Page 20 – Special Collections & University Archives

Page 20 of 161

Crowe, Frances, 1919-

Frances Crowe Photograph Collection

ca.1969-1987

1 box 0.25 linear feet

Call no.: PH 092

Digital

Finding aid

Depiction of Frances Crowe, ca.1983 — Frances Crowe, ca.1983

A founder of the Western Massachusetts branch of the American Friends Service Committee and the Traprock Peace Center, Frances Crowe was a legendary peace activist. Born in Missouri in March 1919, Crowe became a committed pacifist in 1945 after learning of the devastation of the bombings in Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. Moving to Northampton in 1951 with her husband Thomas, a physician, she began organizing for peace and against nuclear weapons, increasing her peacework during the Vietnam War, she she worked as a draft counselor in Northampton. A member of the Society of Friends, she joined the War Resisters League, SANE, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, among many other organizations, and was arrested dozens of times for civil disobedience during protests opposing war and militarism, nuclear energy, American imperialism in Central America, and apartheid, and she became a war tax resister after the first Iraq War. An activist to the very end, she died on Aug. 27, 2019, at the age of 100.

This small collection of photographs was kept by Frances Crowe in her role as contributor to Peace Work, the newsletter of the American Friends Service Committee, or for inclusion in the AFSC files. Concentrated in the early 1980s, they depict a range of peace and antinuclear protests in western Massachusetts. The majority of the images were taken by Crowe’s associate, Miriam Leader.

Gift of Eugene Povirk, Oct. 2019

Subjects

Anti-war demonstrations--Massachusetts--PhotographsAntinuclear movements--Massachusetts--PhotographsDemonstrations--Massachusetts--PhotographsPeace movements--Massachusetts--Photographs

Contributors

Leader, Miriam

Types of material

Photographs

Related collections: Antinuclear, Massachusetts (West), Peace, Political activism, Quakers, Vietnam War

Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Taunton, Mass.)

Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Taunton, Mass.) Records

1835-1885

1 box 0.25 linear feet

Call no.: MS 1100

Digital (+)

Finding aid

Depiction of Consecration of Mount Pleasant, 1836 — Consecration of Mount Pleasant, 1836

Situated on ten acres, Mount Pleasant Cemtery in Taunton, Mass., was designed by Joseph Wilbar and consecrated on July, 1836, just the third rural- or garden-style cemetery in the United States. After a long period of decline in the mid-twentieth century, it was taken over by the city in 1985.

The records of Mount Pleasant Cemetery include an account book with detailed records of expenditures, work performed, and compensation received at the cemetery, and a small selection of ephemera, including two surveys at the time of its establisment.

Acquired from Between the Covers, Oct. 2019

Subjects

Cemeteries--Massachusetts--TauntonWilbar, Joseph

Types of material

Land surveysMapsPhotographs

Related collections: Gravestones, Massachusetts (East)

Föth, Jorg

Jörg Foth Papers

1965-2015

57 boxes

Call no.: MS 1062

An East German actor, writer, and film director, and an insightful analyst of German culture and film history, Jörg Foth was born in Berlin on Oct. 31, 1949. After completing military service and working briefly in television, Foth entered the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen „Konrad Wolf“ in Postdam, graduating in 1977. During his long ascent through the East German film system, he worked as an assistant director at the DEFA Studio and in GDR television and collaborated with Ulrich Weiss and others. His directorial debut came in 1984 with the children’s film Das Eismeer Ruft, however it was another six years before he was permitted to direct his second film, Biologie!, the only DEFA feature ever to deal with environmental issues. A few months after he was promoted to Director, the East German political system collapsed and the DEFA studios were closed. Foth has since worked as a freelance director and writer for both film and television.

The Foth collection provides unique insight into East German cinema; the diverse career of a noted writer, director, and actor; and more generally, the shifting artistic environment during the last years of the DDR. Along with writing and research materials from many of Foth’s films, the collection includes a range of writing, ephemera, and on topics ranging from film theory, the theater, and literature to Marx, Stalin, and Lenin.

