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

Collecting area: Arts & literature

Nash-Scott Family

Nash-Scott Family Papers

ca.1830-1957
15 boxes 15 linear feet
Call no.: MS 581
Depiction of Nash family
Nash family

Long-time residents of Hadley, Massachusetts, the Nash and Scott families were united in 1881 when John Nash, a farmer, married Lizzie Scott. Of their seven children, Herman B. Nash, graduated from the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1917, and immediately enlisted in the army, serving in France at the close of World War I. His youngest sister, Helen, kept the family connected during these years by writing and distributing a family newsletter, the Plainville News.

The Nash-Scott Family Papers contain a number of photographs, including an album capturing a trip to the west coast in 1915 and a canoe trip to Labrador in 1920. Herman B. Nash’s scrapbook documents not only his time as a student at M.A.C., but also his service in France, featuring candid photographs taken by Nash during and after the war as well as identification cards, company rosters, and a German propaganda leaflet picked up near the front. Pamphlets, genealogical notes and postcards complete the collection.

Subjects

Hadley (Mass.)--HistoryHadley (Mass.)--Social life and customsMassachusetts Agricultural CollegeNash familyScott familyWorld War, 1914-1918--France

Contributors

Nash, Herman B

Types of material

Photograph albumsPhotographs
National Arts Policy Archive & Library (NAPAAL)

National Arts Policy Archive and Library

1965-2013
Call no.: NAPAAL
Depiction of

The National Arts Policy Archive and Library is a collaborative project initiated by SCUA, the UMass Amherst Arts Extension Service, and several partners in arts agencies intended to document the history of arts administration in America. Collecting the records of state-level and national arts agencies, NAPAAL will provide a foundation for research into the evolution of arts policy, strategies for supporting the arts, and the economic and cultural impact of the arts on our communities.

Constituent collections include:

Subjects

Art and stateArts--ManagementGovernment aid to the arts

Contributors

Americans for the ArtsNational Asssembly of State Arts AgenciesNational Endowment for the Arts
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (U.S.)

National Assembly of State Arts Agencies Records

1969-2000
11 boxes 16 linear feet
Call no.: MS 853
Depiction of

A not for profit membership organization, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) provides representation for state and jurisdictional arts agencies at the national level. Incorporated in 1974, NASAA has been an important forum for directors, chairs, and staff of its member organizations, supporting their collective efforts to advance the arts as an essential public benefit. Working with the National Endowment for the Arts and other agencies, NASAA also helps to strengthen state arts agencies by supporting excellence in and access to the arts.

The NASAA collection includes important documentation of the founding and early operations of the organization, priorities and controversies over the years in arts management, and records of its annual meetings.

Subjects

Arts management--United States

Contributors

National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts Collection

1965-2016
5 boxes 7.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 686
Depiction of

Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.

In contributing to the National Arts Policy Archive and Library (NAPAAL), the NEA allowed SCUA to digitize publications on the arts and arts management since its inception. The collection reflects the impact of the arts (including music, literature, and the performing arts) on everyday lives of Americans and include materials intended to support individual and classroom education, information on arts management, reports on the status of the arts, histories of the organization, and much more. All items are cataloged in the UMass Amherst Libraries online catalog and are included in the Internet Archive, where they are available for full-text searching.

Subjects

Art and StateArts--ManagementGovernment aid to the arts
New England Association of Teachers of English

New England Association of Teachers of English Records

1901-2014
4 box 2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1011

Established in 1901, the New England Association of Teachers of English (NEATE) was the first association of English teachers in America. Through conferences, executive board meetings, and the regular publication of The Leaflet, NEATE aimed to bring together New England’s English teachers to study the methodology and history of the field, as well as observe innovations and new practices in the world of education.

While the collection is expected to grow, it currently consists of meeting minutes, conference records, correspondence between members, issues of The Leaflet, two published histories of the organization, and two early record books of NEATE ranging in date from 1901-1938.

Gift of the New England Assocation of Teachers of English, 2017

Subjects

English teachers--New EnglandTeachers--History--19th centuryTeachers--History--20th century

Contributors

New England Association of Teachers of English
New England Telephone and Telegraph Company

Western Massachusetts Ice Storm Photograph Collection

1942
1 envelope 0.15 linear feet
Call no.: MS 354 bd
Depiction of Ice damage near Becket
Ice damage near Becket

Approximately every twenty years, western New England suffers from devastating ice storms, leaving heavy ice coating on trees and buildings and hazardous conditions. Major storms struck in 1921, 1942, 1961, 1983, 1998, and 2008, with the storm of December 29-30, 1942, disrupting power and closing roads throughout a broad swath of the northeast. In northern New York state, ice depths reached six inches.

The collection includes twenty six of an original thirty eight photographs depicting ice storm damage to power lines in the Pittsfield District (Windsor, Middlefield, Washington Mountain to Becket) resulting from the storm in December 1942. The collection also includes a cover letter pertaining to photos (not included) documenting a similar situation in Northampton, affecting the New England Power Service Co.

Subjects

Electric lines--Massachusetts--PhotographsElectric power systems--Natural disaster effects --Massachusetts--PhotographsIce storms--Massachusetts--Photographs

Contributors

New England Power Service Company

Types of material

Photographs
New Song Library

New Song Library Collection

1960-2018
16 boxes 24 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1043

New Song Library letterhead

Founded by Johanna Halbeisen in 1974, the New Song Library was a collaborative resource for sharing music with performers, teachers and community activists, who in turn shared with a wide variety of audiences. Based initially in Boston, the Library was devoted to the music of social change and particularly music that reflected the lives and aspirations of workers, women and men, elders and young people, gays and lesbians, other minorities, and Third World people.

