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Yih, Chia-Shun, 1918-1997

Chia-Shun Yih Collection

1972-1981

1 box 0.5 linear feet

Call no.: PH 085

Depiction of Chinese girl and infant, 1972 — Chinese girl and infant, 1972

An important scholar of field of fluid dynamics, Chia-Shun Yih was born in Guizhou Province, China, in 1918. Despite the disruptions of war, he completed his undergraduate work in engineering at National Central University in Nanjing in 1942 and was working in Sichuan Province when he received a governmental scholarship to continue his education in the U.S. in 1945. His theoretical work in nonhomogeneous fluid dynamics that began with his dissertation at the University of Iowa (1948) fueled a long and distinguished career, primarily at the University of Michigan. Yih died of heart failure in 1997.

This small collection features slides taken by Yih, an early member of Science for the People, during two trips to the People’s Republic of China. He and his wife Katherine traveled to PRC as guests of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in June and July 1972, shortly after the Nixon-era detente between the countries, but during the Cultural Revolution, and he returned in 1981.

Gift of Katherinw Yih, Jan. 2019.

Subjects

China--Photographs

Types of material

PhotographsSlides (Photographs)

Related collections: China, Photographs

Richardson, Mary Ann Moore

Mary Ann Moore Richardson Collection

1842-1854

1 folder 0.1 linear feet

Call no.: MS 1072 bd

Digital

Finding aid

Depiction of Program of the student exhibition, Quaboag Seminary, 1847 — Program of the student exhibition, Quaboag Seminary, 1847

The Quaboag Seminary was founded in Warren, Mass., in 1842 by two of Amherst College’s early graduates, and was incorporated eight years later. During its relatively brief period of operation, its best-known student may have bene the abolitionist and feminist Lucy Stone, who enrolled in 1841 to prepare for entrance examinations at Oberlin College. In 1856, the school was purchased by the town to serve as the local high school.

This small collection consists primarily of printed materials associated with the short-lived Quaboag Seminary of Warren, Mass. In addition to a school catalogue for 1847, the collection includes two issues — apparently all that were printed — of the student literary periodical, the Quaboag Quarterly Offering (1845); eight programs for school exhibitions (1842-1854); a flier announcing the spring term 1848; and two writing exercise books kept by Mary Ann Moore (later Richardson) while a student at the Seminary.

Gift of I. Eliot Wentworth, Mar. 2019

Subjects

Boarding schools--Massachusetts--WarrenSchools--Massachusetts--WarrenWarren (Mass.)--History--19th century

Contributors

Quaboag Seminary

Types of material

Broadsides (Notices)Catalogues (Documents)PeriodicalsPrograms (Documents)

Related collections: Education, Massachusetts (Central)

Norsigian, Judy

Judy Norsigian Collection

1953-2002 Bulk: 1967-1976

1 box 0.5 linear feet

Call no.: MS 1071

Finding aid

Depiction of SDS pamphlet, 1969 — SDS pamphlet, 1969

Judy Norsigian is a prominent advocate for women’s reproductive health and was a co-founder of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, better known by its later and the title of its best-known book, Our Bodies, Ourselves. Editor of each of the nine editions of the book and executive director of the collective from 2001 to 2015, Norsigian is an important public intellectual on women’s health issues and has served on numerous boards and advisory groups relating to reproductive health, contraception, and medical research.

Consisting primarily of the sort of ephemeral political literature that abounded in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Norsigian collection offers insight into the feminist movement and the early milieu of Our Bodies, Ourselves. Many of the publications are devoted to issues in contemporary feminism or pertain to women’s conferences, however several (especially those published by the New England Free Press) take on other political and social movements.

Gift of Judy Norsigian, Jan. 2017

Subjects

Feminism--MassachusettsOur Bodies, Ourselves

Types of material

BrochuresEphemera (General object genre)NewspapersPamphlets

Related collections: Massachusetts (East), Printed materials, Vietnam War, Women & feminism

Association of American Cultures

Association of American Cultures Collection

1985-2010

1 box 0.5 linear feet

Call no.: MS 1070

Finding aid

Part of: National Arts Policy Archive and Library

The Association of American Cultures (TAAC) was founded in 1985, following the success of the first Open Dialogue conference in which cultural workers from an array of arts disciplines gathered to discuss issues confronting arts organizations and artists in communities of color. As a national arts service agency, TAAC advocates for racial equity in the arts and arts organizations and provides support for those concerned with the preservation of their culturally specific identities through the arts.

