The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
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Collecting area: New England

Nantucket Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends)

Nantucket Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends) Records

1776-1944
2 boxes 0.75 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 N368

Established in 1708, the Nantucket Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends has had a distinctive history marked by the separations that troubled Quakerism in the nineteenth century. In 1830, Nantucket became one of the few monthly meetings in New England to divide along Hicksite and Orthodox lines, and as that separation was healing in 1845, the Wilburite and Gurneyite factions separated. Uniquely, the Wilburites split further in 1863, when the “Primitive” or “Otisite” Friends departed. Quaker worship was effectively absent on Nantucket from 1894 to about 1939.

This fraction of the records of the Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends documents the history of the meeting up to and through the Wilburite-Gurneyite schism. With the exception of some loose materials from the Women’s Meeting from 1776-1781, the collection contains little from the first several decades of the meeting (these are housed at the Nantucket Historical Association), but there is rich content on the state of the meeting and the conflict that followed the separation of 1845, along with minutes from the decade leading up the Wilburite-Gurneyite reunion in 1944.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

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

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends (Gurneyite : 1845-1867)

Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends (Gurneyite) Records

1845-1867
4 vols., 1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 G876 N368

Having already separated between Hicksite and Orthodox factions in 1830, Friends on Nantucket separated again in 1845 between Gurneyites and Wilburites. While Gurneyites were the “larger body” in nearly every other meeting in the region, on Nantucket they were the minority. Drawing some of their members from the Hicksites, who were disbanding at the time, the Gurneyite monthly was under the care of Sandwich Quarterly Meeting. Never great number, the meeting was laid down in 1867, although a worship group under care of New Bedford Monthly Meeting continued to 1897.

This relatively small collection offers relatively complete documentation for a short-lived Gurneyite Friends meeting, including nearly complete runs of minutes (including rough minutes) for both the men’s and women’s meetings and records of meeting finances.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

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

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite: 1845-1945)

Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite) Records

1845-1976
2 vols., 1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 W553 N368

In the complex history of Quakerism on Nantucket, the Wilburite Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends stands out. Separating from the numerically smaller Gurneyites in 1845, the “Otisite” monthly on Nantucket separated again in 1863, drawing away from the Wilburite Sandwich Quarterly Meeting, drawing with them a number of sympathetic Friends on the mainland, particularly in Warwick, R.I. Although worship on the island effectively ended in 1894, the mainland Otisites maintained their separation until 1911. Quaker worship on Nantucket was revived in 1939 and with the reunion of Wilburites and Gurneyites in 1944, the monthly meeting decided to remain independent, joining New England Yearly Meeting only in 1956.

This small, but important collection is centered on the latter years of the Wilburite meeting on Nantucket, during the period of reunification with Gurneyites. The bulk of records for the Nantucket Monthly Meeting (Wilburite) are housed at the Nantucket Historical Association.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Nantucket (Mass.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--MassachusettsWilburites

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Narragansett Quarterly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite: 1944-1951)

Narragansett Quarterly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite) Records

1945-1969
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 W553 N3778

During the reunification of New England Friends in 1945, the Narragansett Quarterly Meeting (Wilburite) was formed as a transitional body. Established as a successor to the Rhode Island and Sandwich Quarterly Meeting (Wilburite) in 1944, it was the sole remaining Wilburite Quarterly, overseeing monthly meetings in North Dartmouth, Providence, and South Kingstown (which became Westerly in 1945). In 1951, Narragansett Quarter merged with the Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting.

The sparse collection for this ephemeral body consist solely of financial records maintained by the treasurer.

Gift of NEYM, April 2016

Subjects

Quakers--MassachusettsQuakers--Rhode IslandSociety of Friends--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Rhode IslandWilburites

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Financial records
Narramissic Valley Monthly Meeting of Friends

Narramissic Valley Monthly Meeting of Friends Records

1992-1994
1 fol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 N3773

Beginning in 1972, worship group meetings met in Orland (Maine) in the care of the Midcoast Monthly Meeting. By 1979, the Orland Worship Group was set off as the Narramissic Valley Monthly Meeting. The meeting has been a member of the Vassalboro (Maine) Quarterly Meeting since 1979.

The single folder of records from the Narramissic meeting contains a partially complete set of minutes of monthly meetings from December 1992 to September 1994, lacking Apr, May, Aug and Oct 1993, and Mar 1994, as well as State-of-the-Society reports for 1992, 1993, and one unidentified year. It also contains a written statement of support for same-sex marriage.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Maine--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Types of material

Annual reportsMinutes (Administrative records)
Nash-Scott Family

Nash-Scott Family Papers

ca.1830-1957
15 boxes 15 linear feet
Call no.: MS 581
Depiction of Nash family
Nash family

Long-time residents of Hadley, Massachusetts, the Nash and Scott families were united in 1881 when John Nash, a farmer, married Lizzie Scott. Of their seven children, Herman B. Nash, graduated from the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1917, and immediately enlisted in the army, serving in France at the close of World War I. His youngest sister, Helen, kept the family connected during these years by writing and distributing a family newsletter, the Plainville News.

