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Volbach, Walther R. (Walther Richard), 1897-

Walther R. Volbach Papers

1897-1996

2 boxes 1 linear feet

Call no.: FS 087

Depiction of Walther R. Volbach — Walther R. Volbach

Born in Mainz, Germany on December 24, 1897, the theater historian and stage director Walther R. Volbach began directing operas and plays at the age of 17. After his immigration to the United States in 1936, he worked for several colleges, coming to the University of Massachusetts Amherst for five years as a visiting professor following his retirement in 1965. Noted as a director of operas and plays and for his set design, Volbach was author of three books: The Problems of Opera Production (1953), Adolphe Appia : The Prophet of The Modern Theatre (1968), and Memoirs of Max Reinhardt’s Theaters (1972).

The Volbach collection includes personal and professional correspondence in English and German, mostly from Volbach’s later years, regarding family, publishing, lectures, and employment. The collection also includes photographs of set designs, an image of Volbach teaching a class, publications, and lecture and research notes on theater history.

Gift of Fritz B. Volbach, Aug. 1996

Subjects

Appia, Adolphe, 1862-1928Drama--Study and teachingSet designersUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Theater

Contributors

Volbach, Walther R. (Walther Richard), 1897-

Related collections: Performing arts, UMass (1947- ), UMass faculty

Patterson, Charles H.

Charles H. Patterson Papers

1930-1958

2 boxes 1 linear feet

Call no.: FS 089

Finding aid

Depiction of Charles H. Patterson.<br />Photo by Frank A. Waugh, 1926 — Charles H. Patterson.
Photo by Frank A. Waugh, 1926

For many years, Charles H. Patterson served as head of the Department of Language and Literature at Massachusetts Agricultural College. Born in Smithsonville, Ont., in 1863, Patterson received both a BA (1887) and MA (1893) from Tufts University before launching his teaching career. He joined the faculty at MAC as an assistant professor of English, in 1916, after 13 years at West Virginia University. A former professional actor, he taught courses in modern literature, with a particular interest in drama, and served as department chair for nearly a decade before his sudden death in 1933.

The Patterson Papers contain a small selection of correspondence and notes on English composition and literature as taught at Massachusetts Agricultural College. Most noteworthy, perhaps, is a draft of Patterson’s unpublished book, The Amazing Boucicault.

Subjects

Boucicault, Dion, 1820-1890Drama--Study and teachingMassachusetts Agricultural College--FacultyMassachusetts Agricultural College. Department of English

Contributors

Patterson, Charles H

Hamilton, Tom Sherman, 1924-

Tom Sherman Hamilton Papers

1965-1979

1 box 0.25 linear feet

Call no.: FS 065

Finding aid

The horticulturist Tom S. Hamilton was a member of the faculty at UMass Amherst in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. A specialist in ornamental plants, Hamilton worked at UMass from prior to 1950 until his retirement in 1986.

The Hamilton Papers contain three works on ornamental plants published by the Dept. of Landscape Architecture, along with a mimeographed laboratory manual that Hamilton used in his courses on landscape operations in 1979.

Subjects

HorticultureUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning

Contributors

Hamilton, Tom Sherman, 1923-

Cutter, Frederick A.

Frederick A. Cutter Papers

1902-1996 Bulk: 1902-1914

6 boxes 4 linear feet

Call no.: FS 090

Finding aid

A member of the Massachusetts Agricultural College class of 1907, Frederick A. Cutter participated in football, basketball, and baseball as a student, and was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.

The Cutter collection contains photographs of the 1907 football team, the 1906 and 1907 members of Phi Sigma Kappa, and it includes a uniform from the M.A.C. basketball team, 1907, Massachusetts pennants and banners, a Lowell High School sweater from 1902, and early M.A.C. football equipment, including cleats and a nose guard.

Subjects

Caruthers, John TLivers, Susie DMassachusetts Agricultural College--BasketballMassachusetts Agricultural College--FootballMassachusetts Agricultural College--StudentsMassachusetts Agricultural College. Class of 1907Phi Sigma Kappa (Massachusetts State College)

Contributors

Cutter, Frederick A

Types of material

PhotographsRealiaSports uniforms

Related collections: Mass Agricultural College (1863-1931), UMass students

Jansen, Isabel

Isabel Jansen Papers

ca.1950-1985

12.5 boxes 19 linear feet

Call no.: MS 613

A Registered Nurse and surgical assistant at Marquette University Medical and Dental Schools, Isabel Jansen was a long-time opponent of fluoridation of drinking water. In 1949, her hometown of Antigo, Wisconsin, became one of the first in the state to put fluorides in its water supply. Jansen emerged as a prominent voice in opposition, arguing that fluorides had a cumulative toxic effect when ingested over a long period, and using public health data, she concluded that fluoridation was strongly correlated with an increase in mortality from heart disease and with a variety of other deleterious health effects. In 1960, she succeeded in ending fluoridation, however after a follow up survey showed a dramatic rise in tooth decay, Antigo residents voted five years later to reintroduce fluoride. Jansen has continued a vigorous resistance, publishing a series of articles on the public health impact and Fluoridation : A Modern Procrustean Practice (1990) and .

The Jansen Papers include a range of correspondence, newsclippings, articles, and notes regarding Isabel Jansen’s long struggle against the fluoridation of drinking water.

