Archives of an Activist: Celebrating the Donations of Rita Arditti to UMass Boston

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Date: Monday, April 22, 2012

Time: 4:00 – 6:00 pm

Location: Joseph P. Healey Library (5th floor), University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125-3393.

Please RSVP for this event by emailing library.archives@umb.edu or by calling 617-287-5944.

The Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston invites you to celebrate the life and work of Rita Arditti, as well as the many donations made by Arditti and her Executors to the Library at UMass Boston, on Monday, April 22, 2013.

Arditti was an Argentinean professor living in the United States who learned about Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, pictured above), an organization that searches for children who were abducted during the Argentinean military dictatorship between 1976-1983. Arditti visited the Grandmothers and conducted more than a dozen interviews, which were incorporated into her book Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina. Arditti spoke publicly about the Grandmothers’ work until her death in 2009.

Additional interviews were conducted in 2011 by  Estelle Disch, Rita Arditti’s partner and literary executor. The interview materials were donated to University Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston in 2011.

Join us for this celebration, which will include an exhibition in the Library’s Grossmann Gallery about the Grandmothers and the disappeared children of Argentina. Speakers will include Estelle Disch, Doris Cristobal, Dean of Libraries Daniel Ortiz, and University Archivist Joanne Riley.

This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments and hors d’oeuvres. Please RSVP by emailing library.archives@umb.edu or by calling 617-287-5944.

For more information, visit blogs.umb.edu/archives.

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.

Snow, sledding, and Thompson’s Island

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A residential school for boys was located on Thompson’s Island from 1833 until 1975. In 1907 the name of the school was changed to the “Farm and Trades School” and in 1955 to “Thompson’s Academy,” a college preparatory school for urban boys that closed in 1975.

Since 1988, “the island’s Board of Trustees has partnered with Outward Bound to operate the island, creating Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center. The island continues its mission to serve underprivileged Boston youth with programs that instill teamwork, self-confidence and compassion, and that encourage learning-by-doing.” (http://thompsonisland.org/about/history/)

This digital exhibit includes a sampling of some of the photographs and visual material from the UMass Boston Thompson’s Island archival collections, which contain thousands of photographs, publications, school records and documents spanning 175 years.

Explore this collection of photographs and documents from Thompson’s Island.

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.

Introducing Carolyn Goldstein, the new Mass. Memories Road Show manager

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We’re delighted to announce that Carolyn M. Goldstein has joined University Archives & Special Collections as Public History and Community Archives Program Manager.

Carolyn is an experienced public historian, having worked as a museum curator at Lowell National Historical Park and the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Her publications include Creating Consumers: Home Economists in 20th-Century America (University of North Carolina Press, 2012) and Do It Yourself: Home Improvement in 20th-Century America (National Building Museum and Princeton Architectural Press, 1998). Carolyn received her Ph.D. from University of Delaware, where she was a Fellow in the Hagley Program in the History of Industrialization.

One of Carolyn’s primary responsibilities will be coordinating the Library’s public scanning project, the Mass. Memories Road Show. She will also focus on building partnerships with undergraduate and graduate programs on campus, especially the History Department’s Archives and Public History tracks, as well as developing ways to expand the Library’s engagement with and service to local communities.

Upcoming Mass. Memories Road Shows include Lexington, on Saturday, March 16, and Stoughton on Sunday, May 5.

Unveiling the Mercedes Agulló y Cobo Digital Library, an Open Access Week event at UMass Boston

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On Tuesday, October 23 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., UMass Boston celebrates Open Access Week with the unveiling of the Mercedes Agulló y Cobo Digital Library, an ongoing project of the University Library, University Archives & Special Collections, and the University’s Latin American and Iberian Studies Department.

The event will feature light refreshments, as well as remarks by University Librarian Daniel Ortiz and Professor Reyes Coll-Tellechea, among others.

With the Agulló Digital Library, UMass Boston provides open, online access to published and unpublished Spanish-language research indices, the life’s work of Spanish historian Mercedes Agulló y Cobo, about Spanish and Latin American history, art, literature and politics – indices that, in their creation, were efforts to remove access barriers to historical materials in Spanish archives and libraries. The digital library serves as one example of efforts on the UMass Boston campus to further scholarship, learning, and research in open access environments and across geographic boundaries.

There are currently 13 volumes by Mercedes Agulló y Cobo digitized as part of this online collection and more than 50 volumes are queued for digitization.

Dr. Mercedes Agulló y Cobo has served as director of the Museos Municipales de Madrid and over the course of her illustrious career has produced important scholarly reference works in the historiography of the book, painting, sculpture and theater. The University of Massachusetts Boston was granted permission by the original publishers and copyright holders to make these publications available online.

The event will be held Tuesday, October 23, from 5:00-7:00 p.m., in the Center for Library Instruction (CLI) on the 4th floor of the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston.

Learn more about the Mercedes Agulló y Cobo Digital Library online at http://openarchives.umb.edu.

For more information about this event, call 617-287-5944 or email library.archives@umb.edu.

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 in the Era of School Desegregation

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EVENT POSTPONED!

Please note that this program, originally scheduled for Sat Jun 23rd has been cancelled and will be rescheduled for Fall 2012. Stay tuned for rescheduling announcements, or contact the the Boston Busing/Desegregation Project (BBDP) for further information.

ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT

The Mass Memories Road Show, a project of University Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston, and The Boston Busing/Desegregation Project present a unique collaboration: Boston in the Era of School Desegregation: Share your memories of your community from the 1960s and ‘70s.

At this Mass Memories Road Show:

  • Bring up to 3 photos or documents that reflect yourself, your family, your community in Boston in the 1960s and 1970s. (Items will be scanned and the originals will immediately be returned to you.)
  • Contribute to an oral history video project while you tell the story about your photos or documents – on camera
  • Learn about preserving your pictures and documents

Come and share your story and become a part of the digital history of Massachusetts!

All scanned information will also become part of a statewide educational website called Mass. Memories Road Show: Your Place in Massachusetts History. The Mass. Memories Road Show is a project of University Archives & Special Collections at the University of Massachusetts Boston and of Mass Humanities. Your contributions will also inform the Boston Busing/Desegregation Project (BBDP) as it looks to understand the historical context of school desegregation. This event is held in conjunction with the BBDP’s first annual citywide gathering. The BBDP is a project of the Union of Minority Neighborhoods.

EVENT POSTPONED!

Please note that this program, originally scheduled for Sat Jun 23rd has been cancelled and will be rescheduled for Fall 2012. Stay tuned for rescheduling announcements, or contact the the Boston Busing/Desegregation Project (BBDP) for further information.