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

Page 109 of 168

University of Massachusetts Amherst. President

University of Massachusetts Amherst. President

1814-2007
129.5 linear feet
Call no.: RG 003

On November 29, 1864, the Board of Trustees for the Massachusetts Agricultural College created the Office of the President and elected Henry Flagg French as the first president of the newly created land grant institution. In 1970, the President’s office was relocated from the Amherst campus to separate offices in Boston, and the Office of Chancellor was established as the chief executive position at each of the five UMass campuses. The responsibilities of the President and of the central administrative staff are summarized in the University’s Governance Document of 1973: the president acts as the principal academic and executive officer of the University, presents policy recommendations to the Board of Trustees, keeps current a master plan of the University, prepares the annual budget, allocates the appropriated budget, appoints members of the faculty to tenure with the concurrence of the Board of Trustees, coordinates the work of all campuses of the University and promotes the general welfare of the University as a whole.

Containing the papers of individual presidents of UMass (1864-2007) and their Presidential Reports (1948-1984), the record group also includes records of central administrative offices, including the Secretary of the University, the Treasurer’s Office (1864-2007), and the Donahue Institute for Governmental Services (1970-2007). Collections for individual Presidents are filed separately in UMarmot under the President’s name.

Access restrictions: Access is restricted on some files of recent Presidents.

Contributors

University of Massachusetts Amherst. President
Related collections: Mass Agricultural College (1863-1931), Mass State College (1931-1947), UMass (1947- ), UMass administration
University of Massachusetts. Trustees

University of Massachusetts Amherst. Trustees

1864-2007
84.25 linear feet
Call no.: RG 002
Digital

When Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew incorporated the Board of Trustees for the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1863, the fourteen members of the board were charged with creating a new agricultural college. Since that time, the Board of Trustees (including student trustees) had governed the University, meeting regularly to act on University-wide matters of policy, mission, finance, and campus maintenance. Governance responsibilities in some areas (e.g., tuition, academic program review and approval) are shared with the statewide Board of Higher Education. The Board of Trustees maintains a Chair and six standing committees: Executive, Administration and Finance, Academic and Student Affairs, Athletics, Audit, and External Affairs. The President and the Five College Chancellors administer board policy.
The bulk of the Board of Trustees records consists of meeting minutes (1906-2007) and Trustee Documents (1963-2007), along with the papers of a small number of individual trustees and the records of the Trustees’ “Commission on the Future of the University of Massachusetts” (1988-1989), which resulted in the consolidation of the state’s five public university campuses under a single President and Board of Trustees. In partnership with the Board of Trustees, SCUA has digitized the complete minutes of the Board from chartering of the university in 1863 through 2004.

Connect to another siteView the digitized minutes

Contributors

Massachusetts Agricultural College. TrusteesMassachusetts State College. TrusteesUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Trustees

Types of material

Minutes
Related collections: Mass Agricultural College (1863-1931), Mass State College (1931-1947), UMass (1947- ), UMass administration
University of Massachusetts Amherst. University as a Whole

University of Massachusetts Amherst. University as a Whole

1849-2007
82.75 linear feet
Call no.: RG 001

Established under the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1863, the Massachusetts Agricultural College began with four faculty members and 56 students distributed among four wooden buildings and acres of farms, orchards, and fields. In keeping with the progressive educational principles of its early years, the College offered advanced instruction in the eminently practical pursuit of agriculture, while its fellow land grant college, MIT, covered the mechanical arts. Although “Mass Aggie’s” fortunes waxed and waned, it grew to become Massachusetts State College in 1931, and the University of Massachusetts in 1947.

Among the official publications of the University in Record Group 1 are institutional histories, annual reports, special reports, minutes, directories, catalogs, newsclippings, press releases, and memorabilia.

Contributors

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Related collections: Mass Agricultural College (1863-1931), Mass State College (1931-1947), UMass (1947- ), UMass history
Salah-El, Tiyo Attallah

Tiyo Attallah Salah-El Papers

1890-2018
26 boxes 16.67 linear feet
Call no.: MS 590
Digital
Finding aid
Depiction of Tiyo Attallah Salah-El playing saxophone in high school
Tiyo Attallah Salah-El playing saxophone in high school

While serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania prison, Tiyo Attallah Salah-El transformed himself into an activist, scholar, and advocate for the abolition of prisons. An accomplished jazz musician, Salah-El has distinguished himself for educational and scholarly work, his musical career, his close relationship with activists and educators, and for the non-profit organization he founded, The Coalition for the Abolition of Prisons (CAP).

