The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collecting area: Family

Campbell, Sadie

Sadie Campbell Papers

1812-2002
19 boxes 10.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 439
Depiction of Sadie Campbell and sons Harold and Robert Leslie
Sadie Campbell and sons Harold and Robert Leslie

A housewife, mother and active community member, Sadie Campbell was born in 1881 and lived at 1 Depot Street in Cheshire, Massachusetts for most of her life until she died in 1971. Sadie was closely tied to the Cheshire community where she had a large circle of friends and acquaintances, and was active in a a number of organizations, such as: the Cheshire Ladies Reading Club, the Merry Wives of Cheshire Shakespeare Club, and the Cheshire Cash Tearoom.

The collection documents three generations of a western Massachusetts family. The variety and nature of the materials in this collection offer a good view into the local and social history of western Massachusetts through the lives of Sadie Campbell and her family.

Subjects

Cheshire (Mass.)--HistoryCheshire Cash TearoomFamily--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryFamily--Massachusetts--History--20th centuryHousekeeping--Massachusetts--CheshireHousewives--Massachusetts--CheshireMassachusetts--Social life and customs--19th centuryMerry Wives of Cheshire Shakespeare ClubSmall business--MassachusettsTyrell, AugustusWilliams Manufacturing CompanyWomen--Societies and clubs--History--19th century

Contributors

Campbell, Sadie

Types of material

Account booksInvitationsLetters (Correspondence)PamphletsPhotographsRecipes
Clark, Edie

Edie Clark Papers

1834-2018 Bulk: 1939-2017
63 boxes 94.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1018

Temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA to request materials from this collection.

Beloved for her essays on New England life and for a long-running column in Yankee Magazine, Edie Clark was born in northern New Jersey in 1948 and raised near Morristown. A graduate of Beaver College, Clark cut short a career as editor for the Chilton Company in 1973 when she and her husband, inspired by Scott Nearing, moved to Vermont to pursue a simpler, more self-sufficient life. Drawing on the skills honed at Chilton, Clark developed a successful editorial business, which led her to approach Yankee Magazine in 1978 with the idea of writing an article on Abby Rockefeller and composting toilets, beginning an association that would last nearly twenty years. In 1990, Clark began writing a regular column on country life for Yankee, and in the years since, she has written dozens of essays and seven books, including The place he made (2008), a memoir about her second husband’s struggle with cancer; States of grace (2010), containing essays on “real Yankees;” and What there was not to tell (2013), an account of Clark’s search to uncover her parents’ experiences during the Second World War. Following a lengthy period of ill health, Clark retired from writing in 2017.

The record of a popular writer known for her depictions of contemporary New England, the Edie Clark Papers contain drafts and printed copies of nearly all of Clark’s work. An assiduous researcher, she gathered background materials on topics ranging from Lyme disease to the New England-Canadian border region to psychics and Spiritualists, and she corresponded or conducted interviews with dozens of people who featured in her work, including the author Carolyn Chute (author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine) and her husband Michael, then leaders in the so-called Second Maine Militia. Even more voluminous are some remarkable Clark family materials, including dozens of essays and letters by Clark’s grandmother Eleanor Sterling Clark and over 2,000 letters from her parents. Luther and Dorothy Clark, written during the Second World War while they were serving in the Army Air Corps and Marine Corps, respectively. These letters formed the basis for Clark’s remarkable book, What there was not to tell.

Gift of Edie Clark, April 2018.

Subjects

Authors--New EnglandNew England--Social life and customs--20th centurySpiritualismWorld War, 1939-1945

Contributors

Chute, CarolynClark, Dorothy RahmannClark, Eleanor SterlingClark, Luther Stowell, Jr.

Types of material

AudiocassettesOral histories
Coffin, George R. (George Richards)

George R. Coffin Journal

1854-1857
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1000 bd

The son of a master mariner from Newburyport, Massachusetts, George Richards Coffin was born in Castine, Maine, on Feb. 12, 1832. Sent to Boston at the age of 19 to get his start in business as a clerk, Coffin became a wharfinger in 1854, just a year before he married Hannah Balch, the eldest daughter of a prominent Newburyport merchant. As his family grew to eight, Coffin thrived in his trade, becoming a long-time member of the Merchant’s Exchange in Boston and Inspector of Grain for the Commercial Exchange in the 1870s. By the 1880s, he relocated his family to the genteel western suburbs of the city and by the time of his death in 1894, he had earned a spot in the Boston Blue Book.

This beautifully written diary was kept by George Coffin as he was starting out in life. Kept regularly, though not daily, the entries are filled with details about his budding business and personal lives, providing a rich portrayal of an aspiring young man in antebellum Boston. Beginning during the last few months of his clerkship and courtship of Hannah Balch and continuing through their engagement and marriage to the birth of their first child, the diary is filled with descriptions of socializing at parties and lectures, religious attendance and recreational activities, and it includes his thoughts on marriage, family, and his career in business. Of particular note are Coffin’s accounts of a visit to the State Prison in Charlestown, his reactions to local resistance to the capture of Anthony Burns under the Fugitive Slave Act, and the steady growth of his relationship with Hannah.

