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

Collecting area: New England

Albertson, Dean, 1920-

Dean Albertson Oral History Collection

1975-1977
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 224

A long-time faculty member at UMass Amherst, Dean Albertson was an historian of the twentieth century United States with a specialty in oral history. A veteran of the Second World War, Albertson received his BA from University of California Berkeley (1942) and doctorate from Columbia (1955), joining the Department of History at UMass in 1965 after several years at Brooklyn College. The author of books on Dwight Eisenhower, Claude Wickard (Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Agriculture), and the student movements of the 1960s, Albertson was interested throughout his career in new methods in research and teaching history. He died at his home in Longmeadow, Mass., on March 31, 1989, at the age of 68.

Dean Albertson’s History 384 class at UMass Amherst, required students to conduct oral histories relating to a theme in contemporary U.S. history chosen each year. Between 1975 and 1977, Albertson’s students interviewed social activists of the 1960s and early 1970s, participants and observers in the North End riots of 1975 in Springfield, Massachusetts, and war and nuclear power resisters. The collection includes transcripts of 15 interviews conducted during this period, as well as the students’ papers, which put the transcripts into context.

Subjects

Antinuclear movement--MassachusettsCivil rights--Massachusetts--Hampden CountyDemonstrations--Massachusetts--ChicopeeHistory--Study and teaching (Higher)--Massachusetts-- AmherstPolice shootings--Massachusetts--SpringfieldPolitical activists--Massachusetts--InterviewsPrison riots--New York (State)--atticaPuerto Ricans--Massachusetts--SpringfieldRiots--Massachusetts--SpringfieldSelma-Montgomery rights March, 1965.Springfield (Mass.)--Race relationsSpringfield (Mass.)--Social conditionsVenceremos BrigadeVietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Protest movements -- Massachusetts--SpringfieldWelfare rights movement--Massachusetts--SpringfieldWestover Air Force Base (Mass.)

Types of material

Oral histories
Albertson, Jeff

Jeff Albertson Photograph Collection

ca.1966-2005
7 boxes 10.5 linear feet
Call no.: PH 057
Depiction of Jeff Albertson, ca.1970
Jeff Albertson, ca.1970

Born in Reading, Mass., on Sept 13, 1948, Jeff Albertson was still a student at Boston University, working on the staff of the BU News, when he was hired as a photographer by the Boston Globe. Reflecting the youth culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s, his photographs earned him positions with several prominent Boston alternative media outlets. Covering news, music, and the political interests of his generation, he served as photo editor for the Boston Phoenix and associate publisher for the Real Paper, and his work appeared regularly in mainstream publications such as Rolling Stone, People, and Boston Magazine. After becoming photo editor for the Medical Tribune News Group and moving to New York City in the 1980s, he met and married Charlene Laino. In later years, he became involved in early efforts to create websites devoted to issues surrounding health. Albertson died in 2008.

As a photographer, Albertson covered a wide range of subjects, with particular focus on music and social change. The many thousands of prints, slides, and negatives in the collection include stunning shots of Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Neil Young, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and John Lee Hooker, activists such as Abbie Hoffman, politicians, and public personalities. The collection also includes several photographic essays centered on poverty, old age, fire fighting in Boston, and prisoners in Massachusetts (among other issues) along with a wide array of landscapes and street scenes.

Gift of Charlene Laino, Oct. 2013

Subjects

Boston (Mass.)--PhotographsRock musicians--PhotographsVietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements

Contributors

Simon, Peter

Types of material

Photographs
Aldrich family

Aldrich Family Papers

1907-1992
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 398

Mark Bartlett Aldrich was employed for many years at the Montague Rod and Reel Co. in Montague City. His grandfather, Eugene Bartlett, was the founder of the firm, which made split-bamboo fishing rods. He owned and operated Aldrich’s New England store from 1948 until selling it in 1962. Aldrich then sold cars for Spenser Brothers Ford in Northfield until he and his wife Edith moved to Florida in 1964.

The collection consists primarily of family records relating to the wedding, anniversaries, and funerals of Edith and Mark Aldrich. The Aldrich Family Papers are organized into three series: Wedding and Anniversaries, Funeral and Legal, and Personal.

