Collecting area: UMass faculty

Originally a member of the Massachusetts Agricultural College Class of 1876, Walter Mason Dickinson left after his junior year to enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. During his military career, Dickinson saw service in the southwest and as a military instructor at MAC (1891-1896). As a Captain and Quartermaster in the 17th Infantry, he was called to active duty during the Spanish-American War and was killed in action at the Battle of El Caney. He was the first man associated with MAC to die in military service.

This small collection of photographs and letters centers on the death and family of Walter M. Dickinson, the first person associated with Massachusetts Agricultural College to die in combat. In addition to two of the last letters he wrote as he was heading off to war in Cuba, the collection contains three formal portraits of Dickinson at different points in his military career, images of his wife and family, and two images of the scene of his death at El Caney and one of his temporary grave.

Born in Boston on March 26, 1934, Dena Dincauze earned her doctorate in archaeology from Harvard University (1967) for research on cremation cemeteries in Eastern Massachusetts. Employed briefly as a Lecturer at Harvard, Dincauze joined the faculty at UMass Amherst in 1967, where she taught until her retirement. Dincauze has conducted field surveys and excavations in Illinois, South Dakota, and England, and for many years, she has specialized on the prehistoric archaeology of eastern and central New England. In 1989, Dincauze traveled to Russia as part of a research exchange to visit Upper Paleolithic sites, and four years later she toured the Pedra Furada sites in Sao Raimundo Nonato, Brazil. Dincauze was named Distinguished Faculty Lecturer and was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal from the University of Massachusetts in 1989, and in 1997 the Society for American Archaeology presented her with the Distinguished Service Award.

The Dincauze Papers include professional correspondence, slides from archaeological digs, travel journals and field notes, as well as notes for teaching and research. Among other items of interest in the collection are a travel journal with corresponding slides and notes documenting her somewhat controversial visit to Russia, and correspondence with a member of the UMass faculty questioning her ability to carry a full course load while simultaneously attending to the demands of motherhood.

Theater historian and critic, Joseph W. Donohue, Jr., was appointed Associate Professor of English at UMass Amherst in 1971. An alumnus of Princeton (PhD, 1965), Donohue specialized in British drama and theater, with an emphasis on the period from the Restoration to the present day, with a particular interest in the study of the performed play and its relationship to the audience, community, and society. While at UMass, he taught courses ranging from Shakespeare on Film to The Vitality of British Drama. Donohue remained at UMass until his retirement in May 2005.

The papers reflect Donohue’s professional life from his time at Princeton through his years as a Professor of English at UMass. Among the papers are course notes, teaching materials, and a myriad of materials relating to the history of British theater.

David Graham Du Bois was a visiting lecturer in the Journalism and African-American Studies Departments from 1983 until his retirement in 2001. Du Bois was the son of activist and artist Shirley Graham Du Bois, who married W.E.B Du Bois in 1961. Du Bois earned his B.A. at Hunter College in 1950 and a Masters in American Civilization from New York University in 1956. After studying at Beijing University, he traveled to Cairo, Egypt, fell in love with the city, and settled there in 1961, working as a foreign correspondent for the Pacific News Service, Variety, and as an assistant editor for several Egyptian news publications. An activist, like his step-father and mother, Du Bois became the spokesperson for the Black Panther Party, and agitated for racial liberation throughout his life. After his mother’s death in 1977, he became the custodian of W.E.B Du Bois’ legacy and founded the W.E.B. Du Bois Foundation to continue working toward his step-father’s goals. While at the University, Du Bois played an essential role in naming the University Library after his step-father. Du Bois died on January 28, 2005.

The David Graham Du Bois Papers document his later life and his managing of W.E.B. Du Bois’ estate. The papers include a selection of David Du Bois’ correspondence, speech manuscripts, clippings describing his step-father, as well as seleced personal financial records from his time in Amherst, Massachusetts. Additional Du Bois materials remain with the family.

Frederick C. Ellert, a professor of German at the University throughout the fifties and sixties, had deep local roots, was a leader in University Athletics, and was one of the most instrumental founders of the Massachusetts Review, where he served as the journal’s first editor from 1959-1961. Born in Holyoke, Mass. in 1906, Ellert attended the University as an undergraduate and made notable contributions to the football and basketball teams. Ellert would return to the University after his graduation in 1930 to coach the basketball team before studying in Heidelberg University and Columbia University and eventually earning his M.A. from Amherst College and Ph.D. from Stanford. Ellert was a very active translator of 19th Century German poetry and a passionate teacher, developing his own German textbook. Ellert died in 1983.

Representing his work as a translator and teacher, the Frederick C. Ellert Papers contain a number of his published and unpublished translations of Goethe, Heine, and Morgernstern, some including Ellert’s handwritten notes as well as typescript copies of his German textbooks.

