September 9, 1919: “At their eve. Roll Call 5:45 the police men struck…”

Four of the officers who went out on strike on Sept. 9, 1919. (Click to enlarge.)

Four of the more than 1,100 men who went out on strike on Sept. 9, 1919. (2) (Click to enlarge.)

Dorchester resident Anna Muirson Johnson Bellamy’s diary entry on Tuesday September 9, 1919 ends with a brief news bulletin: “At their eve. Roll Call 5:45 the police men struck, laid down their insignia & walked off.” (1)

The Boston police had voted to unionize and were protesting low wages and harsh labor conditions, but the Police Commissioner and the Governor refused to negotiate, the city experienced several days of lawlessness and the State Guard was called in. “The striking officers were dismissed, and once order was restored, the force was restocked with a new, non-union rank and file. The Boston police would not again unionize until 1965.”(3)

Even though the 1919 Boston Police Strike had lasting effects on the City of Boston and helped propel Calvin Coolidge to the presidency, little is known of the fates of the individual officers who risked so much to go out on strike. To fill in this knowledge gap, University Archives and Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston is collaborating with Boston Police Department archivist Margaret Sullivan and community volunteers on a collective research project to document and preserve the stories of the more than 1,100 men who took part in the strike.

Between now and September 9, 2019 – the 100th anniversary of the strike – volunteers from local organizations, classrooms, and the general public will research each of the striking officers, searching for information in census records, vital records, draft registrations, photographs, obituaries, family stories and more. The eventual biographical encyclopedia and research database will be made freely available online.

Organizations or individuals interested in participating in the 1919 Boston Police Strike Project are invited to contact project staff at library.archives@umb.edu.

——————————-
Sources:

  1. Anna Muirson Johnson Bellamy’s diaries have been donated to University Archives and Special Collections by her great-grandson, local historian and Dorchester native Robert Bayard Severy, as part of the rich collection of family papers and artifacts he has gifted to the University. Some of these are processed and open for research (see Bellamy Family Papers (1865-1960) SC-0017), while others, including a number of the diaries, are awaiting processing.
  2. Tappen, G. Arthur. The officers and the men, the stations without and within of the Boston Police, Boston : Twentieth Century Biography Co. (1901).
  3. Herwick, Edgar B. III. “The Boston Police Strike That Impacted Labor For Generations” August 15, 2014. http://news.wgbh.org/post/boston-police-strike-impacted-labor-generations.

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.

UMass Boston archivist discusses Mass. Memories Road Show at Society of American Archivists annual meeting

UMass Boston archivist Jessica Holden (center) with (from left to right) Caitlin Christian-Lamb, Anne Morgan, Kelsey Duinkerken, and Caitlin Brennecke.

UMass Boston archivist Jessica Holden (center) with (from left to right) Caitlin Christian-Lamb, Anne Morgan, Kelsey Duinkerken, and Caitlin Brennecke.

Last week, Jessica Holden, the reference archivist in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston, headed to Cleveland, Ohio, for the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). On Friday of this year’s conference, Jessica was a co-presenter in a session focused on nontraditional outreach methods used by archives and museums and “how archivists and museum curators can forge connections with a wide variety of communities and grow our profession via new and creative approaches to outreach programs.” See the full listing in the online conference schedule here.

In her presentation – titled “Forging Connections and Building Collections: The Mass. Memories Road Show at UMass Boston” – Jessica discussed the Healey Library’s successful statewide digital history project, the Mass. Memories Road Show, and described aspects of the project that are of unique interest to archivists and museum professionals. In particular, Jessica described how the project brings archival resources out into communities (rather than expecting communities to come to an archives) and how this outreach model helps us reach new audiences and establish richer partnerships within those communities.

In addition to Jessica, other presenters in this session were Caitlin Brennecke from Troy Historic Village, Caitlin Christian-Lamb from Davidson College, Kelsey Duinkerken from Thomas Jefferson University, and Anne Morgan from the Imperial Valley Desert Museum. The session was moderated by Michelle Ganz from Lincoln Memorial University.

View Jessica Holden’s presentation here.


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.