The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collections: mss

Conley, Brian A.

Brian A. Conley Collection

1974-1994
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 692

An historian and archivist from northern Virginia, Brian A. Conley spent years studying the cemeteries of his native Fairfax County.

The collection contains final and draft copies of Conley’s Guide to the Cemeteries of Fairfax County, Virginia (1994), along with a small number of printed works on Virginia cemeteries or other resources used in his research.

Gift of Brian Conley to the AGS, 2008, transferred to SCUA, 2010

Subjects

Cemeteries--VirginiaSepulchral monuments--Virginia
Connecticut River Watershed

Connecticut River Watershed Survey Reports

1949-1950
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 067

The US Department of Agriculture was already actively engaged in water control and management issues prior to the enactment of the Flood Control Acts of 1936 and 1944. Pursuant to the 1936 Act, and the extensive flooding of 1936 and 1938, the USDA conducted an extensive survey of the Connecticut River Watershed.

Issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1950 in compliance with the Flood Control Act of 1936, these flood reports present the results of a survey and the outline of a program of land use and management developed to alleviate flood and sediment problems in Connecticut River Watershed. The collection includes both a preliminary draft (in typescript) and completed report and appendix of the survey, with the final reports marked “Confidential. For Departmental review only.”

Subjects

Connecticut RiverFlood control--Connecticut RiverGroundwater flow--Connecticut River WatershedRunoff--Connecticut River Watershed
Connecticut Valley Breeders Association

Connecticut Valley Breeders Association Records

1908-1947 Bulk: 1908-1930
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 425

Established in Northampton, Mass., in May 1908, the Connecticut Valley Breeders Association was part of the burgeoning Progressive-era movement to apply scientific principles to improve agriculture. In its charter, the CVBA announced the ambitious goal of promoting “the live stock development of the Connecticut Valley and as far as possible the entire New England states in every way as affecting its educational, economic, legislative, health or other influences.” Led by Oren C. Burt of Easthampton, and George E. Taylor of Shelburne (its first President), it sponsored lectures and other information sessions that attracted as many as 500 attendees at its peak of popularity. Although the organization appears to have waned in the period of the First World War, it was revived in 1925 and four years later, the new Hampshire Herd Improvement Association assumed many of its functions.

This slender ledger records the minutes of the Connecticut Valley Breeders Association from its founding in 1908 through about 1930. In addition to the constitution and by-laws of both the CVBA and HHIA, the ledger includes minutes of the organizations’ meetings from 1908-1930, with a gap from 1916-1925. The collection is accompanied by a U.S. Department of Agriculture pamphlet, Cow Testers Handbook (1924).

Subjects

Cattle--Breeding

Contributors

Burt, Oren C.Connecticut Valley Breeders AssociationHampshire Herd Improvement AssociationTaylor, George E.

Types of material

Minute books
Connett, Paul, Ellen, and Michael

Paul, Ellen, and Michael Connett Anti-Fluoridation Collection

1950-2016 Bulk: 2000-2015
6.5 8 linear feet
Call no.: 1170
"Fluoride, Don't Swallow It" bumper sticker
Fluoride Action Network bumper sticker

In 1996, Paul Connett was persuaded by his wife Ellen to investigate the controversial practice of water fluoridation. In 2000, he was one of the founders of the Fluoride Action Network which he directed for 15 years (2000-2015). In 2003, Paul gave an invited presentation to a panel appointed by the US National Research Council, which published a landmark review of fluoride’s toxicity in 2006.

In 2010, with two other authors, James Beck, MD, PhD and Spedding Micklem, DPhil (Oxon), Connett published The Case Against Fluoride (Chelsea Green 2010).

Paul Connett is recognized as one of the most important anti-fluoride activist of the early 21st century. The collection consists of material generated during his work with the Fluoride Action Network, which includes the contributions of his wife Ellen and their son Michael. Michael is now a lawyer who has brought a case against the EPA over fluoride.

The collection contains newsletters, correspondence, scientific papers, legal documents, clippings, publications, photographs, audio and video recordings, and a collection of 3/4″ videotaped oral histories with leaders of the anti-fluoridation movement. Also contains material from Paul and Ellen’s involvement with Work on Waste, USA, the environmental group opposed to municipal solid waste incineration (see MS 767, Work on Waste USA, Inc. Records).

Gift of Michael Dolan, December 2021

Subjects

Antifluoridation movementWater--Fluoridation

Contributors

Connett, EllenConnett, Paul, 1940-

Types of material

CorrespondenceNewsletters
Restrictions: none none
Connie Jean

Connie Jean Diaries

1976-2007 Bulk: 1976-1983
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 596

Little is known about Connie Jean, a gender non-conforming woman assigned male at birth, other than that she was living in Lansdowne, in the western suburbs of Philadelphia, in the late 1970s and 1980s. For at least a decade, she was involved with, and lived with, another transgender woman, “Dick,” who had a wife and children before the two met. In her late 30s or early 40s in 1976, Connie Jean began venturing into public dressed as a woman, and after being stopped by police in April 1976, wrote “now they have my name and all the information on me knowing that I am a TV and cannot stop from doing it because I love it.” She later wrote that she wished Dick “was all female and not part woman when he has on all the clothes” adding that “it would be nice if he had all the equipment that a real woman has.” Both she and Dick apparently considered gender reassignment surgery in the early 1980s.

