Collecting area: New England

Local 2 of the Independent Condenser Workers Union represented employees of the Sprague Electric Company in North Adams, Massachusetts. Beginning in the 1930s, Sprague was one of the largest employers in the Berkshires. Employing 4,000 workers, Sprague provided one-third of the area’s jobs, many of them held by women. By the 1960s, however, Sprague began increasing layoffs, and in 1985 the company moved its world headquarters out of North Adams, closing all but two small facilities.

Records of Local 2 include by-laws, constitutions, correspondence, company publications, and minutes of meetings between management and union representatives.

First organized as Eagle Lodge in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the United Brotherhood of Paper Makers was granted a charter by the AFL in May 1883. Almost as soon as the union was established, however, it faced a serious struggle for power from within. Hoping to maintain their higher economic and social status, the machine tenders ultimately organized their own union, and the two remained separate for a number of years until they finally merged in 1902 as the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers.

The surviving records of the Eagle Lodge, Local 1 of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers, include by-laws, minutes, correspondence, some contracts, a ledger, and three histories of the local and the early days of the union.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, organized in 1903 when two leading team driver associations merged, is one of the largest unions in the U.S. Local 170, representing central Massachusetts, and Local 404, representing western Massachusetts, were both granted their charters with the Teamsters in 1933, and continue to thrive today. The records of these locals consist entirely of agreements between the union and local businesses.

Restricted arbitration and grievance files for individual employees organized under Local 213 of the IUE in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Local chapters of the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers representing workers in Connecticut. Records document a full range of union activities from elections and contract negotiations to arbitration and grievances. Also includes some union realia such as button, t-shirts, and bumper stickers.

Union that represented workers at the American Bosch plant in Springfield, Massachusetts, affiliated with the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers after 1949.

Records include by-laws, minutes of the Executive Board, General Council, and Membership meetings, correspondence, membership reports, grievance and arbitration records, contract negotiation proposals and counter-proposals, strike materials, and publications documenting the administration, activities, and membership of Local 206. Effects of changing national economy and international trade on workers and union affairs, through time, are evident.

Local chapter of the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers that represented workers at the Chapman Valve Manufacturing Company of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts. Records include detailed minute books of general and executive board meetings as well as several ledgers that reflect the activities of the credit union and the Chapman Valve Athletic Association.

Obscure in origin, the Ireland Lyceum appears to have been a fairly typical antebellum debating society, organized as an intellectually stimulating social activity for the benefit of its members. Meeting regularly, probably in the city of Holyoke, members formally debated a pre-assigned topic such as “Has America arrived at the zenith of her glory” (decided in the negative) or “are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness inalienable rights,” after which the members might hear an address.

A mangled, fragmentary echo of its former self, the Constitution, by-laws, and regular proceedings of the Ireland Lyceum contains the slender records of a typical antebellum men’s debating society. The volume was later used as a scrapbook with newspaper clippings covering the pages, however the clippings have been removed from the first several pages by a conservator, revealing some of the original content.

A member of the American Expeditionary Force during the First World War, Charles Edward Jackson was the son of Irish immigrants and a native of Northampton, Massachusetts. Drafted into the 76th (Liberty Bell) Division and assigned to the 301st Ammunition Train of the 151st Field Artillery Brigade, he served in France for a full year beginning in June 1918, seeing front line duty only in the last few days of the war. After the Armistice, he was reassigned to a classification camp in central France where he helped process American soldiers heading home. After making his back in June 1919, he worked as a clerk in a hardware store in Northampton until his death in 1930.

Written entirely while in the military service, Charles Jackson’s letters describe his exploits during the First World War. An optimist, strong Catholic, and good soldier, Jackson describes his year overseas, from mustering at Camp Devens through life in an ammunition train and the long post-war months spent on duty in a classification camp in central France. Although nearly devoid of actual battle content due to the role his unit played and the reach of censorship, Jackson’s letters are descriptive and entertaining, describing day to day life, the late offensives of the war, the influenza epidemic and Armistice, and his growing sense of impatience while awaiting demobilization.

Access restrictions: Temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA in advance to request materials from this collection.

An attorney and activist, Wayne Jaquith has been a prominent figure in the environmental and peace movements since the 1980s. A graduate of Cornell University and the Northeastern University School of Law (1977), Jaquith served as an officer in a remarkable series of organizations, including as executive director of the Nantucket Land Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control, and the Ploughshares Fund. He was also a co-founder of Professionals Coalition for Nuclear Arms Control, the Coalition for the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, and the Arms Transfer Working Group.

Reflecting Jacquith’s diverse interests, this collection includes important materials relating to the peace, environmental, and antinuclear movements, including the Nuclear Freeze movement of the early 1980s. The collection has a rich assortment of newsletters and communications between activist organizations, along with background information, research, and writing.