Subjects

Montague (Mass.)--Social life and customs

Contributors

Aldrich family
Alford Marble Works

Alford Marble Works Records

1870-1873
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 649 bd

Beginning in the early nineteenth century, the small town of Alford in far southwestern Massachusetts was the site of significant marble quarrying operations. Highly profitable for several decades, the quarries began to decline in profitability by mid-century when new sites became accessible by rail. By the early 1870s, the Alford Marble Works stood as one of the last quarries in the region to remain active.

The Alford Marble Works ledger includes pay and work records for quarrymen during its last years of operation. Although the Marble Works is sometimes recorded as suspending activity in 1872, it is clear from these records that their work continued through the end of 1873.

Subjects

Marble industry and trade--MassachusettsSepulchral monuments--Massachusetts

Contributors

Alford Marble WorksAssociation for Gravestone Studies

Types of material

Account books
Allen, Dwight William, 1931-

Dwight William Allen Papers

1967-1975
7 boxes 8.5 linear feet
Call no.: FS 165
Depiction of Dwight Allen in classroom
Dwight Allen in classroom

A influential and flamboyant educational reformer, Dwight W. Allen served as Director of Teacher Education at his alma mater Stanford from 1959 until accepting a position as Dean of the School of Education at UMass Amherst in 1967. A proponent of integrating technology into teaching and co-developer of the technique of microteaching, Allen cemented his reputation as an innovator during his time at UMass (1968-1975), a time that coincided with the rapid expansion of the university. Allen helped recruit students of color to the graduate program in significant numbers, opened admissions to students with unconvential credentials, allowed students a voice in directing and governing the program, and abolished grading, among other initiatives, but while supporters lauded the creativity and excitement of the period, his radical ideas elicited considerable opposition as well. He resigned in 1975, in part due to the increasing demands his international consulting, later accepting a position at Old Dominion University, where he remained until his retirement in 2008. Allen is author of nine books, including American Schools: The $100 Billion Challenge, written with his former graduate student Bill Cosby.
The Allen papers contain a wealth of materials pertaining to the tumultuous years at UMass, including Allen’s curricular and teaching reforms, special projects, and his efforts to recruit African American students and address institutional racism. The correspondence, memos, and private reports that Allen maintained are particularly valuable for understanding the period as are the various surveys, studies, and reports on the state of the School of Education. The collection also includes material relating to some of Allen’s academic interests in education, including microteaching, alternative schools, and certification.

Gift of Dwight Allen, Aug. 2013

Subjects

Alternative educationEducational changeRacism in educationUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. School of Education
Allen, Frances and Mary

Frances and Mary Allen Collection of Deerfield Photographs

1900-1910
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: PH 001
Depiction of Deerfield, Mass.
Deerfield, Mass.

Influenced by the arts and crafts movement, Frances and Mary Allen began taking photographs of their native Deerfield, Mass., in the mid-1880s. Displaying a finely honed pictorialist aesthetic, the sisters specialized in views of Deerfield and surrounding towns, posed genre scenes of life in colonial times, and the local scenery, earning a reputation as among the best women photographers of the period.
The Allen sisters photograph album contains ten gelatin developing out prints of street scenes in Deerfield, ca.1900-1910. Among these are two shots of the house they inherited from their aunt Kate in 1895, which thereafter became their home and studio.

Subjects

Deerfield (Mass.)--PhotographsWomen photographers--Massachusetts

Contributors

Allen, FrancesAllen, Mary E. (Mary Electa), 1858-1941

Types of material

Photographs
Allens Neck Monthly Meeting of Friends

Allen's Neck Monthly Meeting Records

1990-2010
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 A454

Desiring a more convenient place of worship in 1758, Quakers in Allen’s Neck, Mass., built a meetinghouse on a hill overlooking Buzzards Bay, six miles from the Apponegansett Meeting House of their parent meeting, Dartmouth Monthly. A relatively small worship group, the meeting was designated the West Preparative Meeting under Dartmouth in 1813, but after experiencing modest growth during the mid-twentieth century, they were formally set off as a monthly meeting in 1956.