The two diaries (Feb.-July 1976 and July 1979 through Aug. 1983) and photographs in this small collection offer insight into the lives of a gender non-conforming woman and her partner in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The earliest entries consist of cryptic indications of whether she was staying at home on a given day or venturing into numbered “areas” marked on a map (not present), but by April 1976, the entries become much richer. The diaries make frequent reference to Connie Jean’s desire for dressing as a woman, her struggle to appear in public, and her support for Dick’s transition.

Acquired from Benjamin Katz, Jan. 2009 (2009-024)

Subjects

Transgender people--Pennsylvania

Types of material

DiariesPhotographs
Conor, V.

V. Conor Account Book

1887-1891
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 620 bd

Little is known about V. Conor, other than he traveled on unspecified business up and down the Connecticut River Valley during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

From the sketchy details surrounding this book of personal accounts, it appears that the author, identified tentatively by a name written on the front fly leaf, was based in Hartford, Conn., and traveled throughout western New England, often to Greenfield and Millers Falls, Mass. Dated between August 1887 and May 1891, the accounts are surprisingly detailed, recording the record keeper’s fondness for doughnuts, seasonal fruits, and the Opera House and Allyn Hall, and they record the range of foods and incidentals, daily trips, subscription to the Hartford Journal, piano rental, and visits to the Knights of Pythias and Red Men (presumably the Independent Order of Red Men or similar organization).

Subjects

Finance, Personal--ConnecticutHartford (Conn.)--Economic conditions--19th century

Contributors

Conor, V

Types of material

Account books
Constitutionalism in American Life Conference

Constitutionalism in American Life Conference Collection

1986
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 140

A conference hosted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst on November 7-9, 1986, that examined the impact of the Constitution on politics and government, foreign policy, race relations, and the economy, and also discussed the impact on the constitution of popular struggles and the emergence of “rights consciousness.” Includes papers presented at the conference that were to be subsequently published in a special bicentennial issue of the Journal of American History.

Subjects

Constitutional history--United States--CongressesConstitutional law--United States--CongressesJournal of American historyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--History
Conte, Silvio O. (Silvio Oltavio), 1921-1991

Silvio O. Conte Papers

1950-1991
389 boxes 583.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 371
Depiction of Silvio Conte, 1973
Silvio Conte, 1973

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

Massachusetts State Senator for the Berkshire District, 1950-1958, and representative for Massachusetts’s First District in the United States Congress for 17 terms, 1959-1991, where he made significant contributions in the areas of health and human services, the environment, education, energy, transportation, and small business.

Spanning four decades and eight presidents, the papers offer an extraordinary perspective on the major social, economic, and cultural changes experienced by the American people. Includes correspondence, speeches, press releases, bill files, his voting record, committee files, scrapbooks, travel files, audio-visual materials and over 5,000 photographs and slides.

Subjects

Massachusetts--Politics and government--1951-Massachusetts. SenateUnited States--Politics and government--20th centuryUnited States. Congress. House

Contributors

Conte, Silvio O. (Silvio Oltavio), 1921-1991

Types of material

PhotographsScrapbooksSound recordings
Cook Borden & Co.

Cook Borden and Co. Account Books

1863-1914
3 vols. 1.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 288 bd

Cook Borden (a great uncle of Lizzie Borden) and his sons were prosperous lumber dealers from Fall River, Massachusetts who supplied large mills and transportation companies in the region. Three volumes include lists of customers and building contractors, company and personal profits and losses, accounts for expenses, horses, harnesses, lumber, and the planing mill, as well as accounts indicating the cost of rent, labor (with the “teamers”), insurance, interest, and other items.

Subjects

Callahan, Daley & CoConstruction industry--Massachusetts--HistoryContractors--Massachusetts--HistoryCratesLumberLumber trade--Massachusetts--Fall River--Accounting--HistoryTextile factories--Massachusetts--HistoryTextile industry--MassachusettsTransportation--Massachusetts--HistoryWages--Manufacturing industries--Massachusetts

Contributors

Borden, Cook, 1810-Borden, JeromeBorden, Philip HBorden, Theodore WCook Borden & Co

Types of material

Account books
Cook, Lewis E.

Lewis E. Cook Papers

ca.1969-2015
ca.30 45 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1110

A resident of Circleville, Ohio, Lewis E. Cook began to study Esperanto seriously in 1969 and became an key member of the Esperanto Association of Central Ohio. Born in Marysville on October 31, 1935, and a graduate of Ohio University and the University of Madrid, he joined his father to form the Lewis E. Cook and Son Insurance Agency, becoming well known as an insurance agent and certified tax preparer. His passion in college and after was the study of language, including Esperanto, Spanish, German, and Arabic. He died September 20, 2014, in Grove City.

The papers of Lewis E. Cook offer insight into grassroots Esperantism, with a wealth of information on the Esperanto Association of Central Ohio and on efforts to spread the language regionally and nationally. The collection contains a large number of books in Esperanto, pamphlets, and periodicals, with a few boxes of Cook’s personal papers.

Gift of Carmen Rivero Cook, Dec. 2019
Language(s): Esperanto

Subjects

Esperanto