The Nash-Scott Family Papers contain a number of photographs, including an album capturing a trip to the west coast in 1915 and a canoe trip to Labrador in 1920. Herman B. Nash’s scrapbook documents not only his time as a student at M.A.C., but also his service in France, featuring candid photographs taken by Nash during and after the war as well as identification cards, company rosters, and a German propaganda leaflet picked up near the front. Pamphlets, genealogical notes and postcards complete the collection.

Subjects

Hadley (Mass.)--HistoryHadley (Mass.)--Social life and customsMassachusetts Agricultural CollegeNash familyScott familyWorld War, 1914-1918--France

Contributors

Nash, Herman B

Types of material

Photograph albumsPhotographs
Nash, William A.

William A. Nash Papers

ca.1945-2006
13 boxes 19.5 linear feet
Call no.: FS 125

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

In 1944, William Nash graduated as valedictorian of Illinois Institute of Technology in civil and mechanical engineering and five years later he received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan. Pursuing a career in naval engineering, Nash worked as a research engineer at the Naval Ship Research and Development Center in Washington, D.C. (1949-1954) and as a structural researcher at Bethesda Naval Institute (1953-1957), where he participated in the deepest recorded naval dive and reverse engineering of recovered Soviet submarines off the coast of Norway, the details of which remain classified. After nine years teaching mechanical engineering at the University of Florida, Nash joined the Department of Civil Engineering at UMass in 1967, where he remained until his retirement in 1992. During his career, Nash also served as a consultant for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Lockheed International, General Electric and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Nash Papers contain correspondence, publications, and research notes documenting William Nash’s varied academic work and teaching as an engineer, along with selected work of his students.

Subjects

Marine engineersUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Civil Engineering

Contributors

Nash, William A
Nashua (N.H.) Labor Council

Nashua (N.H.) Labor Council Collection

1989-1990
1 box 1.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 286

Established as the newspaper of organized labor in New England in 1989, the New England Labor News and Commentary was the official newspaper of the Nashua, N.H. Labor Council.

Subjects

Labor unions--New EnglandLabor--New England--Periodicals

Contributors

Nashua (N.H.) Labor Council
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Portsmouth Branch (Portsmouth, N.H.)

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Portsmouth Branch (Portsmouth, N.H.) Records

1963-1966
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1006

The first New Hampshire branch of the NAACP was formed in Portsmouth in 1958, meeting initially in the home of its first president, the local businessman Thomas Cobbs. Growing steadily during the 1960s, the Portsmouth membership were engaged in addressing local concerns over discrimination in housing and employment and were stalwart supporters of the national civil rights struggle.

This small collection of records from a local New England branch of the NAACP consists of minutes of meetings between 1963 and 1966 and a relatively miscellaneous assortment of fliers and other materials from the national organization. Although the collection is slight, it includes records NAACP actions in Portsmouth and, notably, the minutes were kept by Betty Hill and her husband Barney, who became well known for their claim to having an encounter with a UFO.

Subjects

African Americans--New HampshireCivil rights movements--New HampshireDiscrimination in housing--New Hampshire

Contributors

Cobbs, ThomasHill, Barney, 1922-1969Hill, Betty (Eunice)

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
National Priorities Project

National Priorities Project Records

1983-2015
15 boxes 22.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 913

A national non-partisan, not-for-profit organization based in Northampton, Mass., the National Priorities Project was founded in 1983 by Greg Speeter, Brenda Loew, Ricky Fogel, and Alwin Schmidt to conduct research into the depths of the federal budget. Their first effort was to analyze the dramatic reductions affecting many social programs, but the organization grew around the principle of making the complex federal budget transparent and more publicly accessible so that the public can better influence how their tax dollars are spent. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 in recognition of its pioneering work in tracking military spending, the NPP continues to work toward a federal budget that reflects Americans’ priorities, including funding for issues such as inequality, unemployment, education, healthcare, and the need to build a green economy.

The NPP collection documents over thirty years of a not-for-profit organization devoted to research-informed advocacy for a federal budget that reflects the priorities of most Americans. In addition to a run of NPP publications, the collection includes a series of topical files from Greg Speeter and his associates, selected correspondence, talks, and notes on their work.

Gift of Kris Elinevsky, 2016

Subjects

Military spendingUnited States--Appropriations and expenditures

Contributors

Speeter, Greg