Collections: A

Founded in 1977, the Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) is an international organization dedicated to furthering the study and preservation of gravestones. Based in Greenfield, Mass., the Association promotes the study of gravestones from historical and artistic perspectives. To raise public awareness about the significance of historic gravemarkers and the issues surrounding their preservation, the AGS sponsors conferences and workshops, publishes both a quarterly newsletter and annual journal, Markers, and has built an archive of collections documenting gravestones and the memorial industry.

The AGS collection contains scarce, out of print, and rare printed works on cemeteries and graveyards, epitaphs and inscriptions, and gravemarkers, with an emphasis on North America. The AGS Books Collection also includes the AGS publication, Markers. The collection is divided into three series: Series 1 (Monographs and Offprints), Series 2 (Theses and Dissertations), and Series 3 (AGS Publications).

View: AGS Quarterly Newsletters

View: AGS Conference programs

View: Markers: Journal of the AGS

View: the catalogued books

Members of the Association for Gravestone Studies are actively engaged in research, documentation, and writing about gravemarkers of all periods and styles. Interests within the membership range from the historical, artistic, and cultural aspects of gravestones to preservation and conservation, and the records they produce run the gamut from photography to maps, rubbings, databases, and articles for both scholarly and popular audiences.

This collection consists of small aggregations of material relating to gravestone studies that have been collocated and organized in keeping with the provenance: larger assemblages are maintained as distinct collections. Among the donors represented are (Box 1) Judith Auth, Jim Jewell, Ellen Kosmer, James Slater, James Smith, and Richard F. Welch; (Box 2): Coolidge, Cranes, Forbes, Harte (from the New England Historical and Genealogical Society), and (not yet mapped) Dorothy Annesser, Janet Bartow, Ruth Cowell, Robert Emlen, Marion Epperson, Lindsey Fisher, Jo Goeselt, Elna Headberg, Bill Jordan, Keene Elementary School, Andy Meier, Patricia Roberts, Edith Sparling, Mary Frances Stewart, Sally Thomas, Marjorie Waterfield, Phyllis Weatherall, and Algona Winslow.

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.

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

The largest division of the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is an organization of information professionals employed in the wide variety of academic libraries. In 1972, the ACRL authorized formation of regional chapters, including one in New England, as a means of supporting professional growth among academic and research librarians by sponsoring workshops, conferences, and other opportunities for learning, consultation, and collaboration.

Representing over forty years of records of a regional chapter of the ACRL, this collection offers thorough documentation. The collection includes a nearly complete run of bulletins, information on the organization and administration of the chapter, and some “historical” materials gathered for the chapter’s tenth anniversary.

Temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA to request materials from this collection.

Begun in 1978 by the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, The Independent is a leading source of information for independent, grassroots, and activist media-makers. Published monthly, The Independent carries articles and criticism on documentary and independent films and fulfills an important role in providing inspiration and connections for the independent media community. Although the AIVF shut its doors in July 2006, suspending print publication of The Independent, Independent Media Publications acquired the rights to the publications and archives of The Independent Film & Video Monthly in 2007 and will continue the journal online.

In addition to a nearly complete run of The Independent, now fully digitized, the collection contains the surviving editorial and production records for the journal.

View the Indendent online

This collection consists chiefly of published booklets and reports documenting land use and preservation in Massachusetts and across New England. As a member of the Rural Development Committee (RDC), Bob August was involved in improving the effectiveness of public and private rural development efforts. Correspondence, reports, and minutes for other groups, such as the Lower Pioneer Valley Reginal Planning Commission and the Committee on Development of Western Massachusetts, are also part of the collection.

An historian and educator, Samuel Austin (1816-1897) was known for his long association with the Friends Boarding School in Providence, R.I. (later renamed the Moses Brown School). An alumnus who married an alumna, Elizabeth H. Osborn, Austin taught at the Boarding school for decades and was instrumental in gathering and preserving documents relating to the school. He wrote and lectured regularly on the history of Friends’ education and on the Boarding School, and its noted teachers and alumni.

