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

Collecting area: Massachusetts (East)

Abbe, Edward H.

Edward H. Abbe Papers

1828-2004
22 boxes 28.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 736
Depiction of Ed Abbe in Bora Bora, 1987
Ed Abbe in Bora Bora, 1987

Born in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1915 and raised largely in Hampton, Va., Edward Abbe seemed destined to be an engineer. The great nephew of Elihu Thomson, an inventor and founding partner in General Electric, and grandson of Edward Folger Peck, an early employee of a precursor of that firm, Abbe came from a family with a deep involvement in electrification and the development of street railways. After prepping at the Rectory and Kent Schools, Abbe studied engineering at the Sheffield School at Yale, and after graduation in 1938, accepted a position with GE. For 36 years, he worked in the Industrial Control Division in New York and Virginia, spending summers at the family home on Martha’s Vineyard. After retirement in 1975, he and his wife Gladys traveled frequently, cruising both the Atlantic and Pacific.

Ranging from an extensive correspondence from his high school and college days to materials relating to his family’s involvement in engineering, the Abbe collection offers an in depth perspective on an educated family. An avid traveler and inveterate keeper, Ed Abbe gathered a diverse assemblage of letters, diaries, and memorabilia relating to the history of the Abbe, Peck, Booth, Gifford, and Boardman families. The collection is particularly rich in visual materials, including albums and photographs, depicting homes, travel, and family life over nearly a century.

Gift of Edward Abbe, Mar. 2012

Subjects

Abbe familyBoardman familyBooth familyElectrical engineersGeneral ElectricGifford familyKent School--StudentsPeck familyRectory School--StudentsYale University--Students

Contributors

Abbe, Edward HAbbe, Gladys HowardAbbe, William ParkerPeck, Edward FPeck, Mary Booth

Types of material

DiariesLetters (Correspondence)Photographs
Acton Monthly Meeting of Friends

Acton Monthly Meeting of Friends Records

1954-2012
3 boxes 1.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 A286

Acton Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends began in 1956 as a worship group under care of Cambridge Monthly. By 1965, Acton was set off as a monthly meeting of its own, part of Salem Quarterly.

The records of Acton Monthly Meeting include a nearly complete set of minutes from its days as a worship group through its formal establishment as a monthly meeting to the present, along with less complete material on membership and finances. The minutes are somewhat sporadic in the early years, but have been regularly maintained since 1965.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Acton (Mass.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Massachusetts

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Newsletters
Akin, Benjamin

Benjamin Akin Daybook and Ledger

1737-1764
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 204 bd

A tanner, currier, and shoemaker, Benjamin Akin was born into a prominent Bristol County family in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, on May 18, 1715. With a prolific and well-connected family and successful in his own business endeavors, Akin attained some stature in Dartmouth. First appointed town clerk in 1745, he filled that office from 1754-1770 and again from 1776-1780, adding the title “Esq.” to his name by the 1760s. During the Revolutionary years, he served on the town’s public safety committee. He died on April 10, 1802.

The Akin ledger offers insight into the fortunes of an 18th-century artisan during the most productive years of his life, as well as into the structure of a local community in southeastern Massachusetts. The ledger includes accounts of with customers for tanning and currying of calf and sheepskin, day-book entries, and accounts with the Town of Dartmouth for services performed at Town Clerk.

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987

Subjects

Artisans--MassachusettsDartmouth (Mass.)--History--18th centuryEarthquakes--MassachusettsShoemaking--MassachusettsTanning--Massachusetts

Contributors

Akin, Benjamin, 1715-1802Akin, Eunice Taber, 1711-1762

Types of material

Account booksDaybooks
Akin, Ebenezer, Jr.

Ebenezer Akin Account Book

1842-1869
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 220 bd

A merchant, town clerk, part-owner of many ships, and involved citizen, Ebenezer Akin lived nearly all of his 87 years in the town of Fairhaven, Mass.

This miscellaneous personal ledger includes documentation of Ebenezer Akin’s work as town clerk and includes accounts for ships he may have owned, entries made as an estate executor, accounts of expenditures for clothing and incidentals, and accounts of lot purchases and loans. The volume also contains genealogical information about the Blossom family of Bridgewater and the family of Benjamin and Eunice Akin, Ebenezer’s great-grandfather.

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987

Subjects

Akin, Benjamin, 1715-1802Akin, EuniceBlossom familyClothing and dress--Prices--Massachusetts--FairhavenFairhaven (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryFairhaven (Mass.)--Politics and government--19th centuryHesper (Bark)Merchants--Massachusetts--FairhavenNapoleon (Ship)Shipowners--Massachusetts--FairhavenShipping--Massachusetts--FairhavenWilliam Rotch (Ship)Winthrop (Bark)

Contributors

Akin, Ebenezer, 1816-

Types of material

Account booksGenealogiesInventories of decedents estates
Albertson, Jeff

Jeff Albertson Photograph Collection

ca.1966-2005
7 boxes 10.5 linear feet
Call no.: PH 057
Depiction of Jeff Albertson, ca.1970
Jeff Albertson, ca.1970

Born in Reading, Mass., on Sept 13, 1948, Jeff Albertson was still a student at Boston University, working on the staff of the BU News, when he was hired as a photographer by the Boston Globe. Reflecting the youth culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s, his photographs earned him positions with several prominent Boston alternative media outlets. Covering news, music, and the political interests of his generation, he served as photo editor for the Boston Phoenix and associate publisher for the Real Paper, and his work appeared regularly in mainstream publications such as Rolling Stone, People, and Boston Magazine. After becoming photo editor for the Medical Tribune News Group and moving to New York City in the 1980s, he met and married Charlene Laino. In later years, he became involved in early efforts to create websites devoted to issues surrounding health. Albertson died in 2008.

