Community members and contributors at “Making a History of Columbia Point: A Participatory Exhibition” in 2015, the culminating practicum project of a graduate public history seminar at UMass Boston.
University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston occasionally collaborates with community partners to collect materials related to a particular topic, region, or event.
Images and stories are often contributed by individuals and described in their own words.
Materials from these digitization-focused events are available on the department’s Open Archives Digital Collections site.
Past community-based collecting projects:
- Boston Teachers Union Digitizing Day (2018): The materials in this collection were gathered on November 17, 2018, as part of an event held by the Boston Teachers Union. Browse items in this collection here.
- Foresters Families: An Exhibition about the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters Records (2012): The materials in this collection were gathered in 2012 as part of a series of exhibitions about Irish-American stories from University Archives and Special Collections in the Healey Library at UMass Boston. Browse items in the Foresters Families exhibition collection here. Learn more about (and search) the Foresters records here.
- Making a History of Columbia Point: A Participatory Exhibition (2015): The materials in this collection were gathered on May 9, 2015, as part of the culminating practicum project of Dr. Jane Becker’s History 625 graduate public history seminar at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Read more about this project here. Browse items in this collection here.
- New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center Digitizing Day (2016): The materials in this collection were gathered on May 21, 2016, as part of a year-long project of the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center. Read more about this project here. Browse items in this collection here.
Ongoing community-based collecting projects:
- Cycling Jerseys, T-Shirts, Artifacts, and Bicycle Photographs (ongoing): University Archives and Special Collections in the Healey Library at UMass Boston collects community submissions of cycling jersey, t-shirt, artifact, and bicycle images and information. These contributions from community members tell the story of cycling in a unique way and help to develop the sense of a cycling community, going back in time. Browse items in this collection here. Learn more and upload your own images and stories here.
The mission and history of the University of Massachusetts Boston guide the collection policies, activities, and initiatives of University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library, with the university’s urban mission and strong support of community service reflected in the records of and related to urban planning, social action, alternative movements, community organizations, war and social consequence, and local history related to neighboring communities, including notable collections associated with Dorchester and the Boston Harbor Islands. For more information about our collections and our digital archives, visit openarchives.umb.edu. To learn more about our activities and initiatives, visit blogs.umb.edu/archives.