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

Collecting area: Massachusetts (Central)

Lambert, Roger Newton

Roger Newton Lambert Account Book

1829-1834
1 vol. 0.15 linear feet
Call no.: MS 256 bd

A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School, R. Newton Lambert set up in private practice in Upton, Mass., in 1829. His medical career, however, would be brief. In October 1836, just 37 years old, Lambert died in Lyme, N.H.

Lambert’s double column account book includes records of services performed (such as the extraction of teeth, vaccination, and childbirth) and medicines prescribed, as well as accounts for his patients’ (primarily women and families) and notations on work for the town’s poor.

Subjects

Bradish familyChildbirth--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryFisk familyPhlebotomy--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryPhysicians--Massachusetts--19th centuryPhysicians--Massachusetts--Upton--Economic conditions--19th centuryPoor--Medical care--Massachusetts--Upton--History--19th centuryPutnam familyRockwood familyTeeth--Extraction--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryTherapeutics--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryUpton (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryVaccination--Massachusetts--History--19th century

Types of material

Account books
Leland, James

James Leland Daybook

1854-1855
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 094

Owner of a general store in Enfield, Massachusetts. Includes notations for the sale of a wide variety of goods (notably Know Nothing hats), names of customers (both individuals, particularly Irish, and businesses), and types of payment (cash, barter, and services).

Subjects

Barter--Massachusetts--Enfield--History--19th centuryConsumers--Massachusetts--Enfield--History--19th centuryEnfield (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryEnfield (Mass.)--Ethnic relations--19th centuryGeneral stores--Massachusetts--EnfieldIrish American Catholics--Massachusetts--Enfield--History--19th centuryJ.M. Crosby (Firm)Leonard Woods (Firm)Minot Manufacturing CompanyNativism--History--19th centuryShopping--Massachusetts--Enfield--History--19th centurySwift River Company

Contributors

Leland and Smith Co.Leland, James

Types of material

Daybooks
Libera, John

John Libera Collection

1934-1988
1 flat box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 048
Depiction of Polish Tigers baseball team, ca.1935
Polish Tigers baseball team, ca.1935

A member of the Polish community in Southbridge, Mass., John Libera (1919-2007) was a long-time employee of American Optical Company, but was best known as a promoter of polka music and dancing. A performer, song writer, and host of a radio show for over thirty years, Libera was inducted into the Polka Music Hall of Fame in 1982 and invited to perform at the American Folklife Festival in 1988.

The Libera collection consists of four photographs of the Polish community in Southbridge during the 1930s along with fourteen photos, a videotape, and some correspondence and ephemera relating to the American Folklife Festival.

Subjects

Baseball teams--Massachusetts--Southbridge--PhotographsPolish Americans--Massachusetts--Southbridge--PhotographsSouthbridge (Mass.)Women--Societies and clubs--Massachusetts--Southbridge--Photographs

Contributors

Libera, John

Types of material

Photographs
Massachusetts

Massachusetts Agricultural Surveys

1910-1965
25 boxes 18 linear feet
Call no.: MS 261

Studies were conducted by departments of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Massachusetts State College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in conjunction with various other college departments and agencies of the state and federal governments. The surveys encompass a number of agricultural study areas such as land use, business and farm management, dairy farm and cost of milk production, tobacco and onion production, and poultry and livestock disease surveys. Supplemental statistical information and aerial photographs are also included.

Subjects

Agriculture--MassachusettsLand use--Massachusetts

Types of material

Aerial photographs
Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans' Memorial (Worcester, Mass.)

Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Collection

1989-2002
2 boxes, model 0.3 linear feet
Call no.: MS 967

The Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial commemorates the 1,536 men and one woman from the state who died during the Vietnam War and the 235,000 veterans who survived. Situated on a four-acre site at Green Hill Park in Worcester, the Memorial was formally dedicated in June 2002.

This small collection contains an assortment of material kept by supporters of the Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial during the long struggle to bring their vision to reality. In addition to a handful of letters and news clippings, the collection includes information on the design competition, contract documents, conceptual and construction plans for the memorial, ephemera from the dedication, and a roughly 3′ square scale model of the site prepared by the architects.

Gift of Michael Dumas, Aug, 2013

Subjects

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--MonumentsWar memorials--Massachusetts--WorcesterWorcester (Mass.)

Contributors

Cellucci, Argeo Paul, 1948-2013Harby, Catanzaro, and RogersKerry, John, 1943-O'Brien, Michael V.Price, Paul T.White, W. Paul

Types of material

Architectural drawings (visual works)Architectural models
Massachusetts. Metropolitan District Commission. Water Division

Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission, Water Division Maps

1959-1972
1 drawer 0.2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 100

To meet the growing needs for potable water in the Boston metropolitan region, the Massachusetts state legislature ordered the evacuation of the relatively sparsely populated towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott, as well as portions of other adjoining towns such as New Salem, to make way for the construction of a massive reservoir. Over the course of almost two decades, the population of the towns was systematically relocated, the houses moved or razed, and bed of the future reservoir was stripped of trees and brush. The last remaining residents of the region were removed in 1938 and the four primary towns were officially disincorporated as the dam was completed and the waters began to rise.

The numbered blueprint sheets and index that make up this collection offer a detailed depiction of the Swift River Valley towns at the time the state government was seizing land for the Quabbin Reservoir. Apparently surveyed between 1932 and 1938, the maps were prepared by the Metropolitan District Commission of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for a Quabbin Reservoir Real Estate Survey in 1959 and then revised in 1972.

