Collections: mss

Born in the coal mining town of Blossburg, Pa., in 1913, Laura Ross (nee Kaplowitz) grew up in poverty as one of seven children of Lithuanian immigrants. In about 1932, Ross married Harry Naddell, a wine merchant, and settled into a comfortable life Brooklyn, N.Y., raising a son and daughter. During the Second World War, however, she became intensely politicized through her work with Russian War Relief, joining the Communist Party and eventually divorcing her les radical husband. Moving to the Boston area, she married Max Ross in 1963, an attorney for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and became a noted presence in a wide range of political activities, working for civil rights, the antiwar movement, and for many years, helping to run the Center for Marxist Education in Central Square , Cambridge. Perhaps most notably, between 1974 and 1984, Ross ran for Congress three times on the Communist Party ticket, taking on the powerful incumbent Tip O’Neill and winning almost a quarter of the vote. An activist to the end, Ross died in Cambridge on August 5, 2007.

The Ross papers are the legacy of a highly visible activist, organizer, educator, and member of the Communist Party USA. Heavily concentrated in the period 1967-1990, the collection includes material relating to her affiliation with CPUSA and her work with the Center for Marxist Education in Cambridge, Mass., including information on party membership, platforms, and conventions, minutes from various district committee meetings, material relating to the People’s Daily World, and course information and syllabi. Scattered throughout the collection are materials pertaining to contemporary political issues and elections, particularly the policies associated with Ronald Reagan. Ross was a vocal and persistent opponent of Reaganomics and the nuclear arms race that Reagan accelerated.

Founded as a Unitarian camp in 1924 for high school students and later adding a junior high component in 1947, the Rowe Camp and Conference Center now offers retreat programs in a variety of areas, including health care, exploration of rituals and dreams, astronomy, and workshops for families, couples, men and women.

This collection consists of newspaper clippings and the Rowe Conference Center and camp annual bulletin.

Courier for the underground in Nazi occupied Poland during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising who was apprehended and placed in a concentration camp. After the war she and her husband moved from England to Holyoke, Massachusetts. Includes typescripts and photocopies of short stories; “Ameryce”, a booklet of poems; Poklosie, a book of poems published in Polish and English (Artex Press, 1987); audiotaped oral histories of Leokadia and Stanley Rowinski (primarily in Polish) done by their children; and photographs, audiotape, program and text of poems read at a public reading.

The Roxbury Action Program and Black Panther Party of Boston were both founded in the Roxbury section of Boston following the riots of 1968. RAP pursued community revitalization through Black self-determination and enjoyed success in its housing initiatives and in providing social services ranging from support for Black businesses to Black draft counseling, health and legal referrals, a Black library, and community awareness program.

Although the exact provenance of this small collection is uncertain, the materials appear to have been collected by an individual, possibly a woman, associated with the early days of the Roxbury Action Program and Boston branch of the Black Panther Party. Steeped in Black Power ideology, the collection includes publications of the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and other organizations, as well as an insightful series of transcripts of Roxbury Action Program meetings held during its first few months of operation.

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

A resident of Oakmont, Pa., near Pittsburgh, Ellie Rudolph has worked with a number of grassroots organizations to oppose fluoridation of the water supply. One of the activists in the landmark 1978 case that prevented fluoridation in the borough of West View, Pa., Rudolph has worked with the Pennsylvania Environmental Network, was a founding member of the Fluoride Action Network, and a former director of the Pennsylvania Chapter of Health Alliance International.

The Rudolph Papers document almost three decades of grassroots antifluoridation activism, primarily in western Pennsylvania. The collection includes a wide array of material relating to the antifluoridation struggle, including several feet of topical files, some correspondence, reprints of scientific and popular articles on the subject and videotapes.

The painter Johann Moritz Rugendas was born in Augsburg, Germany, in 1802, and achieved fame for his depictions of the landscape, natural history, and cultural history of South American early in the era of independence. Beginning as a member of George Heinrich Langsdorff’s scientific expedition to Minas Gerais in 1821, and then on his own, Rugendas traveled widely in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Peru. His best-known published work is the monumental four-volume set, Malerische Reise in Brasilien (1827-1835).

The Rugendas collection consists of 192 letters and 4 poems written to Rugendas by four of his South American artist friends who shared his passion for the country and culture of Argentina.

A teamster from Newburyport, Mass., Samuel H. Rundlett operated a substantial business as a teamster and “truckman” from the 1830s through 1880s.

The three daybooks in this collection document Rundlett’s work for local businesses, including hauling bales of raw cotton and finished cloth, delivering coal, produce, fertilizer, and goods; as well as prices paid for freight handling and forms of payment (cash, credit at a store, and produce from a local farmer). Of note is Rundlett’s delivery of goods to the Newburyport branch of the Sovereigns of Industry, a workingmen’s cooperative association.

Feeling the frustrations of millions of women and girls in rural America who lacked the support or resources necessary to combat unemployment, inadequate medical care, and domestic violence, Jane Threatt along with several other women decided to form a non-profit organization that would unite these women and give them a national voice. Established in 1978, Rural American Women (RAW) was organized to promote the interests of rural women in the areas of equal rights, employment, education, family life, and freedom of all forms of discrimination.

In 1981 RAW held a series of five regional conferences throughout the country, and the bulk of this collection consists of records relating to the New England meeting. The records also include some materials documenting the group’s activities at their national headquarters in D.C., such as minutes, correspondence, newsletters, and pamphlets.

Rural Lives was a 13 part audio documentary series that aired on WFCR in the early 1980s and focused on rural communities throughout Western Massachusetts. Sponsored by the UMass Cooperative Extension Service, each episode focused on various aspects of rural life such as local business, jobs, the country fair, farming, the impact of development, etc. Some episodes featured local towns such as Hadley or the lost towns of the Quabbin Reservoir. The show was produced by Pat Lewis Zachary, Robbie Leppzer, and Gail Fuhrer.

Tom Rush began his musical career in the early 1960s playing the Boston-area clubs while a Harvard student. The Club 47 was the flagship of the coffee house fleet, and he was soon holding down a weekly spot there, learning from the legendary artists who came to play, honing his skills and growing into his talent. He released two albums by the time he graduated. In the early 1970s, folk turned to folk-rock, and Rush, ever adaptable, saw more room to stretch out. Recording now for Columbia, he toured tirelessly with a five-man band, playing concerts across the country. Endless promotional tours, interviews, television appearances, and recording sessions added up to five very successful but exhausting years, after which Tom decided to take a break and “recharge” his creative side at his New Hampshire farm. Rush returned with a splash in 1981, selling out Boston’s prestigious Symphony Hall in advance. Coming out of this success, Rush set out to create a musical forum – like the Club 47 of the early 1960s – to allow established artists and newcomers to share the same stage. In 1982, he tried it out at Symphony Hall. The show was such a hit it became an annual event, growing to fill two, then three nights and the Club 47 series was born. Rush’s impact on the American music scene has been profound. He helped shape the folk revival in the 1960s and the renaissance of the 1980s and 1990s, his music having left its stamp on generations of artists. Rush continues to write and perform music.

The Tom Rush Papers include recordings, tour materials, records of his production company Maple Hill Productions and other projects, press materials and photographs documenting Rush’s six decades in music, with a focus on his career during the last several decades.