The University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Collections: B

Brinley Family

Brinley Family Papers

1643-1950
4.75 linear feet
Call no.: MS 161
Depiction of Deborah Brinley and infant son Francis, 1729<br />Copy by Charles U. Bond (1830)<br />after John Smibert
Deborah Brinley and infant son Francis, 1729
Copy by Charles U. Bond (1830)
after John Smibert

A prosperous family of merchants and landowners, the Brinleys were well ensconced among the social and political elite of colonial New England. Connected by marriage to other elite families in Rhode Island and Massachusetts — the Auchmutys, Craddocks, and Tyngs among them — the Brinleys were refined, highly educated, public spirited, and most often business-minded. Although many members of the family remained loyal to the British cause during the Revolution, the family retained their high social standing in the years following.

The Brinley collection includes business letters, legal and business records, wills, a fragment of a diary, documents relating to slaves, newspaper clippings, and a small number of paintings and artifacts. A descendent, Nancy Brinley, contributed a quantity of genealogical research notes and photocopies of Brinley family documents from other repositories. Of particular note in the collection is a fine nineteenth century copy of a John Smibert portrait of Deborah Brinley (1719), an elegant silver tray passed through the generations, and is a 1713 list of the library of Francis Brinley, which offers a foreshadowing of the remarkable book collection put together in the later nineteenth century by his descendant George Brinley.

Subjects

American loyalists--MassachusettsBook collectors--United States--History--19th centuryBrinley familyBrinley, George, 1817-1875--LibraryBusinessmen--Massachusetts--HistoryBusinessmen--Rhode Island--HistoryCraddock familyLandowners--Massachusetts--HistoryLandowners--Rhode Island--HistoryLibraries--Rhode Island--18th centuryMassachusetts--Economic conditions--18th centuryMassachusetts--Politics and government--19th centuryRhode Island--Economic conditions--18th centuryRhode Island--GenealogyRhode Island--Politics and government--19th centurySlavery--United States--HistoryTyng familyUnited Empire Loyalists

Types of material

DeedsRealia
Brinsfield, Mark

Mark Brinsfield Poster Collection

1979-1994
53 items 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 854
Depiction of Wer Kohl wählt, wählt Reagan
Wer Kohl wählt, wählt Reagan

Mark Taylor Brinsfield studied languages and law in Europe before receiving his MA in European Studies at the University of Exeter. His research has included work in the history of multiracial people in post-World War II Southeast Asia. Brinsfield currently lives in Northampton, Mass.

The posters in the Brinsfield Collection represent a cross-section of West German political campaigning during the decade leading up to reunification. Focused primarily on national, rather than regional elections, the collection includes representative work from the major left- and right-leaning political parties (CDU and RCDS, SDU, the Greens) as well as a few posters addressed at major political issues, including the antinuclear and antiwar movements.

Language(s): German

Subjects

Antinuclear movements--GermanyAntiwar movements--GermanyChristlich-Demokratische Union DeutschlandsGermany--History --1945-1990Germany--Politics and government--1945-1990Grünen (Political party)Ring Christlich-Demokratischer StudentenSozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands

Contributors

Staeck, Klaus

Types of material

Posters
Broadside

Broadside and Poster Collection

1798-2012
5 folders, tube 1 linear feet
Call no.: RB 034
Depiction of Advertisement for E. S. Hayden's daguerreotypes, ca.1850
Advertisement for E. S. Hayden's daguerreotypes, ca.1850

Printers and bibliographers use a bevy of terms to refer to works printed on one side (or sometimes both sides) of a single sheet, classified primarily by size. From large to small, posters, broadsides, and fliers refer to works used to convey a more or less focused message to an audience, often using illustrations or inventive typography to grab the attention.

Posters from Communist world, with an emphasis on the political and cultural transformations of the late 1980s through mid-1990s. The majority of posters originated in the Soviet Union, although there are examples from East Germany, China, and elsewhere.

Gift of various donors
Language(s): YiddishRussian

Subjects

Antiwar movements--PostersCommunism--PostersSoviet Union--History--1985-1991Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements--Posters

Types of material

Broadsheets (Formats)Broadsides (Notices)Fliers (Printed matter)Posters
Broadside (Cambridge, Mass.)