Gift of Richard M. Bevis, Jan. 2010

Subjects

Antifluoridation movement--WisconsinFluorides–Environmental aspectsFluorides–Toxicology

Contributors

Jansen, Isabel

Related collections: Antifluoridation, Environment, Medical

Crouch, Rebecca

Rebecca Crouch Papers

ca.1936-1986

1 box 0.5 linear feet

Call no.: MS 602

Finding aid

In the late 1870s, a middle-aged farmer from Richmond, Minnesota, Samuel Crouch, married a woman eleven years his junior and asked her to relocate to the northern plains. Possessed of some solid self-confidence, Rebecca left behind her family a friends and set out to make a life for herself, adjusting to her new role as step-mother and community member, as well as the familiar role of family member at a distance.

The Crouch Papers includes approximately 225 letters offering insight into life in Minnesota during the late 1870s and early 1880s, and into the domestic and social life of a woman entering into a new marriage with an older man. Rebecca’s letters are consumed with the ebb and flow of daily life, her interactions with other residents of the community at church or in town, the weather, and chores from cooking to cleaning, farming, gardening, writing, going to town, or rearranging furniture.

Subjects

Farmers--MinnesotaMinnesota--Social life and customs--19th centuryWomen--Minnesota

Contributors

Crouch, RebeccaJones, SarahLoomis, Emma

Types of material

Letters (Correspondence)

Related collections: Farming & rural life, Women

Katzman, Lillian Hyman

Lillian Hyman Katzman Papers

1952-1989

1 box 0.25 linear feet

Call no.: MS 611

Digital

Finding aid

When Lillian Hyman volunteered to work with the Democratic Party in New York City in 1948, she was sent over to the office of W.E.B. Du Bois to assist him with some secretarial work. From that beginning, she was hired as a secretary, remaining in Du Bois’s employ for several years until she, regretfully, left for higher pay. Hyman later earned her masters degree and taught in the public schools in New York, starting the first class for children diagnosed with brain injury.

The Katzman Papers contains a series of letters and postcards sent by Du Bois during the early 1950s when Hyman worked as his secretary. Friendly and informal, they concern lecture tours by Du Bois and his wife, Shirley Graham, out west, and arrangements for his home at Grace Court in Brooklyn. The collection also includes a handful of publications by Du Bois, newspaper clippings, and some congratulatory letters to Hyman on her marriage.

Gift of Carol L. Goldstein, April 2009

Contributors

Du Bois, Shirley Graham, 1896-1977Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963Katzman, Lillian Hyman

Related collections: African American, Du Bois, W.E.B.

Bunton, Alice Bice

Alice Bice Bunton Collection

1979-1993

1 box 1 linear feet

Call no.: PH 018

Part of: Association for Gravestone Studies Collection

Depiction of Timothy Lindall, Salem, Mass., 1699 — Timothy Lindall, Salem, Mass., 1699

A local historian from Bethany, Connecticut, Alice Bice Bunton (1924-2000) was a long-time member of the Association for Gravestone Studies. Author of a book on the historic houses of Bethany in 1972, she attended AGS conferences regularly beginning in the late 1970s. Bunton died on October 18, 2000, at the age of 75.

Many of Bunton’s photographs documenting cemeteries in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey were taken during tours associated with the AGS annual conferences. Also included in the collection are AGS conference brochures and other printed material, newspaper clippings, grave rubbings, and a small amount of correspondence.

Subjects

Sepulchral monuments--ConnecticutSepulchral monuments--MassachusettsSepulchral monuments--New JerseyStone carving--ConnecticutStone carving--Massachusetts

Contributors

Association for Gravestone StudiesBunton Alice Bice

Types of material

PhotographsRubbings

Related collections: Connecticut, Gravestones, Massachusetts, Photographs

Benes, Peter

Peter Benes Collection

ca.1975-1986

1 box 1 linear feet

Call no.: PH 017

Part of: Association for Gravestone Studies Collection

Depiction of Soule Fishwing — Soule Fishwing

Peter Benes might be called the father of the Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS). In 1976, he organized a meeting in Dublin, New Hampshire, of people interested in colonial gravestones, naming the group the Dublin Seminar. Following a committee meeting in December 1976, the group met again in the summer 1977 to organize as the AGS. Benes served as Treasurer in 1977 and Archives Officer in 1978. He received the Forbes Award of the AGS in 1979 for his role in founding the organization and in recognition of the contributions made to gravestone studies by his first book, The Masks of Orthodoxy: Folk Gravestone Carving in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1689-1805 (1977). He is currently (2009) Director of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife at Boston University.

The Benes Collection contains 2,826 black and white photographic prints documenting a majority of the eighteenth century grave markers in southeastern Massachusetts, taken for his book The Masks of Orthodoxy. The images were taken in Plymouth and surrounding counties.

Subjects

Sepulchral monuments--MassachusettsStone carving--Massachusetts

Contributors

Association for Gravestone StudiesBenes, Peter

Types of material

Photographs

Related collections: Gravestones, Photographs

Association for Gravestone Studies

Association for Gravestone Studies Collection

1975-2008

46 collections

Call no.: MS 610

Digital (+)

Founded in 1977, the Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) is an international organization dedicated to the study and preservation of gravestones of all periods and styles. Based in Greenfield, Mass., the AGS sponsors conferences, workshops and exhibits, and publishes an annual journal, Markers, and quarterly bulletin. Their mission is to promote the study of gravestones from historical and artistic perspectives, expand public awareness of the significance of historic grave markers, and encourage individuals and groups to record and preserve gravestones.

The AGS Collection consists of the central records of the organization plus a growing number of photographic archives of gravestone art donated by members and associates. Offering critical documentation of gravestones, tombs, and cemeteries throughout the country, but especially New England.

Collections include:

Or View all

Gift of the Association for Gravestone Studies, 2009-2017

The AGS publications, Markers
and Newsletter of the AGS are digitized and available online through Credo

Subjects

Sepulchral monumentsStone carving

Contributors

Association for Gravestone Studies

Related collections: Gravestones, New England