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

Born on a farm in Hungary in 1932, the landscape architect Julius Fabos survived the Second World War and the onset of Stalinism before escaping to America during the Revolution of 1956. Able to resume his studies, Fabos received his BS in plant science from Rutgers (1961) and MLA from Harvard (1964), joining the faculty at UMass Amherst shortly thereafter while continuing toward a doctorate in Resource Planning and Conservation at the University of Michigan (1973). A charismatic teacher and prolific writer, Fabos is noted internationally for his work on landscape assessment and planning and greenways. In the early 1970s, he helped establish the METLAND (Metropolitan Landscape Planning) interdisciplinary research group, which pioneered the use of GIS technology in landscape planning. Fabos has received numerous honors in his career, including recognition as a Fellow of American Society of Landscape Architects (1985), as a Medalist for the ASLA (1997), and recipient of an honorary degree from the Hungarian University of Horticulture. Fabos retired in 1997.

The Fabos papers contain a record of a distinguished career in landscape architecture, including Fabos’ numerous publications, grey literature, conference materials, notes, and selected correspondence.

George Lewis Farley helped build the model for extension services before the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, which mandated federal funds to land-grant Universities for supporting local agriculture. Referred to as “Uncle” George, Farley lead the Massachusetts 4-H Club for 25 years beginning in 1918 and was the first to create a 4-H clubhouse on a University campus. Born in Lynn, Mass. in 1873, Farley worked as the superintendent of schools in Brockton, Mass. before joining the University extension service. Farley died in 1941.

The George L. Farley Papers document the 4-H and Massachusetts extension service’s appreciation of Farley’s leadership through two books presented to Farley in 1936 and 1937. The first book contains the signatures of the members of all the Massachusetts 4-H clubs, organized by county and town. The second book is a scrapbook of letters of appreciation from friends, colleagues, farmers, senators, among which is a letter from then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Carl R. Fellers, trained as a chemist and an expert in the nutritional value of cranberry juice, was a professor and head of the Food Technology department, now Food Science, at the University. Fellers was born in Hastings, New York in 1893, earned his B.A. from Cornell in 1915, his M.S. and Ph.D from Rutgers in 1918, and earned a Medal of Merit for fighting the influenza outbreak during World War I. Fellers began work at the University in 1925 and while a professor, conducted research in bacteriology and food preservation, research which he would eventually apply to the food preservation and distribution practices of the United States Army during World War II. Fellers also worked closely with the cranberry growers and producers organization The Cranberry Exchange to help preserve and determine the nutritional value of their products. Fellers retired from the University in 1957.

The Carl R. Fellers Papers document his research on cranberry preservation, nutrition, and his work with the cranberry growers and producers association through published articles on cranberry and general food preservation, correspondence with The Cranberry Exchange on matters of cranberry nutrition and product marketing, and a collection of pamphlets, reports, and clippings on cranberry production. A typescript, unpublished history of cranberries by Fellers is also included in the collection.

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

Ann Ferguson began her tenure at UMass as an Instructor in 1964 as she completed the last year of her doctoral work at Brown under supervision of R.M. Chisolm. With academic interests in ethics, aesthetics, women’s studies, and social and political philosophy, Ferguson has been politically engaged in human rights and social justice initiatives since the 1960s, supporting organizations such as Feminist Aid to Central America, Marxist Activist Philosophers, and the Radical Philosopher’s Association. In 1995, Ferguson accepted a three-year term as Director of Women’s Studies, describing the program as one with the “roots in political activism to fight social injustice.” Despite her 2008 retirement, Ferguson continues to teach in both Philosophy and Women’s Studies.
The Ferguson Papers document Ann Ferguson’s academic career at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as well as her commitment to political activism and social change. The papers include material relating to campus politics, the women’s movement and other social movements, Philosophy Department files (1971-1997) from Ferguson’s tenure as Head of the Philosophy Department, and course materials from both Women’s Studies and Philosophy. Also included among the papers are professional correspondence, feminist pamphlets (1970s-1980s), and several posters from Ferguson’s office.

During a long and productive career in natural history, Charles Fernald conducted important research in economic entomology and performed equally important work as a member of the faculty and administration at Massachusetts Agricultural College. Arriving at MAC in 1886 as a professor of zoology, Fernald served as acting President of the College (1891-1892) and as the first Director of the Graduate School (1908-1912), and perhaps most importantly, he helped for many years to nurture the Hatch Experiment Station.

Correspondence, published writings, publication notes, newspaper clippings, Massachusetts Board of Agriculture Reports, and biographical material including personal recollections of former student and colleague Charles A. Peters.