Collecting area: Uncategorized

Amherst Friends for the Homeless, Inc. was a corporation committed to operating a shelter for homeless single women and started in 1989. After researching homelessness in the area, the Social Concerns Committee of the Unitarian-Universalist Society of Amherst decided that the needs for emergency shelter were not being met in the community of Amherst, Hadley, Pelham, and Shutesbury. To help this problem, Amherst Friends for the Homeless opened Rosemary’s Place on December 11, 1989. However, it was shut down after less than two years of operation in 1991 when the Grove Street Inn, a new shelter for men and women, had opened in Northampton. The corporation continued with one event a year, called Shelter Sunday, in which volunteers went door-to-door for donations for the Amherst Survival Center, First Call for Help, Grove Street Inn, and Not Bread Alone. The organization was dissolved in 2017.

Included in this collection are the documents pertaining to the operations of Amherst Friends for the Homeless, including financial records, meeting minutes, Shelter Sunday records, and Rosemary’s Place records.

An alumnus of both the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Boston College, Victor Aronow was involved with the anti-draft and anti-war movement during the Vietnam War, and the movement against U.S. involvement in Central America. Aronow was also involved with socialist, anarchist, and other leftist movements and organizations. Some of these organizations include the United States Socialist Labor Party, the Peace and Freedom Party, and the New America Movement. Most of his activism was focused in Massachusetts, but he also engaged with organizations that offered support to Central American movements in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Aronow practiced law, serving as defense counsel for Arthur Montour also called Kakwirakeron in U.S. vs. Kakwirakeron, as well as a member of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense team.

Aronow’s collection consists of a series of subject files containing magazines, books, leaflets, correspondence, clippings, newspapers, and fliers from a range of national and international leftist organizations. Aronow was a member of The Boston Draft Resistance Group, Newton Draft Counseling Center, and the American Friends Service Committee. As a member, Aronow collected files from these groups including correspondence, publications, meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, and his personal notes. While practicing law, Aronow gathered court records for cases he worked on, including both his work as a member of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense team, where he worked defending the rights of the Oglala Sioux tribe members who were involved in the attempted liberation of Wounded Knee in 1973, as well as a member of the defense counsel in U.S. vs. Kakwirakeron in 1990. The collection contains files gathered from multiple trials related to Wounded Knee including correspondence between lawyers and defendants, court records and legal filings, newsletters, press releases, funding appeals, and fliers.

Committee to Defend Johnny Imani Harris pamphlet

Administrative records of the Atmore-Holman Brothers Defense Committee and the Committee to Defend Johnny Imani Harris and Stop the Death Penalty, which supported efforts to free Imani (aka Johnny Harris) from death row in Alabama in the late 1970s early 1980s. Originally sentenced to five life terms for 4 small robberies and an alleged rape in 1970, Imani was eventually given the death penalty under Alabama’s capital offenses law due to an inadequate defense by his court appointed lawyers. Harris was put in the brutal Atmore Prison, where he experienced extreme racism, poor medical care, overcrowding, and slave wages. In 1972 the inmates organized a group called Inmates for Action (IFA) and led a work stoppage of over 1,200 prisoners. The prisoners were beaten by guards and the strike leaders were placed in isolation. Two years later, in 1974 an IFA member was beaten to death by guards. The prisoners reacted by capturing a cellblock and taking two guards hostage. In the ensuing take-back by the prison, a guard and IFA leader were killed. Harris and others were charged with the guard’s death. Imani was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death.

The Committee worked throughout the 1970’s and 1980s for Harris’ freedom through endorsements, fundraising, and networking to national and international groups. Thanks to the participation of Amnesty International and other groups, Harris’s murder conviction was dismissed in 1987 after a new trial and he was given parole.

This collection, donated by Tom Gardner, represents the efforts of both the Atmore-Holman Brothers Defense Committee and the Committee to Defend Johnny Imani Harris and Stop the Death Penalty. It contains correspondence, legal filings, press releases, contact lists, fliers, financial documents, and material representing efforts by the Committee to raise awareness and generate financial and name support. There is both mainstream and left wing media coverage of the cases represented in clippings, magazines, and newspapers. Gardner wrote several articles on the case, which are represented in their final printed form and in hand and typewritten drafts. Gardner also took copious notes about the Committee’s work on legal pads. The collection also documents Gardner’s parallel involvement in the larger left-wing movement and its attempts to link labor struggles and racism through pamphlets, correspondence, publications, booklets, and newsletters. The collection offers a unique window into the political atmosphere of the post-civil rights era in Alabama and the South more generally, and how struggles for equal treatment under the law for Black Americans were not over.