A product of the historical work of Samuel Austin, the collection contains both essays, notes, and talks on the Friends’ Boarding School in Providence and on Moses and Obadiah Brown, and some significant original documents used by Austin in his research. Noteworthy among the original materials are a fascinating series of records from monthly and quarterly meetings in and near Rhode Island, mostly in 1787-1793; a rich series of epistles received by Smithfield Monthly Meeting from other meetings in New England (1718-1767); some key printed epistles from Yearly Meetings, including those on war (London, New England, and Philadelphia Yearly) and slavery (London and Philadelphia). Of equal note are a series of letters from Elisha Thornton (a New Bedford merchant, educator, and antislavery advocate), a lengthy letter on doctrine from John Wilbur, and a 1765 sermon from Rachel Wilson.

This collection consists of periodicals on the subject of the autoharp and folk song education. Autoharp Quarterly was published out of Pennsylvania with quarterly issues until summer of 2021. It was edited by Mary Lou Orthery and Ivan Stiles. It features letters, songs and tablature, and columns called “‘Harpers at Large” and “Auto-suggestion,” which includes tips from readers. Autoharp Teachers Digest was published out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and edited by Jacalyn Post. Most issues, which are two or three pages, include a lesson plan with some tablature. Autoharpoholic was edited by Becky Blackley, the author of The Authoharp Book (1983), published by i.a.d, in Brisbane, CA. Folksong in the Classroom was a newsletter established in 1979 by members of the American Historical Association’s Committee on History in the Classroom, led by Laurence I. Seidman, a folklorist and professor at Post College, New York. It was issued three times a year, and reached an audience composed primarily of upper elementary, junior high, and high school teachers. It was self-published, edited by John A. Scott of the Fieldston School (New York) and Rutgers University (NJ); and Laurence I. Seidman. Each issue has a themed section, such as Lullabies or “Teaching about Slavery through Folk Song,” with historical background information and songs, including lyrics and music, and sample lesson plans. Issues also include correspondence with readers, and lists of useful resources for classroom teachers like books and workshop offerings.

Arlene Avakian arrived at UMass in 1972 as a graduate student working on the social history of American women, but quickly became a key figure in the creation of the university’s new program in Women’s Studies. As she completed her MA in History (1975) and EdD (1985), she helped in the early organization of the program, later joining the faculty as professor and program director. Through her research and teaching, she contributed to an engaging departmental culture in which the intersection of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality were placed at the center, building the program over the course of 35 years into the nationally-recognized Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Avakian has written and taught on topics ranging from the lives and experiences of Armenian American and African American women to culinary history and the construction of whiteness. She retired in May 2011.
Documenting the growth and development of Women’s Studies at UMass Amherst, the collection includes valuable material on the creation of the department (and Women’s Studies more generally), second- and third-wave feminism, and Avakian’s teaching and research. The collection includes a range of correspondence, memoranda, notes, and drafts of articles, along with several dozen oral historical interviews with Armenian American women. Also noteworthy is the extensive documentation of ABODES, the Amherst Based Organization to Develop Equitable Shelter, which established the Pomeroy Lane Cooperative Housing Community in South Amherst in 1994.

Born in December 1931, Friedrich Karl Azzola fled with his family to Germany in 1944. Settling in the state of Hesse, he earned a degree in chemistry at the University of Giessen and doctorate at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in 1965. After five years in the chemical industry, he was called to the Fachhochschule Wiesbaden-Russelsheim as professor, teaching chemistry and materials science to engineers until his retirement in 1997. Beginning in the 1950s, Azzola earned a wide reputation for his research on gravemarkers and “cemetery culture,” publishing widely on Medieval and early modern monuments in Germany.

Part of the Association for Gravestone Studies Collection, the Azzola collection consists of a run of Friedhof und Denkmal (2000-2009, with a few earlier issues), along with a suite of offprints of articles and pamphlets by Azzola and others on cemeteries and gravemarkers.