Gift of Elizabeth Hartmann, Nov. 2017

Subjects

Boston (Mass.)--Social life and customs--19th centuryBurns, Anthony, 1834-1862Clerks--Massachusetts--BostonCoffin, Hannah B.Courtship--Massachusetts--BostonHusband and wife--Massachusetts--BostonMarriage--Massachusetts--BostonNewburyport (Mass.)--Social life and customs--19th centuryUnited States. Fugitive Slave Law (1850)Weddings--Massachusetts--Newburyport

Types of material

Diaries
Collins, Phebe

Phebe Collins Collection

ca.1875-1969
10 boxes 15 linear feet
Call no.: MS 958
Depiction of Boy and his dog, 1931
Boy and his dog, 1931

The daughter of a Scottish immigrant and a 1923 graduate of Smith College, Phebe Hazel Ferris returned to her alma mater to pursue graduate work degree in Geology, but in 1928 she married her instructor, Robert Frank Collins. Settling in Williamsburg, Mass., the couple raised a family of three boys, Frank, Robert, and James. Robert, Sr., remained as a Professor of Geology and Geography at Smith, while Phebe eventually returned to graduate work, though in Physics, and thereafter worked for many years at Smith as a laboratory instructor. Phebe died in 1983, less than two months before her husband.

The Collins collection consists primarily of meticulously maintained scrapbooks assembled by Phebe Collins between the 1920s and the 1960s. The range of materials in these scrapbooks is remarkable, including not only photographs, postcards, and letters received, but children’s drawings, report cards, and the occasional surprise like a quarantine sign hung on the family door for a sick child. In aggregate, they are a rich record of the growth of an intellectually-inclined family across four decades. The collection also includes seventeen photograph albums and hundreds of Collins and Ferris family photographs, along with images taken by Robert during his geological work.

Gift of Cathy Englehardt, Jan. 2017

Subjects

Family--MassachusettsFerris familyGeologists--MassachusettsWilliamsburg (Mass.)--History

Types of material

EphemeraPhotographsScrapbooks
Dall Family

Dall Family Correspondence

1810-1843
2 boxes 2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 282

Chiefly correspondence from various Dall family members in Boston, Massachusetts, particularly father William Dall, Revolutionary War veteran, merchant, businessman and former Yale College writing master, to sons William and James Dall in Baltimore, Maryland. Letters of son James Dall, then a student at Harvard University, provide accounts of Boston political and cultural activities of the time.

The correspondence documents the daily changes in the life of a merchant’s family in the early 19th century, reflecting anxiety over trade restrictions, embargoes, and other economic disruptions resulting from the War of 1812. The elder Dall (William 3rd) and much of his family lived in Boston, but two sons lived in Baltimore. The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters to the younger son, William 4th, who was then apprenticed to a Baltimore merchant. The letters of son James Dall, then a student at Harvard University, provide accounts of Boston political and cultural activities.

Acquired 1989

Subjects

Baltimore (Md.)--BiographyBaltimore (Md.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryBoston (Mass.)--BiographyBoston (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryBoston (Mass.)--Intellectual life--19th centuryBoston (Mass.)--Politics and government--19th centuryDall familyFamily--United States--History--19th centuryHarvard University--StudentsMerchants--Maryland--BaltimoreMerchants--Massachusetts--Boston

Contributors

Dall, James, 1781-1863Dall, John Robert, 1798-1851Dall, John, 1791-1852Dall, Joseph, 1801-1840Dall, Maria, 1783-1836Dall, Rebecca KeenDall, Sarah Keen, 1798-1878Dall, William, 1753-1829Dall, William, 1794 or 5-1875
DasSarma, Shiladitya

Shiladitya DasSarma Papers

ca. 1932-2000
3 boxes 3.75 linear feet
Call no.: FS 209

The microbiologist and genomics researcher Shiladitya DasSarma, a UMass Amherst faculty member from 1986 to 2001, was born in Kolkata, India, in 1957. His father was a chemistry professor and his mother a high school English teacher; the family immigrated to the United States in 1966, shortly after the passage of the Hart-Celler Act of 1965, which opened US immigration to Asians. His father joined the faculty of West Virginia State College, and young DasSarma attended public school nearby, graduating first in his high school class. His first scientific publications were with his father, in coordination chemistry, when he was a teenager. At Indiana University, DasSarma majored in chemistry, did research in DNA mapping and transposition, and graduated with honors in December 1978. In the biochemistry program at MIT, he worked as a National Science Foundation fellow under Nobel laureate HG Khorana and earned his PhD in 1984. After postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School, DasSarma joined the department of microbiology at UMass Amherst. His research focused on the molecular biology and genetics of halophilic Archaea, building on pioneering work he had started as a graduate student. In his fifteen years at the university, DasSarma was busy with teaching, mentoring, research grants, publications, patents, launching the company HaloGenetics, and was promoted to full Professor. He made news with his group’s work on the genome sequencing of the first halophilic Archaea and one of the first microbial genomes, in 2000. In 2001, DasSarma moved his research lab to the University of Maryland.