Broadside (Cambridge, Mass.) Collection

1962-1968
1 box 1.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1014
Depiction of Bill Keith on the cover of Broadside, Feb. 1, 1967
Bill Keith on the cover of Broadside, Feb. 1, 1967

When The Broadside first appeared in March 1962, it immediately became a key resource for folk musicians and fans in New England. Written by and for members of the burgeoning scene, The Broadside was a central resource for information on folk performances and venues and throughout the region, covering coffeehouses, concert halls, festivals, and radio and television appearances.

Assembled by Folk New England, the collection contains a complete run of the Boston- and Cambridge-based folk music periodical, The Broadside, with the exception of the first issue, which has been supplied in photocopy.

Gift of Folk New England, Oct. 2017

Subjects

Folk music--New England--PeriodicalsPopular music--New England--Periodicals

Contributors

Wilson, David

Types of material

Periodicals
Broadside Press

Broadside Press Collection

1965-1984
1 box, 110 vols. 3.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 571
Depiction of Broadside 6
Broadside 6

The printed works are temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA to request printed materials from this collection.

A significant African American poet of the generation of the 1960s, Dudley Randall was an even more significant publisher of emerging African American poets and writers. Publishing works by important writers from Gwendolyn Brooks to Haki Madhubuti, Alice Walker, Etheridge Knight, Audre Lorde, Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, and Sonia Sanchez, his Broadside Press in Detroit became an important contributor to the Black Arts Movement.
The Broadside Press Collection includes approximately 200 titles published by Randall’s press during its first decade of operation, the period of its most profound cultural influence. The printed works are divided into five series, Broadside poets (including chapbooks, books of poetry, and posters), anthologies, children’s books, the Broadside Critics Series (works of literary criticism by African American authors), and the Broadsides Series. . The collection also includes a selection of items used in promoting Broadside Press publications, including a broken run of the irregularly published Broadside News, press releases, catalogs, and fliers and advertising cards.

Gift of the Friends of the W.E.B. Du Bois Libraries, Aug. 2008

Subjects

African American poetsAfrican American writersBlack Arts MovementPoetry

Contributors

Broadside PressBrooks, Gwendolyn, 1917-2000Emanuel, James AGiovanni, NikkiKnight, EtheridgeMadhubuti, Haki R., 1942-Randall, Dudley, 1914-Sanchez, Sonia, 1934-

Types of material

BroadsidesEphemeraPosters
Brock, Eric J.

Eric J. Brock Collection

1957-1995
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 693

A consulting architectural historian and urban planner based in Shreveport, Louisiana, Eric J. Brock was born in San Francisco, California, but with deep family roots in New York, New England, and the coastal Deep South. The author of sixteen books and several hundred popular and academic journal articles on Louisiana history, Brock is a member of the board and former president of the Oakland Cemetery Preservation Society of Shreveport, a former board member of the Louisiana Preservation Alliance, a member of Save Our Cemeteries of New Orleans, of Friends of New Orleans Cemeteries, and a current or former member of multiple preservation and museum organizations. Brock has a deep interest in cemetery preservation and in the multi-faceted role of cemeteries as archives of architectural, historical, genealogical, and artistic importance and as benchmarks of cultural change and development.

With an emphasis on New Orleans and Shreveport, the Brock collection consists primarily of articles and newsclippings on Jewish and other Louisiana cemeteries.

Subjects

Cemeteries--LouisianaJewish cemeteries--Louisiana

Contributors

Brock, Eric J.
Broderick, Warren F.

Warren F. Broderick Photograph Collection

1982-1983
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: PH 028

A senior archives and records management specialist at the New York State Archives, Warren F. Broderick has published extensively on topics ranging from gravestone carving to the history of the upper Hudson River Valley. He is co-author of Pottery Works (1995), editor of a new edition of Granville Hicks’s Small Town (2004), and a contributor of numerous journal articles of historical subjects.

The Broderick Collection includes photographs of tombstones in Old Catholic Cemeteries in, Lansingburgh and Lebanon Springs, N.Y., and St. Josephs Cemetery, Pittsfield, Mass. The collection includes a folder of slides taken of St. Josephs Cemetery by Barbara Rotundo.

Subjects

Sepulchral monuments--MassachusettsSepulchral monuments--New YorkStone carving--New York

Contributors

Association for Gravestone StudiesBroderick, Warren F

Types of material

Photographs
Brookfield (Mass.). Selectmen

Brookfield (Mass.) Records

1736-1795
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 595

Settled in 1660 and incorporated in 1718, the town of Brookfield (Worcester County) straddles the Boston Post Road, one of the major arteries during the colonial period connecting Boston with the towns of the Connecticut River Valley and New York.