The sparse records for Allen’s Neck Monthly Meeting consist of a broken run of newsletters with three annual directories and a brief run of State of the Society reports, all from the 1990s.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Dartmouth (Mass.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Massachusetts

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Newsletters
Allis Family

Allis Family Collection

1956-1958
1 vol. 0.15 linear feet
Call no.: MS 269 bd

The Allis family began farming in Whately, Mass., in 1716, when John Allis came into possession of a property that would be the home to nine generations of his descendants. A typically diverse operation, the farm centered on cattle and dairying and crops such as hay and potatoes, supplemented throughout the year by sugaring, the manufacture of lye soap, bee culture, and opportunistic work ranging from slating to the construction of water systems for farms. It was sold out of the family in 1957.

This small collection contains two closely-related memoirs about the Allis family and their farm in Whately, Mass., focusing on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Written by Lucius Howes Allis, the last Allis to own the farm, when he was 72 years old, “The Allis farm and its families” contains a lengthy genealogy, transcriptions of a handful of family deeds and documents, and brief stories about Lucius’ father Irving during his trip to Kansas and on the farm. “Up on the hill” is a lively memoir written by William R. Phinney, an alumnus of Massachusetts Agricultural College and apparently a friend of the Allis family. Phinney’s account contains excellent accounts of the lives of Elliot, Irving, and Lucius Allis, about farm life in the late nineteenth century, dairying, beekeeping, and other topics.

Subjects

Agriculture--Massachusetts--WhatelyAllis family--MassachusettsBees--Massachusetts--WhatelyCattle--Massachusetts--WhatelyDairy farmers--Massachusetts--WhatelyFarms--Massachusetts--WhatelyFires--Massachusetts--WhatelyHatfield (Mass.)--HistoryIndian Territory--Description and travelKansas--Description and travelMaple sugar industry--Massachusetts--WhatelyWhately (Mass.)--History

Contributors

Allis, Lucius Howes, 1886-1963Phinney, William R.

Types of material

Genealogies (Histories)Memoirs
Alternative Energy Coalition

Alternative Energy Coalition

ca.1975-1985
9 boxes 13.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 586

A product of the vibrant and progressive political culture of western Massachusetts during the early 1970s, the Alternative Energy Coalition played a key role in the growth of antinuclear activism. In 1974, the AEC helped mobilize support for Sam Lovejoy after he sabotaged a weather tower erected by Northeast Utilities in Montague, Mass., in preparation for a proposed nuclear power plant, and they helped organize the drive for a referendum opposing not only the proposed plant in Montague, but existing plants in Rowe, Mass., and Vernon, Vt. Forming extensive connections with other antinuclear organizations, the AEC also became one of the organizations that united in 1976 to form the Clamshell Alliance, which made an art of mass civil disobedience.

The AEC Records provide insight into grassroots activism of the 1970s and 1980s, galvanized by the seemingly unrestrained growth of the nuclear power industry. The records, emanating from the Hampshire County branch, contain both research materials used by the AEC and organizational and promotional materials produced by them, including publications, minutes of meetings, correspondence, and materials used during protests. Of particular interest are a thick suite of organizational and other information pertaining to the occupation of the Seabrook (N.H.) nuclear power plant in 1979 and minutes, notes, and other materials relating to the founding and early days of the Clamshell Alliance. The collection is closely related to the Antinuclear Collection (MS 547).

Subjects

Antinuclear movement--MassachusettsHampshire County (Mass.)--HistoryNonviolence--MassachusettsNuclear energy--MassachusettsPacifists--MassachusettsPolitical activists--MassachusettsRenewable energy sourceSeabrook Nuclear Power Plant (N.H.)Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station

Contributors

Alternative Energy CoalitionClamshell Alliance

Types of material

Realia
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Journeymen Tailors Union. Local 115

ACWA Journeyman Tailors Union Local 115 Records

1945-1984
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 025

Local 115 of Connecticut was comprised of branches from Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, and Waterbury, and affiliated with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.

The ACWA records consist of minutes of meetings, correspondence, reports, and contracts. Also included are a number of agreements between local businesses and the union identifying the union as the bargaining representative of their employees.

Subjects

Clothing trade--Labor unions--ConnecticutLabor unions--Connecticut

Contributors

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America