The TAAC collection consists primarily of materials distributed to participants at several of the Open Dialogues conferences, along with a handful of promotional materials. A videotape in the collection is one of several produced by TAAC in the 1980s on aspects of cultural diversity in the American arts.

Gift of Mayumi Tsutakawa, Jan. 2016 (2016-008).

Subjects

Arts--ManagementOpen Dialogue

Types of material

Videocassettes

Related collections: Arts management, Civil rights

University of Massachusetts Amherst

University of Massachusetts Amherst. Classes by Year

1871-2018

206 boxes 93 linear feet

Call no.: RG 050/6

The new Massachusetts Agricultural College welcomed its first contingent of 34 students to campus on October 1, 1867, resulting in the first graduating class of 28 — the Pioneer Class of 1871. The student body waxed and waned in ensuing years as the college slowly began to diversify its curriculum and the students population itself, admitting international students as early as 1870, followed by graduate students (first degree awarded 1896), African Americans (class of 1901), and women (class of 1905). Enrollment at the university first topped 1,000 in 1945 rising to 6,000 by 1960. Following a tumultuous period of great expansion, UMass had over 23,000 students in 1970.

Organized by class year, this series includes a diverse body of material generated by undergraduate students at Massachusetts Agricultural College, Mass. State College, and UMass Amherst from its beginning to the present day. Although the content varies widely from class to class and by period of time, typical years includes basic data on the graduating class, publications by alums, reunion information, class notes, photographs, or small collections of letters written while in school. In a few cases, the quantity representing an individual almuna or alumnus has led SCUA to treat the materials as a separate collection with its own finding aid.

Subjects

College students--Massachusetts--AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--Students

Types of material

Photographs

New England Sustainable Energy Association

New England Sustainable Energy Association Records

1974-2017

Call no.: MS 1058

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

A leader in promoting energy sustainability, particularly in the building sector, the New England Sustainable Energy Association is a membership organization dedicated to advancing the adoption of sustainable energy practices in the built environment by cultivating a community where practitioners share, collaborate, and learn. Founded as the New England Solar Energy Association in 1974, NESEA merged with likeminded organizations, changing name (but not acronym) to the Northeast Solar Energy Association in 1985 and then to the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association in 1989. NESEA is an associate member of the American Solar Energy Society.

The records of a grassroots organization devoted to energy sustainability, this collection documents the origins and growth of solar energy, the construction industry, and ideas about sustainable living in New England.

Gift of NESEA, 2018

Subjects

Solar energySustainability

Related collections: Alternative energy, Environment

Maynard, Nathaniel

Nathaniel Maynard Exercise and Account Book

1801-1862

1 vol. 0.1 linear feet

Call no.: MS 1063

Digital

Finding aid

Depiction of Front cover of the Maynard volume — Front cover of the Maynard volume

The farmer Nathaniel Maynard was born in Marlborough (Worcester County), Mass., on Feb. 27, 1780, the eldest of four children of Joseph Maynard and Lovina Barnes. By 1804, when he married Rachel (Hill) of North Brookfield, Nathaniel was already a resident of Leverett, where he had apparently moved with his brother William. Nathaniel and Rachel had four children: Ira B. Maynard (1810-1896), Alvin (1813-1818), Emeline Dudley (1815-1901), and Joseph Bartlett Maynard (1817-1881).

This small volume is a hybrid production. Roughly the first half of the volume consists of relatively standard exercises for learning arithmetic and business activities, including calculating weights, measures, currencies, finances, and interest rates. The remainder consists of accounts, recording a variety of work performed by Maynard, ranging from farm labor (sale of potatoes, plowing and planting, working with oxen, slaughtering, and chopping wood) to weaving (“sheeting”) and especially mending or making shoes.

Related collections: Farming & rural life, Massachusetts (West), Personal finance

Pavese, Cesare

Cesare Pavese Collection

1931-2006 Bulk: 1931-1950

13 titles 2 linear feet

Call no.: RB 037

Digital (+)

Finding aid

Simultaneously prolific and tragic, Cesare Pavese was a major figure in 20th century Italian letters. Born in the Piedmont region in 1908 and educated in Turin, Pavese was drawn to English-language literature as a student, writing his thesis on Walt Whitman (1930). Nearly overnight, he became well known as a translator of modern American and British fiction, from Melville, Faulkner, and Steinbeck to James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, and at the same time, he began to publish his own creative work beginning with Lavorare stanca, a book of poetry, in 1936. Although sentenced to three years of internal exile for his anti-fascist sympathies (1938-1941), he continued to write, capped by the appearance of his first two novels in 1941 and 1942. The war’s end saw Pavese blossom into an exceptionally creative period, however even as his renown grew, the effects of depression and a failed love affair with the American actress Constance Dowling led him to suicide in August 1950. Two months before he had been awarded the prestigious Strega Prize.

