Category Archives: Outreach

Anne Quinn at the Peabody Mass. Memories Road Show.

University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston is pleased to announce the online availability of images and stories gathered at the Peabody Mass. Memories Road Show. The event was organized by the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody Council on Aging, Peabody Historical Society, and ArcWorks Community Art Center. It was held at the Torigian Community Life Center on October 20, 2012.

Twenty-six individuals contributed nearly 100 photographs. A St. John’s School class of 1933 reunion, the 1944 Junior Lodge of the Order of Sons of Italy, and Caroline “Lola” and Bill Busta’s 40th wedding anniversary party are among the community and family gatherings documented. Local sports teams represented in the collection include the 1945 Verza Tanning softball team and the 1948 Peabody High School track team.

Caroline “Lola” and Bill Busta at their 40th wedding anniversary celebration, 1992.

Browse the Peabody Mass. Memories Road Show collection.

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.

Gathering at Herring Pond Indian Church for a Pow Wow, Plymouth, Massachusetts, c. 1928. Contribution by Rhoda Harding at the Stoughton Mass. Memories Road Show, May 5, 2013.

The University Archives & Special Collections Department at the Joseph P. Healey Library welcomes applications from communities and organizations throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to partner with us to hold a Mass. Memories Road Show next year.

The Mass. Memories Road Show (MMRS) is an event-based public history project that digitizes family photos and memories shared by the people of Massachusetts. We work with local communities to organize free public events where residents are invited to bring up to three family photos to be scanned and included in the archives at UMass Boston and online at openarchives.umb.edu. Contributors can also share “the story behind the photos” on video, have their own “keepsake photo” taken, and receive advice from professional archivists and historians on dating and caring for their family photos.

Another important goal of the project is to bring together local residents of all ages, ethnicities, races and backgrounds in lively and thoughtfully planned public events that celebrate each person’s family history and contribution to the community—whether they have lived there for generations or are recently arrived. We hope that both the events and the resulting digital archive will help build and strengthen connections within the communities of Massachusetts.

To date, the project has digitized more than 4,000 photos and stories from across the state, creating an educational resource of primary sources for future generations. Over time, we hope to visit each of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts.

Recent Mass. Memories Road Shows include Peabody, Lexington, and Stoughton. Plans for later in 2013 include a Road Show in Provincetown on Saturday, September 28, and a thematic Road Show exploring the Irish Immigrant Experience, to be hosted at the Irish Cultural Centre in Canton on Saturday, November 16.

The deadline for applications is Friday, July 19, 2013.

For information, please contact Carolyn Goldstein, Public History and Community Archives Program Manager, at carolyn.goldstein@umb.edu or (617) 287-5929.

When: May 22, 2012 | 6:00-7:00 pm

Where: Boston Public Library, Commonwealth Salon, Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02117

This talk is FREE and open to the public.

University Archivist Joanne Riley will present a talk titled “Memories and Mortuary Records: Community Archiving Projects at UMass Boston” in the Commonwealth Salon at the Boston Public Library (700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02117) on Wednesday, May 22 from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.

Description from the Boston Public Library:

UMass Boston houses many archival collections that are utilized by family historians and researchers interested in exploring Boston and Massachusetts cultural history through the lives of individuals. The University’s collections include more than 4,000 stories and images in the “Mass. Memories Road Show” project, hundreds of case records from the Boston Female Asylum, and more than 30,000 mortuary records from the Massachusetts Catholic Association of Foresters between 1880 and 1940. Joanne Riley will share examples from these collections, and will discuss the fascinating, productive, and sometimes challenging interplay among individuals, communities, and institutional archives. Since 2010, Ms. Riley has served as University Archivist at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

This talk is part of the BPL’s Local & Family History Lecture Series.

Explore images and stories from the Mass. Memories Road Show here. And learn more about the Foresters Records here.

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.