Gift of Jörg Foth, Feb.-July 2019

Language(s): German

Subjects

DEFAMotion pictures--Germany (East)

Related collections: Cold War culture, Film & video, Germany, Performing arts, Visual culture

Quakers of Color

Quakers of Color International Archive

2019

14 interviews

Call no.: MS 1095

Digital

Launched by Harold D. Weaver in 2019, the Quakers of Color International Archive is part of a global initiative to document the beliefs, experiences, and contributions of people of color within the Society of Friends. Supported collaboratively by the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends and the archives at UMass Amherst and Haverford College, the archive uses oral history and other approaches to document as fully as possible, the range of ideas and practices from all faith traditions within the Society.

An on-going project, the oral histories comprising the archive were conducted by Weaver and associates beginning in 2019. Representing Friends from several Yearly Meetings, the interviews include discussions of faith background and spiritual growth, theological orientation, Quaker identity, relations with monthly and yearly meetings, and the conduct of Quaker “business.”

Subjects

African American QuakersQuakers--Religious lifeSociety of Friends--BoliviaSociety of Friends--HistorySociety of Friends--KenyaSociety of Friends--MaineSociety of Friends--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Pennsylvania

Contributors

Lapsansky-Werner, EmmaWeaver, Harold D.

Types of material

Motion pictures (Visual works)Oral histories (Literary works)

Related collections: Africa, African American, Antiracism, Environment, Oral history, Peace, Quakers, Spiritual change

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.

Related collections: Antifluoridation, Environment, Medical

Swedlund, Alan C.

Alan C. Swedlund Papers

1971-2006

5 boxes 4.5 linear feet

Call no.: FS 197

Finding aid

Born in Sacramento, Calif., but raised in Colorado, the biological anthropologist Alan C. Swedlund received each of his degrees at the University of Colorado Boulder (PhD, 1970). After a brief stint at Prescott College, Swedlund joined the faculty at UMass Amherst in 1973, where he helped to develop the doctoral program in biological anthropology and chaired the department for five years in the early 1990s. A prolific scholar, he drew upon diverse methodologies drawn from demography, epidemiology, and physical anthropology to explore interactions between cultural processes and human biological conditions in populations ranging from the Ancient Pueblo of the southwestern United States, to contemporary Central America and Yucatan, and historical New England. Among dozens of publications, he was author or editor of seven books, including Shadows in the Valley: A Cultural History of Illness, Death, and Loss in New England, 1840-1916 (2010), Plagues and Epidemics: Infected Spaces Past and Present (2010), and Beyond Germs: Explorations of Indigenous Depopulation in North America (2015). He was granted emeritus status upon his retirement in 2008.

The Swedlund Papers include extensive professional correspondence from his first professional appointment at Prescott College through the time of his retirement, along with numerous grant applications, unpublished papers and talks, and research data. Of particular note are extensive records and data files for his study of nineteenth-century demography in the Connecticut River Valley and Franklin County, Mass.

Gift of Alan C. Swedlund, August 2019.

Subjects

Connecticut River Valley--PopulationDemographyPhysical anthropologyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Anthropology

Howard, James E.

James E. Howard Collection

1947-1953

1 box 0.25 linear feet

Call no.: MS 1085

An advertising man from Brooklyn, and a neighbor and friend of W.E.B. Du Bois, James E. Howard was an active supporter of the Committee for the Negro in the Arts during its brief period of activity. Organized in 1947 with Communist Party support, the Committee was an arts-focused civil rights organization, opposing degregation and promoting the employment of African Americans in the performing and visual arts. Criticized by the House Un-American Activities Committee as a Communist front, the Committee was also criticized by the intellectual Harold Cruse, a former member, as a “sad flop,” a patronizing and opportunistic endeavor of white radical that was so constrained by the desire to appeal to white audiences that it was incapable of exploring work of deeper significance to African American audiences.

This small collection contains printed materials from the Committee for the Negro in the Arts (CNA), a politically progressive interracial cultural organization. The collection includes CNA newsletters, event programs, invitations, and an assortment of mailings and other items used in publicity and public relations.

Gift of Jonathan Howard, Sept. 2017.

