The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
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Collections: Deans

Field, William Franklin, 1922-

William F. Field Papers

1948-1986
27 boxes 13.5 linear feet
Call no.: RG 030/2 F5
Depiction of William F. Field relaxing on couch, ca. 1971
William F. Field relaxing on couch, ca. 1971

The University’s first Dean of Students, William F. Field held the post from 1961 until his retirement in 1988. The 27 years Field was Dean of Students was a critical time of growth and unrest, as the University’s student population more than tripled in size and the nation-wide movements for civil rights and against the Vietnam War were reflected through student activism and protest on the University’s campus. Responsible for ending student curfews and overseeing all dorms becoming co-ed, Field also worked with minority students and faculty to support the Black Arts Movement on campus and the founding of the W.E.B Du Bois Afro-American Studies Department.

The William F. Field Papers document Field’s career as an administrator at the University of Massachusetts and specifically his role as Dean of Students from 1961-1988. The correspondence, memoranda, reports, notes, and other official printed and manuscript documents are a rich resource for one of the most important and volatile eras in the University’s history. Of particular interest are extensive files on student protests and activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s and the growing diversity of the campus student population, flourishing of the Black Arts Movement on campus and the founding of the W.E.B. Du Bois Afro-American Studies Department.

Subjects

African American college students--MassachusettsField, William Franklin, 1922-Race relations--United StatesUniversities and colleges--United States--AdministrationUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Dean of StudentsUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Afro-American StudiesVietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements--United States

Types of material

CorrespondenceMemorandums
Lewis, Edward M.

Edward M. Lewis Papers

1910-1936
6 boxes 2.5 linear feet
Call no.: RG 003/1 L49

A one time baseball player, Edward M. Lewis was hired as a Professor of Language and Literature at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, serving as the College’s President from 1924 to 1927.

Includes personal and official correspondence primarily while Dean and President of Massachusetts Agricultural College, particularly with President Kenyon Leech Butterfield (1868-1935); administrative memoranda; student records; other records generated while Dean and President of MAC on such subjects as relations of the college with state officials, curriculum, purpose of the college, desirability of compulsory chapel, establishment of Jewish fraternities, and women’s education; also, transcripts of addresses, newspaper clippings, and biographical material. The collection includes nothing relating to Lewis’s baseball or teaching careers.

Subjects

Massachusetts Agricultural College. FacultyMassachusetts Agricultural College. President

Contributors

Lewis, Edward M
Machmer, William L.

William L. Machmer Papers

1899-1953
18 boxes 9 linear feet
Call no.: RG 006/1 M33
Depiction of William L. Machmer
William L. Machmer

Enjoying one of the longest tenures of any administrator in the history of the University of Massachusetts, William Lawson Machmer served under five presidents across 42 years, helping to guide the university through an economic depression, two world wars, and three name changes. During his years as Dean, Machmer witnessed the growth of the university from fewer than 500 students to almost 3,800, and helped guide its transformation from a small agricultural college into Massachusetts State College (1931) and finally into the University of Massachusetts (1947).
Machmer’s papers chronicle the fitful development of the University of Massachusetts from the days of Kenyon Butterfield’s innovations of the 1920s through the time of the GI Bill. The collection is particularly strong in documenting the academic experience of students and the changes affecting the various departments and programs at the University, with particular depth for the period during and after the Second World War.

Connect to another siteView selected records on women's affairs at UMass, 1924-1951

Subjects

Agricultural educationFort Devens (Mass.)Massachusetts Agricultural CollegeMassachusetts State CollegeUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. DeanUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of MathematicsWorld War, 1939-1945

Contributors

Baker, Hugh Potter, 1878-Butterfield, Kenyon L. (Kenyon Leech), 1868-1935Lewis, Edward MMachmer, William LVan Meter, Ralph Albert, 1893-

Types of material

Letters (Correspondence)Student records