Nina Yolande Du Bois (1900-1961), better known as Yolande Du Bois, was an American teacher best regarded for her contributions to the Harlem Renaissance. Her father was sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois and her mother was Nina (née Gomer) Du Bois. She was born on October 21, 1900, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. She faced many health-related issues in her early childhood and also quarreled often with her parents. In her early adulthood, she enrolled at Fisk University in 1920 and graduated in 1924. While attending Fisk, she was in a relationship with Jimmie Lunceford, a prominent jazz musician. At her father’s insistence, she ended her relationship with Lunceford and would later go on to marry acclaimed Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen on April 9, 1928. Their highly-publicized wedding was the talk of many African-American socialites at the time, with every minor detail recorded by the press. However, Yolande and Countee soon grew distant in their marriage, resorting to counseling at first and then divorce following Countee’s coming out as gay to Yolande. With the divorce finalized in the spring of 1930, Yolande chose to pursue higher education and rewrite the course of her life.

After a period of illness, she began to teach English and history at Dunbar High School in Baltimore, Maryland. There, she met Arnette Franklin Williams, whom she married in September 1931 and then later divorced in 1936. She had one daughter with Williams, Yolande Du Bois Irvin Williams, whom she took care of following the divorce. However, during this period, Yolande also moved to New York City with her mother, where she began to take courses at Columbia University’s Teachers College, eventually earning her master’s. She then continued to work as a teacher and to raise her daughter in Baltimore until her death in March 1961. She was survived by her father and her daughter.

Yolande’s scrapbooks, photo albums, and other personal artifacts from her youth (approximately 1915-1929) reflect her travels, undergraduate experiences at Fisk University, outings with her family and friends, artistic pursuits, and more. These scrapbooks showcase trips to England, France, Switzerland, and elsewhere in Europe, across Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, and New York, as well as other sites of importance in her life. These scrapbooks capture snapshots of her time at Fisk University, from breakups to athletic events, and from classical music concerts to Zeta Beta Phi rush week materials. Each scrapbook showcases a different aspect of Yolande’s late teenage life as well as her early adulthood, coupled with notes, sketches, and illustrations from friends, postcards and fliers from all over the United States and Europe, and her personal takes on the world around her.

Sylvia Helen Forman (1944 or 1945-1992) was an anthropologist and educator at the University of California – Berkeley and at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst focusing primarily on the demography, genealogy, and health outcomes of Quechua and Spanish-speaking Indigenous and Mestizo peoples in the Andean regions of Ecuador. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1972 for her study of law and conflict in rural highland Ecuador and the following year she joined the faculty at UMass Amherst. Soon after, she began to teach at UMass Amherst until her death in 1992 at only 48 years old. Forman’s legacy at UMass exists today through her former students, her substantial research, and her contributions to the Department of Anthropology, namely its Junior Year Writing program and the Sylvia Forman Third World scholarship fund (which was initially funded by a $100,000 grant from her estate).

Throughout the entirety of her life and her career, Forman was passionately dedicated to feminist and other social justice causes in the United States, in Ecuador, and elsewhere. From early in her career, she stood out as an advocate for her students and was instrumental in building cross-connections among anthropologists in the Five Colleges Consortium to expand opportunities for study, and she also forged strong connections with academics in the developing programs in Women’s Studies. She would later be recognized posthumously as one the founders of the Association for Feminist Anthropology in 1998.

Sylvia Helen Forman’s work in Ecuador can generally be split into two periods, the first of which corresponds roughly to 1966-1975, and the second from around 1976-1981, but she continued to work with contacts in the region long after. The former period saw more direct involvement and travel in Andean Ecuador, while the latter saw fewer trips and less extensive fieldwork. Regardless, both periods focused on similar topics of demography, genealogy, and medical experiences. Forman also did continue to travel to the region after these main research periods, but fewer materials are available from after 1981. Each series in this collection contains different parts of Forman’s work in Ecuador, her professional life, her personal life, and an array of pamphlets, postcards, and other ephemera she collected along the way. The majority of the content available is research-related and typically consists of field notes, data, diaries, and journals.

Dennis Magee has spent his life dedicated to the study of the natural world as a hunter, trapper, fisherman, environmental consultant, and scholar. He attended grad school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the 1970s and was a protege of Harry Ahles, a field botanist and Botany professor, who co-wrote books on the flora of Illinois and the Carolinas. Magee and Ahles became friends and spent many hours together, building Ahles’ log cabin located on Horse Mountain in Hatfield, MA, going to diners, and collecting plants for the UMass Herbarium. Ahles taught Magee how to think about classification and how to construct useful keys of genera and species. Following Ahles’ passing in March 1981, Magee petitioned the Botany Department and Ahles’ sister Marjorie Armstrong to take Ahles’ large file of distribution records of New England plant species and the keys he used for his teaching, and turn it into a book on the flora of New England. This turned into a 17 year undertaking in which Magee gathered lists of species, created species and genera keys, secured funding, worked with illustrator Abigail Rorer to create illustrations, and other assorted book-related tasks. Finally, the book was published by UMass Press in September of 1999. It was well received and sold out of its initial 2500 print run within the first five years of publication. It is still widely used by universities as a textbook and a reference book by botanists, consultants, and other professionals.

