Category Archives: Outreach

Posts about University Archives & Special Collections’ engagement with various communities, both on and off the UMass Boston campus.

Mass. Memories Road Show heads to Wilmington on Saturday, September 30

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Wilmington Mass. Memories Road Show flyerWhen: Saturday, September 30, 2017 | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Location: Wilmington High School Cafeteria | 159 Church Street | Wilmington, Mass. | Click here for directions.

Do you have a connection to Wilmington, Massachusetts? Do you live or work in Wilmington? Are your roots in Wilmington? Share your memories and take your place in Massachusetts history at this free, public event.

Please bring 2-3 photographs in their original format (digital or print photographs) and your stories to be recorded. We will scan unframed pictures and copy digital images and return the pictures back to you. All images will be added to the online collection at openarchives.umb.edu.

Local support for the Wilmington Mass. Memories Road Show is provided by the Wilmington Memorial Library.

For more information about the Wilmington Mass. Memories Road Show, contact Wilmington Memorial Library Assistant Library Director Charlotte Wood at 978-658-2967 or cwood@wilmlibrary.org, or view the Facebook event.

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. It is produced by the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston and is co-sponsored by the Patricia C. Flaherty ’81 Endowed Fund.

Download the flyer for the Wilmington Mass. Memories Road Show and remember to share it with your friends and family members!

Questions? Email carolyn.goldstein@umb.edu.

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 9,000 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.

Marking the 98th anniversary of the 1919 Boston Police Strike

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Striking officers

Four of the more than 1,100 men who went out on strike on September 9, 1919. (Source: Tappen, G. Arthur. The officers and the men, the stations without and within of the Boston Police (1901))

This week, on September 9, 2017, marks the 98th anniversary of the 1919 Boston Police Strike—just two years away from the centennial when the University of Massachusetts Boston and the Boston Police Department Archives plan to have compiled a biographical encyclopedia documenting each of the more than 1,100 police officers who went out on strike. Toward this goal, community volunteers have already made great progress with researching each man’s story.

What was the 1919 Boston Police Strike all about and how should Bostonians plan for its commemoration in 2019? At UMass Boston this semester, students in my History 620 Introduction to Public History and Public Memory course will explore these questions and more. As the students learn about how the past is remembered and interpreted outside of the classroom, they will have opportunities to tackle this tangible public history challenge. One of the students’ major assignments will be to develop ideas for museum exhibits, websites, and site-based programs for engaging public audiences in thinking about the strike and its significance from many perspectives.

At the first class meeting this week, students learned from project partners Joanne Riley, Interim Dean of University Libraries at UMass Boston, and Margaret Sullivan, Boston Police Department Archivist, about the research that is underway and the plans for ongoing engagement of “citizen researchers” over the course of the next two years. In addition, the students discussed one of the major published works on the subject, Francis Russell’s A City in Terror (1975), and identified the larger issues raised by this historical event and why it is important to remember today.

Questions about the course may be posted here or directed to carolyn.goldstein@umb.edu.

Interested in getting involved or learning more about the history of the 1919 Boston Police Strike? Please visit the 1919 Boston Police Strike Project blog at http://blogs.umb.edu/bpstrike1919.

Center for Law and Education: Morgan v. Hennigan case records now available

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University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston is pleased to announce that the Center for Law and Education: Morgan v. Hennigan case records, 1950-1994, (bulk) 1964-1994, have been reprocessed and are fully available for research. View the finding aid for this collection here.

Center for Law and Education: Morgan v. Hennigan case records, Garrity correspondence, 1975

Center for Law and Education: Morgan v. Hennigan case records, Garrity correspondence, 1975

The records in this collection are the papers of the Center for Law and Education in the landmark Boston school desegregation case Morgan et al. v. Hennigan et al., 379 F. Supp. 410 (1974), a complex and legally entangled class action suit against the state of Massachusetts and the Boston School Committee. The center served as co-counsel for the plaintiffs. The complaint filed in the Massachusetts District Court charged that the state and Boston school officials were maintaining a segregated school system that denied black students equal educational opportunities. Materials include original complaints, motions, plaintiffs’ requests, defendants’ answers, correspondence, interrogatories, notices, briefs, student assignment plans, transportation notes, individual city-wide parent council zones, plaintiff and defendant exhibits, transcripts, reports, and newspaper clippings.

Center for Law and Education: Morgan v. Hennigan case records, NAACP correspondence, 1975

Center for Law and Education: Morgan v. Hennigan case records, NAACP correspondence, 1975

In 1969 the Center for Law and Education opened its doors as the Harvard Center for Law and Education. It was founded as part of a legal services program established by the Office of Economic Opportunity and Harvard’s schools of law and education. The center is one of a series of university-affiliated national centers. As an interdisciplinary research institute, the center’s mission is “to protect and advance the legal interests of the poor through research and action on the legal implications of educational policies, particularly those affecting equality of educational opportunity.” From 1969 to the present, the center has been a legal advocate for educational issues and has helped shape federal laws that govern school programs in order to improve educational outcomes, particularly for low-income students and communities.

View the finding aid for this collection 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.

