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

Collecting area: New England

Campbell, Sadie

Sadie Campbell Papers

1812-2002
19 boxes 10.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 439
Depiction of Sadie Campbell and sons Harold and Robert Leslie
Sadie Campbell and sons Harold and Robert Leslie

A housewife, mother and active community member, Sadie Campbell was born in 1881 and lived at 1 Depot Street in Cheshire, Massachusetts for most of her life until she died in 1971. Sadie was closely tied to the Cheshire community where she had a large circle of friends and acquaintances, and was active in a a number of organizations, such as: the Cheshire Ladies Reading Club, the Merry Wives of Cheshire Shakespeare Club, and the Cheshire Cash Tearoom.

The collection documents three generations of a western Massachusetts family. The variety and nature of the materials in this collection offer a good view into the local and social history of western Massachusetts through the lives of Sadie Campbell and her family.

Subjects

Cheshire (Mass.)--HistoryCheshire Cash TearoomFamily--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryFamily--Massachusetts--History--20th centuryHousekeeping--Massachusetts--CheshireHousewives--Massachusetts--CheshireMassachusetts--Social life and customs--19th centuryMerry Wives of Cheshire Shakespeare ClubSmall business--MassachusettsTyrell, AugustusWilliams Manufacturing CompanyWomen--Societies and clubs--History--19th century

Contributors

Campbell, Sadie

Types of material

Account booksInvitationsLetters (Correspondence)PamphletsPhotographsRecipes
Canning, Josiah D. (Josiah Dean), 1816-1892

Josiah D. Canning, The Shad-Fishers Manuscript

1854
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1009 bd

The “Peasant Bard” of Gill, Mass., Josiah D. Canning, published five books of poetry between 1838 and 1892 extolling the spiritual virtues of nature and the agrarian life. The son of a minister, Canning worked as a printer for several years before settling down to farming life, churning out poetry that reflected his reverence for the land.

This small collection consists of a printed copy of Josiah Canning’s fourth book, The Shad-Fishers, published by R.C. Graves in Greenfield, Mass., in 1854, along with a manuscript copy of the same work bound in workmanlike leather over boards. Although it is not possible to determine with certainty, the manuscript may be Canning’s own.

Acquired from Eugene Povirk, Jan. 2018

Subjects

Poetry--Massachusetts--Gill

Types of material

Manuscripts (Documents)
Carroll, Lucius W.

Lucius W. Carroll Ledger

1841-1862
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 245 bd

Businessman in several partnerships in south-central Worcestor county who owned a general store in Webster, Massachusetts. Includes lists of partners (such as John P. Stockwell of Stockwell and Carroll), yearly salaries and profits, accounts of what he sold and how he was paid, lists of individual customers and manufacturing companies, and labor accounts of workers. Also contains an alphabetical index to the ledger and several pages of notes receivable and notes payable.

Subjects

Barter--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryDudley (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryDudley Woolen Manufacturing Company (Dudley, Mass.)General stores--MassachusettsMerchants--Massachusetts--Economic conditions--19th centuryShopping--Massachusetts--History--19th centurySlater, GeorgeStockwell & CarrollUnion Mills (Webster, Mass.)Uxbridge (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryWebster (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryWebster Woolen Mills (Webster, Mass.)

Contributors

Carroll & CrosbyCarroll, Lucius W

Types of material

Account books
Center for Community Access Television (Amherst, Mass.)

Center for Community Access Television Records

1973-1989
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 293

Group comprised of students from the University of Massachusetts and community members who sought to develop and promote cultural, literary, charitable, educational and public affairs television programming. Records include by-laws, articles of organization, organizational histories, annual reports, meeting minutes, correspondence, program schedules, subject files, brochures, handbills, news clippings, and materials relating to a proposed merger with University of Massachusetts Cable Vision. In 1989, CCATV was renamed Amherst Community Television (ACT), and is currently named Amherst Media.

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--Intellectual life--20th centuryCable television--Massachusetts--Amherst--HistoryPublic-access television--Massachusetts--Amherst--HistoryTelevision programs--Massachusetts--Amherst--History

Contributors

Center for Community Access Television (Amherst, Mass.)

Types of material

Handbills
Chalfen family

Chalfen Family Papers

ca.1890-2011
51 boxes 76.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 770

Temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA to request materials from this collection.

Born into a Jewish family in Khotyn, Bessarabia (now Ukraine), in 1888, Benjamin Chalfen emigrated to United States as a young man, arriving in New York City in 1910 before making his way to Boston. Taking work as a clerk with the Roxbury Crossing Steamship Agency, he married a fellow Russian immigrant, Annie Berg in 1914 and, after their divorce a few years later, married a second time. Benjamin and Annie’s son, Melvin (1918-2007), studied Forestry at Massachusetts State College (BA 1940) and Yale (MF 1942) before enlisting in the Army Air Corps in Aug. 1942. Moved to active duty in 1943 as a communications specialist, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant. After he returned home, Mel met and married a recent Smith College graduate, Judith Resnick (1925-2011), with whom he raised three sons. The couple settled into a comfortable life in the Boston suburbs, where Mel carved out a successful career as a home inspector and educator while Judith became well known as a supporter of the arts and as one of the founders of Action For Children’s Television (1968), an important force in promoting quality television programing for children.

A massive archive documenting three generations of a Jewish family from Boston, the Chalfen family papers contain a rich body of photographs and letters, centered largely on the lives of Melvin and Judith Chalfen. The Chalfens were prolific correspondents and the collection includes hundreds of letters written home while Mal and Judy were in college and while Mel was serving in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War — most of these in Yiddish. The thousands of photographs cover a broader span of family history, beginning prior to emigration from Bessarabia into the 1960s. Among many other items of note are rough drafts of a New Deal sociological study of juvenile delinquency and the impact of boys’ clubs in the late 1930s prepared by Abraham Resnick (a Socialist community organizer and Judith’s father); materials from the progressive Everyman’s Theater (early 1960s); and nearly three feet of material documenting Judy Chalfen’s work with Action for Children’s Television.

