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Northampton State Hospital Annual Reports

1856-1939

74 items (digital)

Call no.: RB 035

The Northampton State Hospital was opened in 1858 to provide moral therapy to the “insane,” and under the superintendency of Pliny Earle, became one of the best known asylums in New England. Before the turn of the century, however, the Hospital declined, facing the problems of overcrowding, poor sanitation, and inadequate funding. The push for psychiatric deinstitutionalization in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in a steady reduction of the patient population, the last eleven of whom left Northampton State in 1993.

With the Government Documents staff, SCUA has digitized the annual reports of the Northampton State Hospital from the beginning until the last published report in 1939. The reports appeared annually from 1856 until 1924 and irregularly from then until 1939.

Related collections: Digital, Disability, Massachusetts (West), Medical, Science & technology

North Bridgewater (Mass.). Treasurer

North Bridgewater (Mass.) Treasurer Account Book

1858-1881

1 vol. 0.15 linear feet

Call no.: MS 223 bd

Finding aid

In the years after it separated from Bridegwater in 1821, North Bridgewater emerged as a center of manufacturing. During the industrial boom years of the mid-nineteenth century, it grew into the largest producer of shoes and boots in the nation, boasting 97 factories by the end of the century. In 1874, the town changed to its current name, Brockton, and it was incorporated as a city seven years later.

Nearly two thirds of this town treasurer’s account book from North Bridgewater (later Brockton), Massachusetts, is devoted to a monthly accounting of money paid to the families of Civil War volunteers, beginning in April 1861 and carrying through 1881, made mostly by town treasurer R.P. Kingman; accounts of school district expenses and revenues for the years 1858 to 1869, for the 14 school districts in North Bridgewater (teacher salaries, supplies, and accounts with textbook publishers such as Harper & Bros. and Heath & Co.); and listings of salaries paid town officers, including the Superintendent of Streets, Overseer of the Poor, city clerk, city treasurer, and the Police Department.

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987

Subjects

Police--Massachusetts--North BridgewaterSchools--Massachusetts--North BridgewaterUnited States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865

Contributors

North Bridgewater (Mass.). Treasurer

Types of material

Records (Documents)

Related collections: Civil War, Education, Massachusetts (East), Politics & governance

North Center School District (Hatfield, Mass.)

North Center School District Records

1818-1833

1 box 0.25 linear feet

Call no.: MS 442

Finding aid

The North Center School District in Hatfield, Massachusetts, was established in 1812, when the town divided into three school districts.

The collection consists of seventeen handwritten documents including financial records, a report and recipes relating to the North Center School District in Hatfield, Massachusetts, representing the period from 1818 to 1833. While not a comprehensive collection, the items nonetheless offer insight into education at the turn of the century, especially the sorts of expenses accrued in maintaining a small town schoolhouse.

Subjects

Education--Massachusetts--HatfieldHatfield (Mass.)--HistoryMassachusetts--History--1775-1865Recipes--MassachusettsSchool records--MassachusettsSchools--Records and Correspondence

Contributors

Allis, DexterBardwell, ElijahBardwell, RemembranceDickinson, SolomonMorton, ChesterMorton, JeremyNorth Center School District (Hatfield, Mass.)Porter, TheodoreWaite, DanielWaite, Justin

Related collections: Education, Massachusetts (West)

Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA)

Northeast Organic Farming Association Records

1977-2007

12 boxes 6.5 linear feet

Call no.: MS 461

The Northeast Organic Farming Association began as the vision of a New York City plumbing supplies salesman and has grown into a large association supporting information-sharing, education, collaboration, and certification. Increasingly influential non-profit organization with chapters in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont, NOFA has “nearly 4,000 farmers, gardeners and consumers working to promote healthy food, organic farming practices and a cleaner environment.”

The NOFA collection includes records, publications, ephemera, photographs, and other materials from NOFA chapters in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, along with material from the Interstate Council. The collection includes information on NOFA’s conferences and programs, educational work, lobbying, and their initiatives in organic certification and organic land care.

View issues of The Natural Farmer online.

Subjects

Agriculture--MassachusettsOrganic farmingOrganic gardeningSustainable agriculture

Contributors

NOFA Massachusetts

Related collections: Agriculture, Connecticut, Digital, Massachusetts, Organic farming, Rhode Island, Vermont

Northampton Community Chest

Northampton Community Chest Records

1922-1969

6 boxes 3 linear feet

Call no.: MS 052

Finding aid

Community Chest of Northampton, Massachusetts, that sought the federation of non-sectarian social service agencies for the raising of funds necessary to carry on the work of several agencies doing welfare work in town. Records include constitution and by-laws, Board of Directors membership lists, minutes, annual reports, campaign reports, ledgers, annual meeting planning documents, scrapbooks, and newsclippings.

Subjects

Charities--Massachusetts--Easthampton--History--SourcesFederations, Financial (Social service)--History--SourcesHuman services--Massachusetts--Northampton--History--SourcesNorthampton (Mass.)--Social conditions

Contributors

Northampton Community Chest Association (Northampton, Mass.)