University Archives & Special Collections launches Instagram account

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University Archives & Special Collections is excited to announce that we have recently launched an Instagram account. We are regularly sharing selections from our archival and manuscript collections, rare books, historic UMass Boston photographs, and Mass. Memories Road Show images. Recent topics include the construction of UMass Boston’s campus on Columbia Point, the failed search for Arctic explorer John Franklin’s written records, and the Roman mausoleum and fortress Castel Sant’Angelo. Follow us at @umbarchives to join the fun! Browse a sample of our posts below.

Construction on Columbia Point campus, early 1970s The House Beautiful by Clarence Cook Sir Allen William Young's ship the Pandora
Melanges de poesie et de litterature. Par M. de Florian. Satires de Dulorens The hyacinth or affection's gift : a Christmas, New Year, and birth-day present, for 1853
UMass Boston chorus performing at the university's original campus in Park Square photo of Castel Sant'Angelo from an 1882 album compiled by Fanny Sedgewick Pomeroy 1927 reprint of Martin Luther's 1545 German translation of the Bible

 

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.

 

Eastham Mass. Memories Road Show materials available now

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The photographs and stories gathered at the Eastham Mass. Memories Road Show are available online now for research.

This is a photo of our immediate family taken at Cedarcrest--a cottage colony developed by Frank and Esther Gould after their little summer cottage in Harwich burned mysteriously to the ground. That was the impetus of my father to purchase nine acres of undeveloped land on the backs of the town cove across from Rachel's Cove. They successfully ran this colony for over 40 years before selling each one off to past guests. Pictured, from left to right: Barbara Gould Weber, Frank E. Gould, Esther Halower Gould, and Dana Bickford Gould.

The Frank Gould family, circa 1975. ‘This is a photo of our immediate family taken at Cedarcrest–a cottage colony developed by Frank and Esther Gould after their little summer cottage in Harwich burned mysteriously to the ground. That was the impetus of my father to purchase nine acres of undeveloped land on the backs of the town cove across from Rachel’s Cove. They successfully ran this colony for over 40 years before selling each one off to past guests.’ Contributor: Barbara Gould Weber.

 

The event, held on Sunday, May 7, 2017, was organized by the Eastham Public Library and hosted in its new building. Library Director Debra DeJonker-Berry led a town-wide collaboration among a large number of organizational partners including the Eastham Historical Society and the Town of Eastham Clerk’s Office. The program was supported by the Friends of the Eastham Public Library and the Eagle Wing Inn. Nearly thirty local volunteers came out on a beautiful spring day to partner with a team of UMass Boston staff members and public history graduate students, as well as “Roadies” from previous Mass. Memories Road Show events. Together they welcomed more than 100 adults and children with connections to the Cape Cod town.

Nellie is staffing her general store on Route 6 in North Eastham. The theater posters are for Orleans Theater movies showing is September and August. Pictured: my grandmother Nellie Nickerson.

Nickerson’s general store, 1940s. ‘Nellie is staffing her general store on Route 6 in North Eastham. The theater posters are for Orleans Theater movies showing in September and August. Pictured: my grandmother Nellie Nickerson.’ Contributor: Janice Nickerson.

 

Participants contributed images of growing up–and living year-round–in this seashore community over the years. They shared stories of their work in family businesses, the fire department, schools, and town politics. Memories of summer vacationing in Eastham with family and friends–enjoying recreational activities together such as swimming, fishing, crabbing, and boating along the ocean and bay shores–are also documented in the collection.

This picture was taken after a successful fishing trip for a striped bass! The picture was taken on a misty summer morning in our locust woods. Pictured, from left to right: George 'Kit' Thorlin, Paul Stevens, Jane Thorlin Fields, and Elfie the dog. Location: Nauset Road. Contributor: Joanna Stevens.

Successful fishing trip, 1967. ‘This picture was taken after a successful fishing trip for a striped bass! [It was] a misty summer morning in our locust woods. Pictured, from left to right: George ‘Kit’ Thorlin, Paul Stevens, Jane Thorlin Fields, and Elfie the dog. Location: Nauset Road.’ Contributor: Joanna Stevens.

 

Many contributors shared photographs and stories of their participation in lively community gatherings over the years, commemorating town anniversaries, marching in the Windmill Weekend parade, and celebrating Eastham’s agricultural heritage with an annual turnip festival.

Turnip Queen 2013 is greeted by her most devoted fan. Photo taken by Anton Anderson. Pictured, from left to right: Jack Kerig and Kaye Richardson. Location: Eastham Turnip Festival at Nauset Regional High School.

Turnip kissing Turnip Queen, 2013. ‘Turnip Queen 2013 is greeted by her most devoted fan. Photo taken by Anton Anderson. Pictured, from left to right: Jack Kerig and Kaye Richardson. Location: Eastham Turnip Festival at Nauset Regional High School.’ Contributor: Jack Kerig.

 

Several images illustrate community members’ pride in the town’s landmarks–such as Cape Cod National Seashore, an historical windmill, Nauset Light, and Coast Guard Beach. They further document residents cultivating the Eastham Famous Flower Island (EFFI) and exploring lesser-known corners with the Eastham Hiking Club.

Browse the Eastham 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 9,000 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.