Magee’s collection consists of his original handwritten species and genera keys as well as the original handwritten manuscript of Flora of the Northeast. An article titled “How I Wrote the Flora of the Northeast: A Manual of the Vascular Flora of New England and Adjacent New York”, which was published in a 2018 issue of Phytoneuron, accompanies the collection.

Ruth Mansberg was a writer, editor, poet, mother, and ardent peace activist. She worked with several civic, social, service, and political organizations dedicated to social change including a Pound Ridge, NY Nuclear Freeze chapter, the League of Women Voters, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She lived with her husband Hyman Mansberg and children Laura and Daniel in Pound Ridge, NY until moving to Chapel Hill, NC in 1991. After sidelining a writing career due to family obligations, she returned to writing upon her children entering adulthood. She enrolled in a continuing education writing course at the University of Connecticut, Stamford, where, thanks to a teacher there named Mel Goldberg, she picked up freelance work with two trade journals, Dental Management and Optometric Management. In 1971 she pitched a story to Dental Management on Bernard Bender, a 52 year old Los Angeles dentist who was convicted of helping young men avoid the draft by applying braces to their teeth. He was convicted in February of 1972 and sentenced to 15 years in Federal prison, but was later released in late 1973. Mansberg worked for a number of newspapers and trade publications and co-authored two books. She died in November of 2000 in Chapel Hill

This small collection consists of Mansberg’s correspondence and research materials related to her article, “The Strange Case of Dr. Bender”, which was published in the June 1972 issue of Dental Management. This includes correspondence between Mansberg, Dr. Bender and his wife Bea discussing the article and other things. In addition, there is correspondence with Mel Goldberg, the editor of Dental Management and others, whom she wrote for information about the case. There is also a reporter’s transcript of the trial and the testimony of dentist Spiro J. Chacanos.

The Sports Business Daily was founded in February 1994 by American sports executive and entrepreneur Jeffrey Pollack (M.S. in Sport Management from UMass Amherst ‘03) at age 29. It was initially published by Digital Sports Network, a company also founded by Pollack and for which he served as CEO. The Daily, as it was commonly known in its early years, was the first daily trade publication for the sports industry and one of the first-ever digital trade publications for any industry. The Daily’s primary goal was to “cover the coverage,” or aggregate and organize daily news related to the business of sports from news outlets throughout North America. After assembling a small editorial, marketing, and sales team, The Sports Business Daily launched on September 12, 1994. Through Pollack’s vision and direction as founding President and Publisher, The Daily pioneered a new genre of sports journalism, became an industry standard and must-read for sports executives, and gave rise to a proliferation of sports business news and information services around the world. By the time Digital Sports Network and subsequently The Sports Business Daily were sold in 1996 to Interzine Productions, it was the recognized leader in sports industry news and progenitor of other publications about the business of sports. In 1998 The Daily was acquired by Street & Smith’s, which publishes Sports Business Journal.

The collection contains materials related to the founding and early years of The Sport Business Daily’s management and production. It includes correspondence, contracts, and financial and marketing information. Several boxes include original copies of The Daily plus early prototype mock-ups and copies of the NBA Daily trade publication from 1995.

E. Ann Sheridan was a longtime professor and dean emerita at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who made significant contributions to the field of nursing in both of her professional and academic practices. Ann spent much of her life supporting the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst School of Nursing through her advocacy, teaching, alumni relations, and history work.

Ann was born on February 17th, 1934 in Lawrence, Massachusettsto parents Eva C. (Lambart) Sheridan and John J. Sheridan. Ann was raised in Salem, Massachusetts where she spent most of her childhood and was educated at the St. Mary’s Grammar School and the St. James High School. In her senior year of highschool, Ann was the recipient of a diocesan scholarship to the Catherine Laboure School of Nursing in Boston, Massachusetts where she would later graduate from in 1954, having earned a degree in nursing. After earning her degree, Ann began her career as a pediatric nurse, where her lifetime interest in pediatric nursing began. After several years of working as a pediatric staff nurse, Ann attended Boston College and earned a baccalaureate degree in nursing in 1957. Ann worked in many Boston hospitals, including Boston City Hospital during the Polio epidemic, operating “iron lung” respiration machines. During her time here Ann also cared for polio-patient and future mayor of Boston, John Collins who came down with the disease in 1955 and ran for Boston City Council from his hospital room.