Types of material

Account booksScrapbooks

Related collections: Civic organizations, Massachusetts (West)

Northampton Cutlery Company

Northampton Cutlery Company Records

1869-1987

113 boxes 55.75 linear feet

Call no.: MS 058

Finding aid

The Northampton Cutlery Company was among the major firms in a region known for high quality cutlery manufacture. Incorporated in 1871 with Judge Samuel L. Hinckley, its largest stockholder, as its first President, the company was located along the Mill River in Northampton, Massachusetts, where operations continued until its closing in 1987.

Records document company operations and technology used in the cutlery manufacturing process, as well as details about employment of immigrant and working class families in the region. Includes administrative, legal, and financial records; correspondence; personnel and labor relations files; and production schedules and specifications.

Subjects

Cutlery trade--MassachusettsNorthampton (Mass.)--History

Contributors

Northampton Cutlery Company

Northampton Labor Council (AFL-CIO)

Northampton Labor Council Minutebooks

1933-1985

2 boxes 0.75 linear feet

Call no.: MS 055

Finding aid

From its origins in 1899 as the Northampton Central Labor Union, the Northampton Labor Council coordinated political activity and worked for union cooperation in strikes, boycotts, and celebrations. With 29 unions in its ranks by 1903, it was one of the few labor councils to include both AFL and CIO affiliates during the period of their intense competition during the 1930s, however from 1945 until the AFL-CIO merger, CIO unions were excluded. By 1985, the NLC had 14 affiliated local unions.

As the coordinating body for the political and social activities of fourteen labor unions in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the surrounding area, the Labor Council generated union support for strikes, boycotts, and celebrations, and hosting annual Labor Day parades. Includes photocopies of four minutebooks, spanning the years 1933-1985.

Subjects

Central Labor Union (Northampton, Mass.)Labor unions--Massachusetts--NorthamptonNorthampton (Mass.)--Economic conditions--20th centuryNorthampton (Mass.)--Social conditions--20th century

Contributors

Northampton Labor Council (AFL-CIO)

Related collections: Labor, Massachusetts (West)

Northampton Temperance

Northampton Temperance Collection

1828-1847

1 box 0.25 linear feet

Call no.: MS 194

By the time Massachusetts ratified the Eighteenth Amendment banning the production, sale, and transportation of alcohol in 1918, the Pioneer Valley’s temperance societies had been active for over 75 years. Working “in all suitable ways … [to promote] discontinuance [of the use of alcohol] all throughout the Community”, the Northampton Temperance Association, the Factory Village Total Abstinence Society, and the Northampton Martha Washington Temperance Society recruited members, held meetings, elected presidents, and wrote explicit constitutions.

The Northampton Temperance Association collection contains copies of constitutions, meeting minutes, pledge lists, and membership records from three like-minded Pioneer Valley organizations from 1828 to 1847.

Subjects

Temperance--Massachusetts--Northampton

Related collections: Massachusetts (West), Reform

Norton (Mass.) & Mansfield (Mass.)

Norton (Mass.) Merchant's Daybook

1828-1839

1 vol. 0.15 linear feet

Call no.: MS 203 bd

Finding aid

Norton, Mass., was a manufacturing center during the early days of the industrial revolution. During the 1830s and 1840s, its mills turned out sheet copper, cotton goods, boots and shoes, leather goods, iron castings, ploughs, and baskets.

The unidentified owner of this daybook was a general provisioner in the Bristol County, Massachusetts, towns of Norton and Mansfield. This daybook records a relatively brisk trade in relatively small quantities of food, cloth, fuel, wood, shoes, paper goods, glassware, and iron. While the Norton Manufacturing Company (a textile manufacturer) was among the steady customers, the storekeeper also dealt extensively with individuals.

Subjects

General stores--Massachusetts--MansfieldGeneral stores--Massachusetts--NortonMansfield (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryNorton (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryNorton Manufacturing Company

Types of material

Daybooks

Related collections: Labor, Massachusetts (East), Mercantile

Norwegian Information Service

Norwegian Information Service Photographs of Sami (Lapp) People

1 envelope 0.1 linear feet

Call no.: MS 297

Digital

Finding aid

During the Second World War, the Nazi occupation and subsequent liberation of the arctic regions of northern Norway resulted in the near total devastation of the existing infrastructure and the displacement of most of the population, including the native Sami (Lapps). The end of the war did not signal an end to hardship: the challenges of post-war resettlement was accompanied by a sustained effort by the Norwegian government to modernize and assimilate the Sami, largely through the systematic suppression of Sami culture. The language was banned from use in schools until 1958 and other forms of suppression persisted longer, and it was decades more before the rights of the Sami as an indigenous people were codified into law.

The dozen photographs that comprise this collection document Sami life in northern Norway during the period just after the end of the Second World War when Sami people were returning home after years as refugees. Taken by the Norwegian Information Service and presumably associated with the Norwegian modernization program, the collection includes images of traditional Sami sod dwellings, men at work on construction of sled and boat, and portraits of women and children.

Subjects

Dwellings--Norway--PhotographsGeneral stores--Norway--PhotographsSami (European people)--PhotographsSleds--Norway--PhotographsSod houses--Norway--PhotographsTents--Norway--Photographs

Contributors

Norwegian Information Service

Types of material

Photographs

Related collections: Europe, Photographs