As a photographer, Albertson covered a wide range of subjects, with particular focus on music and social change. The many thousands of prints, slides, and negatives in the collection include stunning shots of Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Neil Young, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and John Lee Hooker, activists such as Abbie Hoffman, politicians, and public personalities. The collection also includes several photographic essays centered on poverty, old age, fire fighting in Boston, and prisoners in Massachusetts (among other issues) along with a wide array of landscapes and street scenes.

Gift of Charlene Laino, Oct. 2013

Subjects

Boston (Mass.)--PhotographsRock musicians--PhotographsVietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements

Contributors

Simon, Peter

Types of material

Photographs
Allens Neck Monthly Meeting of Friends

Allen's Neck Monthly Meeting Records

1990-2010
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 A454

Desiring a more convenient place of worship in 1758, Quakers in Allen’s Neck, Mass., built a meetinghouse on a hill overlooking Buzzards Bay, six miles from the Apponegansett Meeting House of their parent meeting, Dartmouth Monthly. A relatively small worship group, the meeting was designated the West Preparative Meeting under Dartmouth in 1813, but after experiencing modest growth during the mid-twentieth century, they were formally set off as a monthly meeting in 1956.

The sparse records for Allen’s Neck Monthly Meeting consist of a broken run of newsletters with three annual directories and a brief run of State of the Society reports, all from the 1990s.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Dartmouth (Mass.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Massachusetts

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Newsletters
American Watch Company. Band

American Watch Company Band Engagement Book

1878-1883
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 364

Band of musicians who worked at the Waltham Watch Company in Waltham, Massachusetts. Engagement book itemizes engagement dates and locations, and membership (including recent immigrants), and includes information about rehearsals, business meetings, and payment.

Subjects

American Watch Company--Employees--RecreationAmerican Watch Company--Employees--Social life and customsAmerican Watch Company--HistoryBrass bands--Massachusetts--WalthamIndustrial recreation--Massachusetts--WalthamWaltham (Mass.)--Social conditions--19th century

Contributors

American Watch Company. BandSouth Side Brass Band (Waltham, Mass.)

Types of material

Appointment books
Amesbury Friends Meeting

Amesbury Friends Meeting Records

1700-2010
11 vols., 3 boxes 2.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 A447

The Amesbury Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends, tied historically to the Hampton and Seabrook Monthly Meetings, has met on the coast of Massachusetts and New Hampshire for over three hundred years.

The records of Amesbury (Hampton and Seabrook) Monthly Meeting document over three centuries of Quaker practice in New England coastal communities. The meeting minutes for both men’s and women’s meetings are relatively complete for the period 1701 to the late 1880s, and after nearly a century-long hiatus, pick up again in the mid-1980s.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Amesbury (Mass.)--Religious life and customsHampton (N.H.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MassachusettsQuakers--New HampshireSeabrook (N.H.)--Religious life and customsSociety of Friends--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--New Hampshire

Contributors

Hampton Monthly MeetingNew England Yearly Meeting of FriendsSeabrook Monthly Meeting

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)NewslettersVital records (Document genre)
Baschard, David

David Baschard Account Book

1763-1774
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 142

David Baschard (sometimes spelled Bichaud) was an innkeeper and merchant in Nantucket during the middle decades of the eighteenth century. Althouth little is known about the specifics of his life, when he died at the age of 50 on Feb. 9, 1770, he left a substantial estate valued at £1000. He left a legacy to his sister Mary and the remainder, including a “negro slave girl” and a pew in the Congregational Meeting House, to his wife Elizabeth (Hussey).

A standard two-column account book, David Baschard’s ledger records the day to day transactions of a Nantucket merchant of the 1760s. Trading actively in a range of sundries and domestic goods such as cloth, apparel, sugar, tea, and tobacco, Baschard also sold liquors of various sorts, including punch, grog, wine, and rum. In addition to his local Nantucket clientele (members of the Starbuck, Coffin, Rotch, and Folger families among them), he traded in towns along the Cape Cod and elsewhere in southeastern Massachusetts, including Harwich, Rochester, Dartmouth, Falmouth, and Martha’s Vineyard. Accounts were settled both in cash and in kind.

Subjects

Hotelkeepers--Massachusetts--Nantucket IslandMerchants--Massachusetts--Nantucket IslandNantucket Island (Mass.)--Economic conditionsNantucket Island (Mass.)--History

Types of material

Account books
Beacon Hill Friends Meeting

Beacon Hill Friends Meeting Records

1960-2008
3 boxes 1.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 B433

The Beacon Hill Friends Meeting began in 1958 as a worship group in Boston under the care of Cambridge Monthly Meeting and was set off as its own monthly meeting in 1980. Since that time it has fallen under the aegis of Salem Quarterly Meeting.

Since their establishment as a monthly meeting in 1980, Beacon Hill Friends have regularly maintained minutes of business meetings and published a newsletter, although some gaps persist.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Boston (Mass.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Massachusetts

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Newsletters