The Shiladitya DasSarma Papers document the life of a pioneering scientist from his childhood in India and West Virginia through his education and his UMass Amherst career. Consisting of correspondence, memorabilia, photographs, photograph albums, family scrapbooks, news clippings, publications, and material related to research and teaching, the papers also include materials from and about DasSarma’s parents and family history and DasSarma’s mother’s compilation of Indian folktales and stories.

Subjects

Families--IndiaImmigrantsMicrobial genomicsMolecular biologistsScientistsUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--Faculty

Types of material

ArticlesPhotograph albumsPhotographsResearch (documents)Scrapbooks
Drury, Luke, 1737-1811

Luke Drury Papers

1746-1831
4 boxes 3 linear feet
Call no.: MS 258

Soldier in Revolutionary War and Shays Rebellion, later a state legislator and local politician from Grafton and Marlboro, Massachusetts. Drury’s papers contain family and business (farm and mill) correspondence, notes of hand, bills, receipts, and legal papers as well as records pertaining to the town of Grafton. Collection also includes papers of Timothy Darling and the Goulding, Place, and Sherman families.

Acquired from Cedric Robinson, 1989

Subjects

Grafton (Mass.)--HistoryMassachusetts--HistoryShays' Rebellion, 1786-1787

Contributors

Darling, TimothyDrury, Luke, 1737-1811Goulding, IsraelSherman, Thankful Temple

Types of material

Deeds
Dunham, Benjamin W.

Benjamin W. Dunham Papers

ca.1897-1907
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 573

Situated on a hill overlooking Quabbin Lake, the Quabbin Inn was a well known resort near Greenwich, Mass. During its peak years during the turn of the twentieth century, the Inn was owned by Otis Dunham, but it figured prominently in the lives of the entire Dunham family.

The Dunham papers contain family correspondence addressed to Benjamin W. Dunham during his service as a machinist with the U.S. Navy. In addition to discussions of the business of the Quabbin Inn, the collection includes news and gossip from the town of Greenwich, the attempted suicide and subsequent hospitalization of Benjamin’s brother Asa, and the migration west of another brother, Herbert.

Subjects

Greenwich (Mass.)--Social life and customsMachinists--MassachusettsQuabbin Inn (Greenwich, Mass.)Quabbin Reservoir Region (Mass.)--HistorySpanish American War, 1898United States. Navy

Contributors

Dunham, Benjamin W
Flint and Lawrence Family

Flint and Lawrence Family Papers

1642-1798
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 273

Personal, financial and legal papers of Flint and Lawrence families of Lincoln, Massachusetts including wills, estate inventories, indenture documents, receipts of payment for slaves and education, correspondence; and records of town and church meetings, town petitions and receipts relating to the construction of the meeting house. Papers of Reverend William Lawrence include letter of acceptance of Lincoln, Massachusetts ministry, record of salary, a sermon and daybook. Personal papers of loyalist Dr. Joseph Adams, who fled to England in 1777, contain letters documenting conditions in England in the late 1700s and the legal and personal problems experienced by emigres and their families in the years following the Revolutionary War.

Subjects

American loyalists--Great BritainAmerican loyalists--MassachusettsChurch buildings--Massachusetts--Lincoln--CostsEngland--Emigration and immigration--18th centuryFlint familyImmigrants--England--17th centuryLand tenure--Massachusetts--LincolnLandowners--Massachusetts--LincolnLawrence familyLincoln (Mass.)--Economic conditions--18th centuryLincoln (Mass.)--HistoryLincoln (Mass.)--Social conditions--18th centuryMassachusetts--Emigration and immigation--18th centurySlaves--Prices--Massachusetts--Lincoln

Contributors

Adams, Joseph, 1749-1803Flint, Edward, 1685-1754Flint, Ephraim, b. 1714Flint, Love Adams, d. 1772Flint, Thomas, d. 1653Lawrence, William, 1723-1780

Types of material

AccountsGenealogiesIndenturesInventories of decedents estatesWills
Fowler, Robert

Robert Fowler Diary

1831-1854
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 174 bd

A native of Salisbury, Massachusetts, Robert Fowler (b.1805) was a prosperous shipbuilder and merchant with a trade extending from Nova Scotia to the Gulf South. He and his wife Susan Edwards, whom he married in 1830, had at least four children.

Kept by Robert Fowler between 1831 and 1854, the volume includes both diary entries (primarily 1841-1846) and accounts. With occasional commentary on local political matters, commerce, weather, and family matters, the diary is largely a record of Fowler’s spiritual concerns and his wrestling with doctrinal matters and the relationship of religion and daily life. An ardent temperance man, he commented on religious topics ranging from the Millerite movement to the resurrection, salvation, and the duty of prayer.

Subjects

FatherhoodFitch, Charles, 1805-1844Merchants--Massachusetts--SalisburyMillerite movementReligious life--Massachusetts--SalisburySalisbury (Mass.)--HistorySecond AdventTemperance

Types of material

Account booksDiaries