This collection contains over forty years of organizational and operational records of the New Song Library along with hundreds of sound recordings, primarily audiocassettes made at concerts, music festivals, song swaps, and gatherings of the People’s Music Network. The Library also collected newsletters and magazines on folk music, and most importantly dozens of privately produced songbooks and song indexes.

Gift of Johanna Halbeisen, 2017-2022

Subjects

Folk music

Types of material

AudiocassettesCatalogsClippings (information artifacts)CorrespondenceMagazines
New Victoria Publishers

New Victoria Publishers Records

1974-2009
6 boxes 11 linear feet
Call no.: MS 883
Depiction of From the top down: Beth Dingman, Claudia McKay Lamperti, Petey Becker, Bonnie Arnold, and ReBecca Béguin (ca. 1976)
From the top down: Beth Dingman, Claudia McKay Lamperti, Petey Becker, Bonnie Arnold, and ReBecca Béguin (ca. 1976)

Founded in 1975 in Lebanon, NH, by Beth Dingman, Claudia McKay (Lamperti), Katie Cahill, Nina Swaim, and Shelby Grantham, New Victoria Printers became one of two all-female print shops in New England at the time. Believing strongly that “the power of the press belongs to those who own it,” they began to solicit work from non-profit and politically-oriented groups. Like its namesake Victoria Press, an 1860s women run print shop in London owned by Emily Faithful, an early advocate of women’s rights, New Victoria was also committed to feminist principles. The shop offered work and training in printing, machine work, and other traditionally male dominated fields; initially focused on printing materials from the women’s movement; and was organized as a collectively owned and democratically run organization.
Additionally, the shop functioned as a de facto women’s center and lesbian hub for Lebanon and the surrounding area, often overlapping with the lesbian social club Amelia Earhart’s Underground Flying Society, (a.k.a. the Amelia’s). The print shop was a place of education, community, creativity, and activism, and soon publishing opportunities, as the group founded New Victoria Publishers in 1976 to publish works from their community. The print shop closed in 1985, with Dingman and McKay taking over the running of the non-profit publishing company out of their home in Norwich, VT, with an emphasis on lesbian fiction in addition to other women-focused works. An early bestseller, Stoner McTavish by Sarah Dreher, put them on the map, with the company publishing over a hundred books by and about lesbians, winning three Lambda Literary Awards and several other honors.
The New Victoria Publishers Records consist of photographs, newsletters, and cards put out by the collective, materials printed by the press, marketing and promotional materials, author correspondence, graphics and cover art, book reviews, financial and legal records, histories of the organization, news clippings, and an almost full run of the books published by the company. The collection is particularly rich in documenting the work and production of a women owned business within the feminist press movement as well as the lesbian publishing industry.

Subjects

Collective labor agreements – Printing industryFeminist literature – PublishingLesbian authorsLesbians' writings -- PublishingWomen printers – New EnglandWomen publishers – New England

Contributors

Beth DingmanClaudia McKayNew Victoria PrintersNew Victoria Publishers

Types of material

Photographs
New WORLD Theater

New WORLD Theater Records

1979-2010
41 boxes 61.5 linear feet
Call no.: RG 025/F2/N4
Depiction of Photo by Edward Cohen, 2002
Photo by Edward Cohen, 2002

New WORLD Theater was founded at UMass Amherst in 1979 by Roberta Uno with the mission of presenting innovative works of theater by contemporary artists of color, with the goal of fostering creative communities, promoting cultural equity, and embracing diverse cultural backgrounds, social engagement, and a commitment to justice. For more than thirty years New WORLD Theater produced many dozens of plays and other dramatic works representing new voices in the theater, as well as plays from the traditional multicultural repertory, and they have supported the arts through performance residencies, conferences and colloquia, and a variety of initiatives aimed at the diverse communities they serve, youth, and theater professionals. New WORLD Theater has contributed significantly to national conversations on cultural equity. After more than three decades of acclaim and recognition, New WORLD Theater was closed by UMass Amherst in summer 2010.
The bulk of the New WORLD Theater collection consists of administrative records documenting the day-to-day activities of the theater, however, it also contains an extensive and exceptionally rich archive of taped interviews, conferences, and theatrical productions. Taken together, the audiovisual material traces the history of New WORLD through the words and performances of artists who both contributed to and benefited from the theater.

Subjects

African Americans--DramaAmerican drama--Minority authorsAsian Americans--DramaEthnic groups--United States--DramaHispanic Americans--DramaMinorities--United States--DramaUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst

Contributors

New WORLD TheaterPage, PriscillaUno, Roberta, 1956-

Types of material

Audiovisual materialsSound recordings
New York Farm Bureau

New York Farm Bureau Photograph Collection

1915-1916
5 images 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: PH 053
Depiction of Ilion, N.Y. detail)
Ilion, N.Y. detail)

Founded as a non-governmental, volunteer organization in 1911, the New York Farm Bureau offers resources to support and enrich rural life and encourages farmers to work collaboratively for better marketing and production.

This small collection of photographs documents inspection tours conducted by the New York Farm Bureau of farms, apparently in the Mohawk River Valley, in 1915-1916. The intent, as the caption of one photograph suggests, was to bring “science into the field.”

Subjects

Automobiles--PhotographsFort Plain (N.Y.)--PhotographsIlion (N.Y.)--PhotographsStreet-railroads--New York (State)--Photographs

Types of material

Photographs