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

Collecting area: Environment

Halpern, Paul

Paul Halpern Collection

ca.1975-1985
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 646

A theoretical physicist at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Paul Halpern is the author of a dozen popular books on science and dozens of scholarly articles. After spending his undergraduate years at Temple University, Halpern received a doctorate at SUNY Stony Brook, and has since written on complex and higher-dimensional solutions in general relativity theory and the nature of time as well as the history of the modern physical sciences. He has been a Fulbright Scholar and fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

The hundreds of ephemeral publications, fliers, and handbills in the Halpern Collection provide a window into political and social activism in Philadelphia during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The content ranges widely from publications produced by peace and disarmament groups to the literature of anti-imperialist (e.g. CISPES), antinuclear groups (SANE and post-Three Mile Island mobilization), radical political parties, and religious organizations including the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology.

Subjects

Antinuclear movement--United StatesEl Salvador--History--1979-1992Nicaragua--History--1979-1990Peace movements

Contributors

Halpern, Paul
Hazardous Waste

Hazardous Waste Incinceration Collection

1990-1996
5 boxes 7.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 702

Since it was first proposed in 1977, controversy surrounded Waste Technologies Industries’ plans to operate a hazardous waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio. Particularly after construction on the plant began in 1990, grassroots opposition swelled citing concerns over pollution from cement kiln dust, dioxins, and other environmental toxins. With the support of organizations such as Work on Waste and Greenpeace, local activists waged a years-long campaign against the incinerator, ultimately losing out to the industry’s greater political power.

A small and somewhat heterogenous assemblage, this collection documents public opposition to hazardous waste incineration centered on the Waste Technologies Industries plant in Ohio and sites in Calvert City, Ky., and Illinois. In addition to selected legal filings and technical information, the collection documents public responses and support from Greenpeace America and Work on Waste.

Gift of Paul Connett, Dec. 2010

Subjects

Hazardous waste sitesHazardous wastesIncinerators--Environmental aspects
Jansen, Isabel

Isabel Jansen Papers

ca.1950-1985
12.5 boxes 19 linear feet
Call no.: MS 613

A Registered Nurse and surgical assistant at Marquette University Medical and Dental Schools, Isabel Jansen was a long-time opponent of fluoridation of drinking water. In 1949, her hometown of Antigo, Wisconsin, became one of the first in the state to put fluorides in its water supply. Jansen emerged as a prominent voice in opposition, arguing that fluorides had a cumulative toxic effect when ingested over a long period, and using public health data, she concluded that fluoridation was strongly correlated with an increase in mortality from heart disease and with a variety of other deleterious health effects. In 1960, she succeeded in ending fluoridation, however after a follow up survey showed a dramatic rise in tooth decay, Antigo residents voted five years later to reintroduce fluoride. Jansen has continued a vigorous resistance, publishing a series of articles on the public health impact and Fluoridation : A Modern Procrustean Practice (1990) and .

The Jansen Papers include a range of correspondence, newsclippings, articles, and notes regarding Isabel Jansen’s long struggle against the fluoridation of drinking water.

Gift of Richard M. Bevis, Jan. 2010

Subjects

Antifluoridation movement--WisconsinFluorides–Environmental aspectsFluorides–Toxicology

Contributors

Jansen, Isabel
Jaquith, Wayne T.

Wayne T. Jaquith Papers

ca.1975-2015
20 boxes 13 linear feet
Call no.: MS 999

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.

Gift of Wayne Jaquith, Oct. 2017.

Subjects

Antinuclear movement--United StatesPeace movements--Massachusetts
Karen Lederer Political Button Collection

Karen Lederer Political Button Collection

1978-2018 Bulk: 1980-1998
1 .05 linear feet
Call no.: 1167
Assortment of buttons from the Karen Lederer Political Button Collection

Collection of 38 political buttons donated by Karen Lederer, UMass Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Department faculty member, covering several social change issues including: gay rights, political candidates, unions, anti-nuclear activism, women’s rights, campaigns at UMass, racism, anti-war movement, AIDS, single payer health care, the environment, domestic violence, the Equal Rights Amendment, and other assorted events in Western Mass.

Gift of Karen Lederer, July 2022

Subjects

Anti-nuclear movements--MassachusettsGay Liberation MovementLabor unions--Massachusetts

Contributors

Karen Lederer

Types of material

Buttons (information artifacts)
Keller, Nina

Nina Keller Papers

1964-2014
3 boxes 3 linear feet
Call no.: MS 944

Nina Keller riding in the back of a hay truck, Wendell, 1980.

Currently residing in Wendell, Massachusetts, Nina Keller has had an active role in environmental and social activism in the Pioneer Valley and New England area for the better part of 40 years. Since the 1970s, Keller has played an active role in local and regional activism, from the antinuclear movement to hazardous waste disposal. She was an initial member of the Alternative Energy Coalition (AEC), was part of the Friends of the Earth (FOE) environmental organization, and most notably took part in efforts to close the nearby Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. At 62, Keller currently chairs the Wendell Board of Health, and has had a recent history of participation in local government.

The Nina Keller Collection is largely organized into five subject areas used by Keller to organize her files: Economics; Environmental Issues; Hazardous Materials; Nuclear Power; and Pesticides and Herbicides. Of note within these files are local, state, and federal reports and documents covering topics such as nuclear emergency evacuation plans, chemical sprays and their health effects, and hazardous waste regulation. Several items reflect Keller’s personal life, most notably two journals from Montague Farm, used communally for diary entries, drawings, clippings, photographs, and account keeping. The collection’s focus spans from the 1970s to the 1980s, as well as the early 2000s.