The Papers of Tiyo Attallah Salah-El document his experience in the State Correctional Institution in Dallas, Pennsylvania, from 1977 until his death in 2018 at the age of 85, providing information on his education, teaching, and activism. The bulk of the collection consists of his extensive correspondence with educators, musicians, and activists. Other highlights include a manuscript copy of his autobiography and the founding documents of the The Coalition for the Abolition of Prisons.

Subjects

Criminal justice, Administration ofJazz musiciansPrisoners--United StatesPrisons--United StatesQuakers

Contributors

Ahrens, LoisNagel, MechthildNeill, MontgomerySalah-El, Tiyo AttallahZinn, Howard, 1922-

Types of material

Letters (Correspondence)Photograph albumsPhotographsSheet music
Related collections: African American, Prison issues
Brookfield (Mass.). Selectmen

Brookfield (Mass.) Records

1736-1795
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 595
Finding aid

Settled in 1660 and incorporated in 1718, the town of Brookfield (Worcester County) straddles the Boston Post Road, one of the major arteries during the colonial period connecting Boston with the towns of the Connecticut River Valley and New York.

This assemblage of documents from the town of Brookfield consists primarily of warrants for town meetings, many with agendas, issued through the local constable. Concentrated in the 1770s, these warrants provide relatively detailed information on matters of local importance, including town finances, tax assessments, contributions to the poor house, roadways, and property disputes. During the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary years, however, issues of interest to the town were often wrapped up in regional or national political issues. Town freeholders, for example, were called to consider requests to “come into any Vote or Resolve Respecting the East India Company Tea,” the encouragement of manufacture of firearms, smallpox inoculation, and pay for the town’s Minute Men.

Subjects

Brookfield (Mass.)--History--18th centurySmallpoxUnited States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783

Contributors

Forster, Jedediah

Types of material

Warrants
Related collections: Massachusetts (Central), Military, Politics & governance
Wendell (Mass.). Treasurer

Wendell (Mass.). Treasurer Account book

1794-1864
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 090
Finding aid

A sparsely populated rural community in eastern Franklin County, Massachusetts, the town of Wendell was incorporated in 1781 after it was separated from the adjacent towns of Shutesbury and Erving. Primarily a farming community to the present day with only light manufacturing (particularly the manufacture of palm-leaf hats), Wendell remains one of the state’s least populous communities.

A standard double column account book, the Treasurer’s ledger from the town of Wendell was reviewed, settled, and approved annually by the selectmen. The transactions are the typical stuff of small town life in New England, recording taxes, payments for expenses relating to schools and maintenance of the poor, and during the Civil War, payments of bounty money for volunteers. Among the signatories are locally prominent figures such as Judge Joshua Green and the Treasurers Samuel Brewer, George W. Fleming, and Franklin Howe (and other members of the Howe family).

Subjects

Green, JoshuaWendell (Mass.)--History--19th century

Contributors

Brewer, SamuelFleming, George WHowe, FranklinWendell (Mass.). Treasurer

Types of material

Account books
Related collections: Massachusetts (West), Politics & governance
Coffin, Robert L.

Robert L. Coffin Ornithological Journal

1912-1922
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 593 bd
Finding aid

Robert L. Coffin (1889-1976) began a long association with the Massachusetts Agricultural College when he arrived on campus in 1912 to begin work as an assistant photographer for the East Experiment Station. His skill as a technical photographer and his artistic eye, however, soon made him a valuable commodity on campus and within a few years of his arrival, Coffin had branched out to work for a wide range of departments across campus and, in the late 1920s, for the US Department of Agriculture in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well. An avid birder and naturalist, Coffin was particularly known for his nature photography, using a battery of different cameras to capture everything from scenic vistas to photomicrographs. Although he established a commercial photographic studio in Amherst in 1931, Coffin continued to accept a wide range of assignments at UMass, earning recognition as the unofficial campus photographer. He remained active almost to the time of his death in 1976 at the age of 86.

Containing the meticulously detailed records of an avid birder, the Coffin journal contains records of sightings and first and last occurrences of birds observed in the years 1912 and 1917-1922. The records in the journal reflect Coffin’s many birding trips in western Massachusetts, mostly in the Connecticut River Valley, however the journal also contains records from the Swift River Valley, the Harvard Forest, the Boston area, and the Connecticut coast. In a few cases, Coffin recorded the numbers of birds observed.

