women’s and Gay Liberation movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Visit the display in the Grossmann Gallery on the 5th floor of the Healey Library at UMass Boston. The exhibition will run through the spring of 2016.

View the finding aid for the Carol McEldowney collections in University Archives and Special Collections here.

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

League of American Wheelmen collection comes to the Healey Library at UMass Boston

Date Thursday Sep 24, 2015

Posted by Meghan Bailey

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John Allen, part of the Board of Directors for the Charles River Wheelmen, unloads one of 200 boxes donated to University Archives and Special Collections on Tuesday. Photo credit: Colleen Locke/UMass Boston

On Tuesday, September 22, University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston received a large donation of material (approximately 200 boxes) from the League of American Wheelmen.

The League of American Wheelmen (now called the League of American Bicyclists) is a national bicycling organization founded in 1880 that played and continues to play an important role around issues of bicycle safety, design standards, promoting bicycling and the rights of bicyclists, and (early in the organization’s existence) advocating for paved roads before the presence of automobiles.

A number of individuals and organizations were involved in the acquisition of the LAW records, including the Charles River Wheelmen (CRW) and member John Allen; Cycling Through History, the Massachusetts African American Heritage Bike Network; and Lorenz Finison, the author of Boston’s Cycling Craze, 1880-1900: A Story of Race, Sport, and Society, which was published in 2014 by the University of Massachusetts Press.

Prior to the donation to the Archives at UMass Boston, Tom Helm, a League member and former board member, stored the collection in his Pennsylvania home for many years, after the League moved to smaller offices and could no longer accommodate the large collection. The transfer of this collection from Helm’s home to UMass Boston has been a real labor of love for those involved, and the financial commitments made by some to secure the safe arrival of these materials at UMass Boston is worth noting. For example, Cycling Through History received a grant from the CRW earlier this year that funded the transportation of these materials to UMass Boston.

The Healey Library at UMass Boston is fast becoming a national resource on bicycling history. We’ve taken in a total of eleven collections over the past few years that tell the stories of bicycling in Boston and around the country. Materials related to the League can be found among the department’s existing collections, as well – notably in the papers of Ralph Galen and Phyllis Harmon. Read more about these collections here.

The extensive records of the League will make a great addition to these existing collections and plans for an exhibition are in progress. We’re currently working with an intern, Sara Davis, a graduate students from Simmons School of Library and Information Science. The exhibit will be on display in 2016.

Keep visiting this site to stay informed about our work with these collections.

UMass Boston archivists give presentation at ACRL/NEC annual conference

Date Thursday May 14, 2015

Posted by Andrew M Elder

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Meghan Bailey, Processing Archivist in the Healey Library at UMass Boston (left), and a 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 the ACRL/NEC Annual Conference in Worcester, Massachusetts. At this year’s conference, called Spacing Out with the Library: An Exploration of Collaboration Across the Physical, Virtual and those Places in Between, Meghan Bailey and Andrew Elder presented as part of the poster session on the department’s efforts, sparked by the 50th anniversary of the founding of the University of Massachusetts Boston, to carry out a wide range of initiatives, all focused on locating, accessioning, preserving, and sharing the physical evidence of the university’s history.

Meghan and Andrew represented the department at the conference, but the poster was developed and designed collaboratively by the full staff of University Archives & Special Collections.

Our poster, titled “‘Save Our History!’ Collaborating to Preserve the Past at UMass Boston,” outlines the various collecting activities, outreach methods, digitization projects, and dogged detective work that resulted in the addition of more than 2,500 linear feet of unique historic materials to the University Archives, as well as a number of well-received public events and exhibitions. We highlight our planning processes, marketing efforts, outreach and collecting endeavors, and our work to share the history of UMass Boston with members of the university community and beyond. We also highlight a number of our successes and identify ways other institutions and archives can work collaboratively to launch similar initiatives.

View the poster and handout here.

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

Date Thursday Apr 23, 2015

Posted by Andrew M Elder

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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.

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Category Archives: Exhibits

Healey Library exhibit explores history of bicycling in the U.S. and beyond

Exhibition tells story of Carol McEldowney’s anti-war activism and role in Women’s and Gay Liberation movements

League of American Wheelmen collection comes to the Healey Library at UMass Boston

UMass Boston archivists give presentation at ACRL/NEC annual conference

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

Contacts

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