Collections: mss

Labor educator Mark Starr first became interested in the potential of the constructed language, Esperanto, for promoting peace and international understanding while serving time in prison for conscientious objection during the First World War. A career in labor led him to immigrate to the United States in 1928, where he taught at a labor college in New York before becoming the educational director for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Long active in the Esperanto movement, he joined the Esperanto Information Center when it was founded by Bernard Stollman in 1962 and served as its chair from 1965 to 1972. As the New York Office of the Esperanto League of North America, the EIC played a key role in promoting the movement in the United States and sharing information among supporters and aspiring learners.

Meticulously maintained by Starr during his tenure as chair, the EIC records include a rich correspondence with local and regional Esperanto organizations and national and international affiliates, and particularly its parent body, the Esperanto League for North America. While much of the content consists of routine communications about membership, queries from learners, and organizational wrangling about meetings, conferences, and publications, the collection provides insight into the grassroots organizing and lobbying for the language and its roots in internationalism, peace, and social justice concerns. Written in both Esperanto and English, the collection includes letters (retained copies as well as received) and articles by Starr and other noted Esperantists, including Allan Boschen, Francis Hellmuth, and Humphrey Tonkin.

The Esperanto League for North America was founded in Emeryville, Calif., in 1952 as an affiliate of the Universal Esperanto Association. Operating primarily within the United Sates, the League serves as a point of connection and education for speakers of Esperanto, an international constructed language, and holds annual congresses for speakers at all levels of fluency. The League adopted the informal name Esperanto-USA in 2007, though officially retaining Esperanto League for North America.

The records of the Esperanto League for North America (Esperanto USA) are an important resource for documenting the growth and development of the Esperanto movement in the United States from the end of the First World War to the present. Varied in both scope and content, the collection includes a significant body of correspondence from ELNA officers, documentation of world and natioanl congresses, and a range of publications promoting the League and language. Of particular note, the collection includes several hurdred audiocassette tapes distributed by ELNA, including tapes for Esperanto learners, recordings of Esperanto conversations, music, recordings of Esperanto congresses, and Esperanto radio broadcasts from Switzerland, Poland, and China.

The Esperanto League for North America (ELNA) was founded in Sacramento, California in 1952 as an affiliate of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA). Operating primarily within the United States, the League serves as a point of connection and education for speakers of Esperanto, an international constructed language, and holds annual national congresses for speakers at all levels of fluency. The League adopted the alias Esperanto-USA in 2007, though officially retaining the official name Esperanto League for North America.

The records of the Esperanto League for North America (Esperanto-USA) are an important resource for documenting the growth and development of the Esperanto movement in the United States from the end of the First World War to the present. The collection also includes material from the Esperanto Association of North America (EANA), which was founded in 1905 but dissolved after ELNA was established in protest of EANA’s president’s political controversies. Varied in both scope and content, the collection includes a significant body of correspondence from ELNA officers, documentation of world and national congresses, and a range of publications promoting the League and language. Of particular note, the collection includes several hundred audiocassette tapes distributed by ELNA, including tapes for Esperanto learners, recordings of Esperanto conversations, music, recordings of Esperanto congresses, and Esperanto radio broadcasts from Switzerland, Poland, and China.

Joseph W. Estey was the owner of a farm in Greenwich, Massachusetts with a grist and sawmill. The account book (started in Springfield and Ludlow, Massachusetts with his business partner Abner Putnam) documents business dealings, hired male and female help, personal and farm expenses (hiring tanners and blacksmiths), and a deed.

A pioneer in arts programs in community development, Maryo Gard Ewell is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College with masters degrees from Yale (1972) and the University of Colorado Denver (1992). Beginning her career with arts councils in Connecticut, Ewell went on to become leadership positions wih the Illinois Arts Council and the Colorado Council on the Arts (1982-2003). A co-author of the influential The Arts in the Small Community (2006), she is a sought-after speaker and collaborator, serving as a board member and consultant for arts agencies across the country. Among other awards, she has been recognized with the “Arts Are The Heart Award” in Colorado; an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Goucher College; and the Selina Roberts Ottum Award from Americans for the Arts (1995). Since retiring in 2003, Ewell has remained active as a consultant, educator, and speaker.

This collection contains materials relating to two significant developments in the history of of community arts in the United States: records relating to how selected states decentralized arts funding in 1970s, and to early efforts of the National Endowment for the Arts to create a program to serve local arts agencies from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s. In addition, there are records documenting a project, commissioned by Americans for the Arts in 2007, to trace the history of community arts councils from the first in 1948 through the 1960s when the National Endowment for the Humanities was formed.

The radiologist Frederick Exner settled in the Pacific Northwest after receiving his MD from the University of Minnesota in 1927. Concerned about proposals to fluoridate water in Seattle, he and his collaborator George Waldbott became national figures in opposing fluoridation by the early 1950s and for decades, were considered among the most effective scientific voices in the movement. A prolific writer and lecturer, Exner is particularly remembered for his influential book, The American Fluoridation Experiment (1957), co-written with Waldbott.

The Exner collection contains a number of mimeographed and printed articles by Exner on the environmental dangers and toxic effects of fluoride, dating from the early years of the antifluoridation movement.

Owner of a livery stable in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Includes lists of stabler activities, customers (individuals and businesses), and employed ostlers. Also contains method of payment (cash and services), and one labor account for Fred Berry, a nineteen year old Afro-American who was one of three ostlers living in Faber’s household at the time.

Members of the Fall River Loom Fixers Association included some of the most skilled workers in the New England textile industry. The association, on behalf of its members, sought to improve poor working conditions, to provide assistance for members affected by pay reductions or layoffs, and to intervene in conflicts between members and management. The union also served a social function, organizing parades, social gatherings, and excursions. In the 1910s it became affiliated with the United Textile Workers for America.

Records of the Loom Fixers Association include executive committee minutes (1900-1901 and 1911-1917), a treasurer’s book (1901-1905), and six dues books (1895-1907).

Part of the Society of Friends’ New England Yearly Meeting, Falmouth Quarterly Meeting was set off from Salem Quarter in 1794 and has subsequently given rise to quarterlies in Vassalboro (1813) and Parsonsfield (1888-1938).

With the majority of records for Falmouth Quarterly Meeting housed at the Maine Historical Society, SCUA maintains records that include only the minutes from 1988 to 1996, and records of Ministry and Counsel, 1965-1988, with a small gap near that end.

After eight years as a Quaker worship group, Farmington Monthly Meeting was set off from Pondtown in 1991, becoming one of the newest members of Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting. Worship at Farmington is unprogammed.

Particularly for the early years, minutes for the Farmington Monthly Meeting were recorded (or preserved) somewhat irregularly, though continuously from 1984 to 2012. The collection also contains a set of state of the society reports. information on membership, and memorials.