Subjects

Bird watching--MassachusettsBirds--MassachusettsUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst

Contributors

Coffin, Robert L

Types of material

Field notes
Related collections: Massachusetts (West), Ornithology
Small, Eugene B.

Eugene B. Small Papers

1964-2007
7 boxes 10.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 591

Specializing in study of the biology and evolutionary history of ciliophorans, Eugene B. Small conducted both laboratory and field studies in comparative morphology and morphogenesis, ciliate ecology, phylogeny, life history, and nutrition. He was particularly noted for his work on ciliophorans from marine habitats ranging from the psammitic shores to the pelagic zones to deep sea hydrothermal vents. After receiving his doctorate at UCLA in 1964, Small served on the Zoology faculty at the University of Illinois and, from 1972, in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland.

The collection consists primarily of thousands of electron micrographs of ciliophorans taken over the course of Small’s career, along with a small number of laboratory and field notebooks.

Subjects

CiliataEvolution (Biology)University of Maryland--Faculty

Contributors

Small, Eugene B

Types of material

Laboratory notesScanning electron micrographs
Related collections: Photographs, Protistology, Science & technology
Nanney, David Ledbetter, 1925-

David Ledbetter Nanney Papers

1948-2008
13 boxes 6.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 592
Digital (+)
Finding aid
Depiction of Tracy M. Sonneborn
Tracy M. Sonneborn

The experimental ciliatologist David L. Nanney spent much of his career studying the protozoan Tetrahymena. Under Tracy M. Sonneborn at Indiana University, he completed a dissertation in 1951 on the mating habits of Paramecium, but soon after joining the faculty at the University of Michigan, he turned his attention to Tetrahymena. During his subsequent career in Ann Arbor (1951-1959) and at the University of Illinois (1959-1991), Nanney made a series of fundamental contributions to the cytology, genetics, developmental biology, and evolution of ciliates, influencing the work of other biologists such as Joe Frankel, Janina Kaczanowska, Linda Hufnagel, and Nicola Ricci. Since his retirement in 1991, Nanney has remained in Urbana.

The Nanney Papers include a dense run of professional correspondence with ciliatologists, geneticists, students and colleagues regarding his pioneering research on ciliates and other professional matters. Of particular note is an extensive correspondence with Sonneborn, accompanied by several biographical essays written after Sonneborn’s death, and a large body of correspondence of the controversial reorganization of the biological sciences departments at the University of Illinois in the 1970s. The collection also includes a selection of Nanney’s writings and a handful of photographs.

Subjects

Developmental biologyEvolution (Biology)Protozoans--GeneticsTetrahymena--GeneticsUniversity of Illinois--Faculty

Contributors

Allen, SallyBleyman, Lea KCorliss, John OFrankel, Joseph, 1935-Kaczanowski, AndrzejMcKoy, J. WynneNanney, David Ledbetter, 1925-Nyberg, Dennis Wayne, 1944-Orias, EduardoRicci, NicolaSiegel, RichardSonneborn, T. M. (Tracy Morton), 1905-
Related collections: Protistology, Science & technology
Nash, William A.

William A. Nash Papers

ca.1945-2006
13 boxes 19.5 linear feet
Call no.: FS 125

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

In 1944, William Nash graduated as valedictorian of Illinois Institute of Technology in civil and mechanical engineering and five years later he received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan. Pursuing a career in naval engineering, Nash worked as a research engineer at the Naval Ship Research and Development Center in Washington, D.C. (1949-1954) and as a structural researcher at Bethesda Naval Institute (1953-1957), where he participated in the deepest recorded naval dive and reverse engineering of recovered Soviet submarines off the coast of Norway, the details of which remain classified. After nine years teaching mechanical engineering at the University of Florida, Nash joined the Department of Civil Engineering at UMass in 1967, where he remained until his retirement in 1992. During his career, Nash also served as a consultant for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Lockheed International, General Electric and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Nash Papers contain correspondence, publications, and research notes documenting William Nash’s varied academic work and teaching as an engineer, along with selected work of his students.

Subjects

Marine engineersUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Civil Engineering

Contributors

Nash, William A
Related collections: Massachusetts (West), Science & technology, UMass (1947- ), UMass faculty
« Older posts Newer posts »