Subjects

African American theater

Contributors

Committee for the Negro in the Arts

Related collections: African American, Civil rights, Communism & Socialism, Performing arts

Sleeveless Theatre Company

Sleeveless Theater Company Records

1989-1996

1 box 1.5 linear feet

Call no.: MS 1087

Depiction of Channer, Nugent, Halpin and Futtner (from left), ca.1992. Photo by K.D.Halpin — Channer, Nugent, Halpin and Futtner (from left), ca.1992. Photo by K.D.Halpin

The Sleeveless Theatre Company was an innovative political theater company with a strong feminist slant. Founded in 1989 by UMass Amherst alumnae Lisa Channer, Maureen Futtner, K. D. Halpin, and Kate Nugent, and Smith alumna, Terianne Falcone, Sleeveless was an actor-centered, highly collaborative ensemble company that wielded humor in staging original, socially- and politically-charged theater. Based in Northampton, Mass., the company toured nationally and internationally, presenting sometimes controversial works on themes ranging from reproductive rights to the Gulf War. As they evolved, they refined their mission to focus on telling stories about the lives and perspectives of women, but under the strains of growing within their collaborative model, they made the decision to disband in 1997.

In addition to minutes for the company’s formative years (1989-1992), the records of Sleeveless Theater Company include a small selection of production notes, background research, fliers, reviews and newsclippings, and a handful of publicity photos. Among the plays represtened are Womb for Rent (1989), War: The Comedy (1991), The F Word (1992), Emily Unplugged (1995), and Mill America (1996).

Gift of Lisa Channer, Maureen Futtner, K. D. Halpin, and Kate Nugent, June 2019 (2019-093).

Subjects

Feminist theater--Massachusetts--NorthamptonTheatrical companies--Massachusetts--Northampton

Types of material

Fliers (Printed matter)Photographs

Related collections: Massachusetts (West), Performing arts, UMass alumni, Women & feminism

Portland Friends Meeting

Portland Friends Meeting Records

1973-2021

2 boxes 1 linear feet

Call no.: MS 902 P678

Finding aid

Part of: New England Yearly Meeting of Friends Records

The current Portland Monthly Meeting has its origins in two different monthly meetings taking place in close proximity to each other that later merged into what is now the Portland Monthly Meeting. Friends’ meetings in Portland, Maine began in 1752, and by 1790, joined the neighboring Falmouth Monthly Meeting. In 1850, the group built a new meetinghouse on Oak Street in Portland, and started becoming known as the “Oak Street” meeting. Meanwhile, the other of two originating meetings began when a second meetinghouse was built in 1855 on Forest Avenue to house the Deering Preparative Meeting that eventually became the Forest Avenue Monthly Meeting in 1934. The two separate monthly meetings continued in Portland until 1974 when they merged into one: the current Portland Monthly Meeting.

The current collection consists of materials dating from just before the start of the 1974 merger. Newsletters make up the largest portion of the collection, and have extensive information about the meetings’ activities, including (in some years) biographies of various members. There are newsletters from most years between 1973-2010. Minutes, primarily from the late 1970s and the late 1980s, make up the next largest portion of the collection. In addition, there is a smattering of committee reports and membership directories mostly from the mid-1990s. Material predating the 1974 merger can be found at the Maine Historical Society.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Portland (Me.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Newsletters

Related collections: Maine, Quakers

Parsonsfield Monthly Meeting of Friends

Parsonsfield Monthly Meeting of Friends Records

1984

1 folder 0.25 linear feet

Call no.: MS 902 P377

Finding aid

Part of: New England Yearly Meeting of Friends Records

In 1801, the Limington (Maine) Preparative Meeting–the forerunner of the Parsonsfield Monthly Meeting–was launched, under the care of the Falmouth (Maine) Monthly Meeting. In 1888, the Parsonsfield Preparative Meeting, begun in 1846, became the Parsonsfield Monthly Meeting, and joined the newly-formed Parsonsfield Quarterly Meeting including Parsonsfield in Maine, and Sandwich in New Hampshire. By 1938, this quarterly meeting returned to the Falmouth Quarterly Meeting, and the Parsonsfield Monthly Meeting went with it. By the late 1990’s, the monthly meeting had moved to Kezars Falls (Maine), and was laid down a few years later.

The collection includes a single folder of four newsletters from 1984 (Feb, Mar, Apr, Jul).

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Parsonsfield (Me.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Types of material

Newsletters

Related collections: Maine, Quakers