Ann later returned to her hometown of Salem, Masssachussetss where she accepted a position as supervisor of the pediatric unit at Salem Hospital, where she built a strong foundation of both nursing and administrative skills. Over the years she worked in many hospitals across the country including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and California.

Ann Sheridan went on to earn a master’s of science in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964 before being hired as an adjunct professor at UMass Amherst’s School of Nursing in 1965, where she would spend the rest of her academic career. Ann would also go on to earn a pediatric nurse practitioner certification from the University of Wisconsin in 1973, and an Ee.D from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1983. Ann lived through much of the School of Nursings history and growth. When the School of Nursing was merged with the Division of Public Health to create the School of Health Sciences in 1973, Ann was a strong supporter of the School of Nursing’s independence which finally became reality again in 1988. Ann served as Interim Director of the nursing program from 1986-1988. By the time of her retirement in 1998, Ann was instrumental in many committees and activities, such as founding the College of Nursing Alumni Board, helping to establish the Beta Zeta at-Large Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, and by helping document and publish the history of the school of nursing through newspaper articles, commemorative books, and oral histories. Ann was the recipient of the UMass Amherst Chancellor’s Medal in 1997, the Umass Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Living Legend Award from the American Nurses Association, Massachusetts in 2016 among many other recognitions and accolades. Ann spent her retirement in connection with the School of Nursing attending events, working with alumni, creating the Dr. E. Ann Sheridan Scholarship, and supporting the school’s history through researching and writing newspaper articles, commemorative history books, participating in oral history projects, and working with the universities Robert S. Cox Special Collections and Archives on campus, as well as other nursing archives across the country. Ann Sheridan was predeceased by her parents, her partner George L, Balestri, her sisters Alice C. Saben, Claire F. Fosberry, Marion L. Rudolph, her brothers John J. Sheridan Jr. and Thomas J. Sheridan. She was survived by her family of cousins, nieces, and nephews of multiple generations of which she remained close to her whole life. Ann Sheridan passed away on March 26th, 2024 after a short illness.

Ann Sheridan’s dissertation, Contracting and client satisfaction: an inquiry into the delivery of effective nursing care, completed at UMass Amherst in 1983, is available online: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/14435

The 1960s and 1970s were decades rich with activist organizations intent on radically transforming U.S. politics and society as well as striving to end racial and gender inequality. One such group was Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Launched in 1962, with the infamous Port Huron Statement, SDS helped the nascent anti-Vietnam war movement gain traction in 1965 by organizing the first national demonstration in Washington, D.C. Over the course of the next four years, the organization grew at a rapid pace, claiming over 300 chapters under its moniker. Arguments over tactics and strategy culminated during an eventful national convention in June of 1969 in which three factions, all claiming to represent “the true SDS”, split the organization apart.
               
The most notorious of these factions was the Weathermen, (later renamed the less patriarchal Weather Underground Organization [WUO]). The WUO aimed to spark revolution in the United States, initially, through the use of targeted political bombings, political communiques, and support of Black liberation movements. Following the March 1970 accidental self-bombing of three of its New York collective members, Ted Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins in a New York townhouse owned by Cathy Wilkerson’s father, the organization opted to conduct more targeted bombings where no one would be hurt.
               
After two-to three-years of high-profile bombings, including the U.S. Capitol, Pentagon, corporate buildings, and law enforcement institutions, with minimal impact, the organization began to consider how to regain influence with the greater Left. This began WUO’s “inversion” phase which included the publication of a book/manifesto titled Prairie Fire, the establishment of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, and a periodical, Osawatomie. The WUO’s Central Committee believed that this inversion strategy would allow them to influence and lead the greater anti-war/anti-imperialist movement.

The inversion strategy did not spark the all-encompassing revolution imagined by the WUO and members slowly began to surface, breaking apart the organization in the mid-late 1970s. While the WUO did not accomplish what they set out to do, their extreme tactics and notoriety with the FBI left lasting impressions on American society and the history of activism in the 1970s.
     
This small collection of materials donated by a member of the WUO includes books, pamphlets, manuscripts, notes, military manuals, maps of correctional facilities, and correspondence between members from 1973 to 1978, many of them coded through the use of letters replacing names. It also holds papers critical of  the WUO written by its own members between 1976 and 1978. This represents the period when Clayton Van Lydegaf gathered members in his “Cadre School”, to rigorously analyze and document how the organization fell apart, including a transcript from a recorded interview session in which Bernadine Dohrn repudiated all methods and practices of the WUO. These papers reflect the power struggle seen later within the WUO, as well as the contempt that many of its members grew to nurture for the organization as it strayed from its original purpose.

The collection also contains many political papers on subjects such as women and their place within the WUO, the anti-fascist movement, Black liberation movements, imperialism, and the origins of fascism. It also holds accounts of the WUO’s history, along with critiques, notes, and adaptations for their manifesto, Prairie Fire.