This collection of first and early editions by Cesare Pavese, donated by Lawrence G. Smith, includes first and early editions by Cesare Pavese, five of which are inscribed: three to Constance Dowling, one to his friend Leone Ginzburg (and later to Dowling), and the fifth to Doris and Harry. Smith also donated dozens of other volumes by and about Pavese to the Library’s general collection.

Gift of Lawrence Smith, 2018.

Language(s): Italian

Subjects

Dowling, Constance, 1923-1969Italian literatureWhitman, Walt, 1819-1892

Types of material

BooksFliers (Printed material)

Related collections: Books and book history, Literature & language, Prose writing

Neill, D. Monty

D. Monty Neill Collection

1986 Feb.-Apr.

2 boxes 0.5 linear feet

Call no.: MS 1061

Digital

Finding aid

An educator and scholar of educational assessment, Monty Neil is the Executive Director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest). For his doctorate at Harvard in the mid-1980s, Neill examined the impact of the 1974 desegregation order affecting Boston’s public schools and the ongoing search within the city’s African American community for quality and equity in education. He completed his dissertation, The Struggle of Boston’s Black Community for Quality and Equality in Education: 1960-1985, in 1987.

The 33 audiocassettes in this collection include interviews with 29 activists and educational and political leaders in Boston, predominantly from the city’s African American community, include in-depth discussions about the busing crisis in Boston during the late 1970s and early 1980s, its aftermath, and the ongoing search for educational equity and quality. The tapes were recorded between January and April 1986 as part of Neill’s dissertation research.

Gift of Monty Neill, Dec. 2018

Subjects

African Americans--Massachusetts--BostonBoston (Mass.)--History--20th centuryBoston (Mass.)--Politics and government--20th centuryBusing for school integration--Massachusetts--BostonCivil rights movements--Massachusetts--BostonPublic schools--Massachusetts--BostonSegregation in education--Massachusetts--Boston

Contributors

Breeden, James P. (James Pleasant)Haskins, Kenneth, 1923-1994Jones, Hubie, 1933-King, Melvin, 1928-O'Bryant, John D., 1931-1992Owens, Bill, 1937-Owens-Hicks, ShirleySmith, Mary EllenSnowden, Muriel S. (Muriel Sutherland), 1916-

Types of material

Audiocassettes

University of Massachusetts Amherst. Black Pioneers Project

Black Pioneers Project Records

2018-2019

0.1 linear feet

Call no.: RG 050/9

Digital (+)

Finding aid

UMass Amherst Black Pioneers T-Shirt logo, 2016

Moved to action after a successful and illuminating 2016 reunion of Black alumni of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, alumna Dr. Cheryl L. Evans (1968) decided to take on the critical project identified by the group, collecting and documenting the stories of the Black alumni who attended the University between 1960 and 1970. Dubbing these students “Black Pioneers,” given the dearth, and then growth, of Black students on campus during the decade, Evans used her connections with alumni and her history as a Black student leader to reach out about recording experiences for preservation and research purposes. In collaboration with Special Collections and University Archives, Evans began the “UMass Black Pioneers Project,” and sent an online questionnaire to around 85 alumni in September 2018. The survey addresses alumni’s backgrounds, academic and social experiences on campus, occasions of racial discrimination and activism, and current perceptions of the University and advice for students. Participation was voluntary, and is ongoing.

The UMass Black Pioneers Project Records contain some planning materials and correspondence for the project, and primarily consist of written answers made in response to the “UMass Black Pioneers Survey.” In addition to the questionnaire, participants were able to send in physical materials, or upload digital content, such as resumes, or videos of their responses, and the collection contains a few of these. Several participants willing to be interviewed were also connected with UMass Public History graduate students for oral histories in the Fall 2018 semester. These videos are a part of the record group, and there are plans to conduct additional interviews.

Aquired with the assistance of Cheryl L. Evans, 2018

Subjects

African American college students--MassachusettsRacism in educationUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--AlumniUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--Students

Types of material

Oral historiesQuestionnaires