Archive

Established in 1978 by a group of radical economists at UMass Amherst and local community and labor activists, the Center for Popular Economics. The Center’s staff grew to include a diverse group of economics professors, degree candidates, and activists from a wide range of educational institutions and social forums.

The collection documents the development of the Center’s program, curriculum, and staff, as well as their fund raising, advertising, outreach and networking activities.

After distinguishing himself as a chemist on the faculty at Williams College and serving one term in the State Senate, Paul Chadbourne was called upon in 1866 to become the second president of Massachusetts Agricultural College. Although he pressed an ambitious agenda for building a College from scratch, ill health forced him to resign only a year later. He returned to MAC after holding faculty positions in Wisconsin and at Williams, filling a second stint as president from 1882 until his death in 1883. Though brief, he set an important precedent by creating a “scientific and literary” track of study to complement the “agricultural and scientific” one, and by pushing for the financial support of poor students.

The collection includes correspondence of and about Chadbourne, drafts of speeches and sermons, published writings, biographical and genealogical material, and reports from the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture (1865-1881).

Jules Chametzky is a professor of English, emeritus, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the founder (1958) and co-editor of The Massachusetts Review. Born May 24, 1928, in Brooklyn, NY, Chametzky attended Brooklyn College (B.A., 1950) and the University of Minnesota (M.A. 1952; PhD, 1958). During his noteworthy career, he taught at the University of Minnesota, Boston University, Yale University, the Free University of Berlin, and UMass Amherst (1959-present). A specialist in Jewish American literary history, Chametzky was twice a Fullbright Professor, and he has contributed his time to the Modern Language Association of America, the American Association of University Professors, the American Studies Association, and the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (Secretary of the Executive Committee, 1967-1972). His many publications include The Fiction of Abraham Cahan, Our Decentralized Literature: Cultural Mediations in Selected Jewish and Southern Writers, and The Rise of David Levinsky.

The Chametzky Papers document Chametzky’s career as an educator, advocate, and academic pioneer. Included in the collection are professional correspondence, notes compiled for research and teaching, committee and meeting notes, travel documents and memorabilia, and a series of materials relating to the founding of The Massachusetts Review and the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Account books from the Champion and Stebbins families of Saybrook, Connecticut and West Springfield, Massachusetts, who were involved in various businesses and professional activities. Includes lists of accounts by surname, services rendered, methods of payment, entries for treatments and remedies, lists of patients, and lists of banking activities. Volumes were kept by Reuben Champion (1720-1777), Jere Stebbins (1757-1817), and Reuben Champion, M.D. (1784-1865).

A mariner and whaleman originally from Provincetown, Massachusetts, John S. Chandler (1836-1916) relocated to Bucksport, Maine, in the 1870s to provide care for his aging in-laws.

Chandler’s account book and diary includes records of crewmembers on various voyages, accounts for labor, supplies, and merchandise, pasted-in bills for taxes, clothes, coal, boots, and other commodities, and a journal of Chandler’s farming activities, consisting of notes on labor performed, items and livestock sold, weather accounts, new purchases, and notation of personal visits and trips.

Transcripts of Civil War diaries of Samuel Chapin and William R. Sessions both of South Wilbraham, Massachusetts. Chapin was twenty-one and Sessions twenty-seven when they enlisted in the Union Army with 25 other Wilbraham men on August 29, 1862. They were assigned to the 46th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteers for nine months service.

Mariner from Harwich, Massachusetts, who was involved in the cod and mackerel fishing industry in Barnstable County. Two account books include expenses, income, and final settlements with those involved with annual voyages of 1837 and 1848. They also contain lists of crew members and part owners, many of whom were members of the Chase family.

Nathaniel Chickering came to Enfield, Massachusetts, in 1800 with his son Otis and operated a grist mill for twenty years. One of Otis’ children, Bertrand, operated the Enfield telephone system in the Howe family store and lived with the Edwin H. Howe family.

Includes land and pew deeds of Nathaniel Chickering and Mrs. Otis Chickering’s account booklet with C.F. Wood and Co.

A Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and formerly the Associate Director of the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University (1998-2001), George Chigas is a noted political commentator on the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge during the 1970s.

This small collection is comprised of photographs taken by George Chigas of Cambodian sites and ceremonies in Lowell, Mass. The images document the ordination of novice monks, the consecration of a Buddhist statue, a Cambodian festival kite, and a community money tree celebration.

Children’s Aid and Family Service was an agency providing traditional child and family service and extensive mental health services. Working closely with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, CAFS was a member of the Child Welfare League of America and the Northampton representative for the National Association of Travelers Aid Societies.

This collection includes ten versions of the CAFS constitution, typed personal recollections from the 25th anniversary, annual reports, minutes, and the correspondence of president Miriam Chrisman (1952-1957). Of special note, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge was the chair of the Home Finding Committee of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which helped to found the CAFS.