Gift of the Chalfen family, 2011.
Language(s): Yiddish

Subjects

Action for Children's TelevisionJews--Massachusetts--BostonMassachusetts State College--StudentsSmith College--StudentsWorld War, 1939-1945

Contributors

Chalfen, BenjaminChalfen, Judith, 1925-2011Chalfen, Melvin H. (Melvin Howard), 1918-2007

Types of material

Photographs
Champion Family

Champion and Stebbins Family Account Books

1753-1865
8 vols. 2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 228

Account books from the Champion and Stebbins families of Saybrook, Connecticut and West Springfield, Massachusetts, who were involved in various businesses and professional activities. Includes lists of accounts by surname, services rendered, methods of payment, entries for treatments and remedies, lists of patients, and lists of banking activities. Volumes were kept by Reuben Champion (1720-1777), Jere Stebbins (1757-1817), and Reuben Champion, M.D. (1784-1865).

Subjects

African Americans--Massachusetts--West Springfield--HistoryAgriculture--Economic aspects--Massachusetts--HistoryAtwood, ElijahBarter--Massachusetts--West SpringfieldChampion familyConnecticut River Valley--Economic conditions--18th centuryFarmers--Massachusetts--HistoryGeneral stores--MassachusettsHomeopathic physicians--MassachusettsHomeopathy--Materia medica and therapeuticsMedicine--Practice--Massachusetts--HistoryPhysicians--MassachusettsPottery industry--Massachusetts--HistorySaybrook (Conn.)--HistoryShipping--New England--HistoryStebbins familyWest Springfield (Mass.)--Economic conditionsWest Springfield (Mass.)--HistoryWest Springfield (Mass.)--Social conditionsWomen--Massachusetts--History

Contributors

Champion, Reuben, 1727-1777Champion, Reuben, 1784-1865Stebbins, Jere, 1757-1817

Types of material

Account booksDaybooks
Chandler, John S., 1836-1916

John Chandler Account Book

1853-1914
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 287 bd

A mariner and whaleman originally from Provincetown, Massachusetts, John S. Chandler (1836-1916) relocated to Bucksport, Maine, in the 1870s to provide care for his aging in-laws.

Chandler’s account book and diary includes records of crewmembers on various voyages, accounts for labor, supplies, and merchandise, pasted-in bills for taxes, clothes, coal, boots, and other commodities, and a journal of Chandler’s farming activities, consisting of notes on labor performed, items and livestock sold, weather accounts, new purchases, and notation of personal visits and trips.

Subjects

Bucksport (Me.)--Economic conditionsBucksport (Me.)--Social life and customsFarmers--Maine--BucksportMerchant mariners--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryProvincetown (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryShip captains--Massachusetts

Types of material

Account books
Chapin, Irene A.

Irene A. Chapin Diaries

1926-1935
4 vols. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 585
Depiction of Irene Chapin and friends
Irene Chapin and friends

In March 1926, Irene A. Chapin (1901-1987) left La Crescenta, Calif., having lost her job in the office of Certain-Teed Corp., and returned home to Chicopee, Mass. Resuming work at the Fisk Tire Co., where she had begun at age 18, Chapin led an active social life, playing bridge and tennis, going to the theatre, and dining with friends. In 1927, she and a fellow stenographer at Fisk, Marion E. Warner (1904-1989), developed an intense friendship that blossomed into a same sex relationship.

Irene Chapin’s pocket-sized diaries include a brief, but densely written record of daily life, from the weather to work and the ebb and flow of a young woman’s social relations. Concerned about her ability to make a success of her job and personal life, Chapin remained sociable and possessed of a wide circle of friends, mostly women. Her diary records a long succession of bridge parties, hikes in the hills, vacations, hockey games, and Chapin alludes frequently to her increasingly intimate intimacy with Marion. Several passages written in shorthand provide additional details on the developing relationship. A photograph laid into the diary for 1927 depicts three women standing in front of a house, one of whom is presumably Chapin.

Subjects

Chicopee (Mass.)--Social life and customsLesbians--MassachusettsWomen--Diaries

Contributors

Chapin, Irene AWarner, Marion E

Types of material

DiariesPhotographs
Chase, Lot

Lot Chase Account Books

1837-1848
2 vols. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 199

Mariner from Harwich, Massachusetts, who was involved in the cod and mackerel fishing industry in Barnstable County. Two account books include expenses, income, and final settlements with those involved with annual voyages of 1837 and 1848. They also contain lists of crew members and part owners, many of whom were members of the Chase family.

Subjects

Barnstable County (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryChase familyCod fisheries--Massachusetts--Barnstable County--HistoryFisheries--Massachusetts--Equipment and supplies--HistoryFisheries--Massachusetts--Finance--HistoryFishers--Massachusetts--HistoryFishing--Economic aspects--MassachusettsHarwich (Mass.)--HistoryHorace (Schooner)Mackerel fisheries--Massachusetts--Barnstable County--History

Contributors

Chase, LotChase, Nathaniel

Types of material

Account books
Chickering Family

Chickering Family Papers

1813-1873
2 folders 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 095

Nathaniel Chickering came to Enfield, Massachusetts, in 1800 with his son Otis and operated a grist mill for twenty years. One of Otis’ children, Bertrand, operated the Enfield telephone system in the Howe family store and lived with the Edwin H. Howe family.

Includes land and pew deeds of Nathaniel Chickering and Mrs. Otis Chickering’s account booklet with C.F. Wood and Co.

Subjects

Chickering family