This assemblage of documents from the town of Brookfield consists primarily of warrants for town meetings, many with agendas, issued through the local constable. Concentrated in the 1770s, these warrants provide relatively detailed information on matters of local importance, including town finances, tax assessments, contributions to the poor house, roadways, and property disputes. During the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary years, however, issues of interest to the town were often wrapped up in regional or national political issues. Town freeholders, for example, were called to consider requests to “come into any Vote or Resolve Respecting the East India Company Tea,” the encouragement of manufacture of firearms, smallpox inoculation, and pay for the town’s Minute Men.

Subjects

Brookfield (Mass.)--History--18th centurySmallpoxUnited States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783

Contributors

Forster, Jedediah

Types of material

Warrants
Brooks Farm

Summer Scenes, Brooke Farm, 1922

1922-1923
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: PH 037
Depiction of Haying at MAC
Haying at MAC

In 1922, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts appropriated $15,000 for the Massachusetts Agricultural College to purchase sixty acres of land lying immediately north of the existing Experiment Station. Known as the William P. Brooks Experimental Farm, the property was intended as a site for experimental work devoted to the dominant crops of the Connecticut Valley, tobacco and onions.

This small homemade photograph album documents a picnic and group outing at the Brooke (i.e. Brooks) Farm at Massachusetts Agricultural College in September 1922. Although the participants — over thirty of them — are unidentified, they took part in standard picnic activities, including a tug of war, three legged race, and rope jumping. The album contains labeled snapshots pasted onto thick brown paper, tied with a brown ribbon, and includes images of haying on the farm (with Stockbridge Hall in the background) and the homes of William P. Brooks and Prof. Arthur N. Julian.

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--PhotographsBrooks Experimental Farm (Amherst, Mass.)HayMassachusetts Agricultural College--PhotographsPicnics--Photographs

Contributors

Fay, Harry W.

Types of material

Photograph albumsPhotographs
Brooks, Burt V.

Burt V. Brooks Photograph Collection

1889-1934
3 boxes 1.5 linear feet
Call no.: PH 060
Depiction of

The artist Burt Vernon Brooks was one of the outstanding chroniclers of daily life in the Swift River Valley before it was inundated to create the Quabbin Reservoir. Born in Brimfield, Mass., in 1849 and raised in Monson, Brooks moved to Greenwich with his family in the 1870s, where he worked on the family farm. At some unclear point before he turned 40, Brooks became active as an artist, painting local homes and scenery and taking photographs of the landscape, residents, and daily life in the Quabbin region. A prolific photographer, he was, in the words of historian Donald W. Howe, “hardly ever seen without his camera strapped to his back,” remaining active for decades. Three years after following his second wife to the west, Brooks died in Los Angeles in 1934.

The great majority of the 92 photographs in this collection are 5×7″ dry plate glass negatives taken by Brooks in the earliest years of the twentieth century, documenting the houses and people of Greenwich. Brooks’ work includes landscapes, houses, and a significant series of images of the Hillside School, but some of his best works are studio portraits, images of people at home or with their carriages, and posed scenes of children at play or at work. The collection also includes eight images by Brooks at Enfield, Greenwich, and Dana that are the property of the Swift River Valley Historical Society, and six images taken by Chetwynd and Pike in the Quabbin region to document properties slated for removal.

Gift of Friends of Quabbin through Gene Theroux, Paul Godfrey, and Les Campbell, June 2014

Subjects

Agriculture--Massachusetts--Greenwich--PhotographsCarriages and carts--Massachusetts--Greenwich--PhotographsChildren--Massachusetts--Greenwich--PhotographsDana (Mass.)--PhotographsDwellings--Massachusetts--Greenwich--PhotographsEnfield (Mass.)--PhotographsGreenwich (Mass.)--PhotographsHillside School (Marlborough, Mass.)Horses--Massachusetts--Greenwich--PhotographsNew Salem (Mass.)--PhotographsPlowing--Massachusetts--Greenwich--PhotographsPrescott (Mass.)--Photographs

Types of material

Dry plate gelatin negativesGelatin silver negativesPhotographs