Gift of Nina Keller, 2017

Subjects

Antinuclear movement--MassachusettsCommunal living--MassachusettsEnvironmentalismFranklin County (Mass.)Montague Farm Community (Mass.)Nuclear energy--MassachusettsPolitical activists--MassachusettsSocial actionVermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station

Contributors

Keller, Nina

Types of material

clippings filesjournals (accounts)
Kennedy, David

David Kennedy Papers

ca.1975-2016
5 boxes 7.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1094

The son and grandson of dentists, David Kennedy earned degrees from the University of Kansas (BS 1967) and University of Missouri at Kansas City Dental School (DDS 1971) before establishing a practice in preventive dentistry in San Diego, Calif. During a successful career in which he served as President of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, Kennedy emerged as a prominent critic of fluoridation and the use of mercury amalgams, and was a consistent scientific voice of opposition to civic fluoridation of the water supply. He retired in 2000 to devote his efforts fully to improving the dental profession and to improve public understanding of oral health.

Along with the papers of his long-time associate Jeff Green, the Kennedy papers are a major resource for study of the anti-fluoridation movement in California and grassroot efforts there to repeal water fluoridation. The collection contains a thorough record of legal efforts to prevent water fluoridation, files relating to his activism, and audio recordings from professional meetings and other forums.

Gift of David Kennedy, Aug. 2019.

Subjects

Antifluoridation movement--CaliforniaDrinking water--Law and legislation--CaliforniaFluorides--Physiologial effect

Contributors

Green, Jeffrey L.
King, Anita

Anita King Papers

1989-2003
3 boxes 4.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 727

A lifelong activist and organizer, King graduated from Smith College in 1937 and completed her master’s in social work at Columbia University. By the 1960s she was active with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and later went on to work as an administrator with the National Institute of Mental Health. In 1988, King returned to the Pioneer Valley and opened up a small family therapy practice from her home in Williamsburg. Soon after, she began her affiliation with the Sierra Club’s population program recruiting students as interns and volunteers from her alma mater. After volunteering as the chair of the Massachusetts Sierra Club population committee for 19 years, Anita King retired at the age of 95 in 2011.

Part of the Global Population and Environmental Program of Sierra Club, the population program was headed by Anita King for nearly two decades. During that time she organized 20 lectures with speakers from a variety of organizations, such as Thoraya Obaid and Margaret Catley-Carlson. Her papers contain correspondence, speeches, administrative and subject files she kept on various issues through the early 2000s.

Gift of Anita King, Dec. 2011

Subjects

OverpopulationSierra Club. Massachusetts Chapter

Contributors

King, Anita
Knowlton Brothers

Mill River Flood Stereographs

1874
19 items 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: PH 019
Depiction of Ruins of Stone Bridge, Leeds
Ruins of Stone Bridge, Leeds

The Mill River flood of 1874 was one of the great man-made disasters of late nineteenth century western Massachusetts. Following the collapse of an earthenwork dam on May 16 of that year, 600,000,000 gallons of water coursed through Williamsburgh, Skinnerville, and Leeds, destroying factories and homes, bridges and roads, and leaving 139 deaths in its wake.

The nineteen images in the Mill River Flood collection are a small sampling of a series of 110 stereographs taken by the Knowlton Brothers of Northampton to document the devastation caused by the flood of May 1874. The collection also includes one view taken by F. J. Moore of Westfield, who issued his own series of 21 stereographs, and one by an unidentified photographer.

Gift, 1994

Subjects

Floods--Massachusetts--Mill River Valley (Hampshire County)--PhotographsHaydenville (Mass.)--PhotographsLeeds (Mass.)--PhotographsMill River Valley (Hampshire County, Mass.)--PhotographsSkinnerville (Mass.)--PhotographsWilliamsburgh (Mass.)--Photographs

Contributors

Knowlton BrothersMoore, F. J.

Types of material

PhotographsStereographs
Konsevich, J. P.

J. P. Konsevich Photograph Album

1934-1936
2 vol. .25 linear feet
Call no.: PH 098
Photograph of J.P. Konsevich standing next to truck, outside the 116th Company Office building in Wendell State Forest
"J.P. Konsevich, Truck driver," ca. 1934

J.P. Konsevich, almost certainly Joseph Peter Konsevich (born Oct 22, 1921 in Millers Falls, Mass.; death May 9, 1988 in Westfield, Mass.), was one of the over 99,500 men to join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Massachusetts. The Emergency Conservation Work (March 31, 1933 – Jan. 1, 1942; renamed, Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937) was just one of the many relief programs established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to aid in the effort to curb rising unemployment and to lift the “spiritual” morale of the country. In Massachusetts the main work accomplished was in tree planting, firefighting, and tree and plant disease and insect control, although several recreational facilities were also built in the forests and parks. Konsevich served on one of the latter projects, as a member of the 116th Company, stationed at Camp S-62 in Wendell State Forest.

This combination of two homemade photograph albums thoroughly documents the CCC 116th Company, and their camp in Wendell State Forest. Of the over 800 photographs, 518 are identified, with the majority being portraits of the men at camp facilities. The local landscape of concern to the company is also featured, including the Connecticut River, Erving, Greenfield, Northampton, Northfield, Turners Falls, and especially documentation of the aftermath of the flood of March and April, 1936. A small set of photographs additionally document Konsevich’s presence at the Chicago World’s Fair (Century of Progress Exposition of 1933).

Gift of Charles L. Darling, August 2022

Subjects

Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.)--Massachusetts--HistoryCivilian Conservation Corps (U.S.)--PhotographsCivilian Conservation Corps (U.S.). Company 116 (Mass.)--PhotographsFloods--Massachusetts--Franklin County--PhotographsFloods--Massachusetts--Hampshire County--PhotographsNew Deal, 1933-1939--Massachusetts--History

Contributors

Konsevich, J. P.

Types of material

Photographs