Subjects

Dana (Mass.)--MapsEnfield (Mass.)--MapsGreenwich (Mass.)--MapsNew Salem (Mass.)--MapsPrescott (Mass.)--MapsQuabbin Reservoir (Mass.)--Maps

Contributors

Massachusetts. Metropolitan District Commission. Water Division

Types of material

Maps
Massachusetts. Treasurer and Receiver General

Massachusetts Bay Warrants Collection

1743-1767
6 folders 0.15 linear feet
Call no.: MS 089

On the eve of the Seven Years War in the Province of Massachusetts, town constables shouldered an array of public responsibilities, including announcing town meetings, serving writs for the town clerk, and collecting local taxes. Although they received a commission for the taxes collected, constables were also held personally responsible for any taxes unpaid, authorized by writ of the Provincial Treasurer and enforced by County Sheriffs.

The warrants in this collection, nearly all printed forms completed in manuscript, were issued by the Treasurer and Receiver General of Massachusetts Bay Province, William Foye or his successor Harrison Gray, authorizing the Hampshire County Sheriff, Oliver Partridge, or Deputy Sheriffs Moses Miller or Ephraim Williams, to attach the goods of local constables in arrears: Brimfield, Greenwich, Sheffield, and Westfield, Mass., along with Somers and Suffield, now part of Connecticut. In instances where the taxes were not delivered, the Sheriff was empowered to “levy by Distress and Sale of the Estate real and personal” of the constable to make up the unpaid difference.

Subjects

Brimfield (Mass.)--HistoryGreenwich (Mass.)--HistorySheffield (Mass.)--HistorySomers (Conn.)--HistorySufffield (Conn.)--HistoryTaxation--Massachusetts--18th centuryWestfield (Mass.)--History

Contributors

Massachusetts. Treasurer and Receiver General

Types of material

Warrants
Millers River Publishing Co.

Millers River Publishing Co. Records

1983-1989
2 boxes 3 linear feet
Call no.: MS 805

The journalist and activist Allen Young founded Millers River Publishing Co. in 1983 to produce “fine books about New England.” Nearly a one person shop, the company began in Athol, Mass., with what would become the most successful of its publications, North of Quabbin, Young’s own guidebook to the nine towns rimming the Quabbin Reservoir. Over the next five years, Millers River issued at least fifteen titles in regional and local history, fiction, and children’s books. Soon after Young left his job at the Athol Daily News in 1989 to accept a position in public relations at the community hospital, the company ceased its operations.

The records of the Millers River Publishing Co. document the active years of a small regional press in northern Massachusetts. In addition business records, the collection includes correspondence from authors and readers along with book proposals and manuscripts, including some for works not published. Most of the Millers River publications are available in SCUA.

Gift of Allen Young, Dec. 2013

Subjects

Publishers and publishing--Massachusetts

Contributors

Young, Allen, 1941-
Myers, Wallace Haslett

Wallace Haslett Myers Papers

1938-1961
7 boxes 3.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 968

Wallace Haslett Myers was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on November 21, 1929, the elder of two sons of Roscoe and Priscilla Myers. Myers received his Bachelor’s Degree from Clark University in Worcester in 1951. He attended Boston University Law School in the summer of 1951, then enrolled in Harvard Law School, and received a law degree in 1954. Of note, he survived a close brush with the Worcester Tornado of 1953, classified as the 21st deadliest tornado in U.S. history. After graduating from law school, he served in the U.S. Army from 1954-1956 and was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia. Upon his return from the Army, Myers began practicing law, specializing in probate, taxation and real estate matters. On August 23, 1985, he married Irene Healy in Worcester. He belonged to the Worcester Republican 21 Club, was active in the Episcopal Church, and was a supporter of the church’s summer retreat house, Bucksteep Manor in Washington, Massachusetts.

This collection covers the years 1941-1975, with the bulk of the collection between 1945-1957. Myers frequently exchanged letters with many individuals, so the majority is personal correspondence between family and friends, documenting daily life, and notably including one friend’s marriage to a Korean woman during the era of the Korean War. Other papers in the collection pertain to his attendance at Clark, Boston University and Harvard, social activities and clubs, and stamp collecting and trading.

Gift of S. Myron Weinblatt, Apr. 2017

Subjects

Harvard Law SchoolKorean War, 1950-1953Law Schools--United StatesStamp collectiongWorcester (Mass.)--History

Contributors

Chaffee, FredChen, PhilKerwien, PriscillaMyers, Priscilla Haslett, 1901-1980Myers, Robert Haslett, 1933-Myers, Roscoe, 1899-1982Myers, Wallace Haslett, 1929-Myers, Wallace P.Seiler, Shirley

Types of material

Correspondence (Letters)
Newton, Levi

Levi Newton Diary

1889-1890
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 998 bd

A farmer living in the Quabbin region, Levi Newton spent most of his life within a few miles of the adjoining towns of North Dana and New Salem. Born in 1830, Newton was married three times and raised two sons and a daughter. He died in New Salem in 1919.

Written at a time when his son Willie was living at home and his wife Persis was struggling with her health, Levi Newton’s pocket diary is a terse record of the daily life of a farmer in the great Quabbin region. Little more than a sentence or two in length, each entry makes quick note of the weather, travel, and Levi’s and Willie’s activities for the day, but there are relatively frequent references to the ailments and ultimate death of Persis and occasional notes on the anniversaries of the death of family members. The Newtons raised wheat, potatoes, cattle, hay, and oats on their farm and occasionally record hauling logs and other miscellaneous work.

Subjects

Farmers--Massachusetts--North DanaNewton familyNewton, Persis PrattNorth Dana (Mass.)--HistoryWives--Death--Massachusetts--North Dana

Types of material

Diaries