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

Santerre Franco-American Collection

Richard Santerre Franco-American Collection

1872-1978
113 items 6 linear feet
Call no.: RB 009

An historian from Lowell, Mass., Richard Santerre received his doctorate from Boston College in 1974 for his dissertation Le Roman Franco-Americain en Nouvelle Angleterre, 1878-1943. For more than twenty years he published regularly on the history of French and French-Canadian immigrants in New England, particularly Massachusetts, while doing so, assembling a significant collection of books on the subject.

With titles in both French and English, the Santerre Collection deals with the wide range of Franco-American experience in New England, touching on topics from literature and the arts to religion, benevolent societies, language, the process of assimilation, biography, and history. The collection includes several uncommon imprints regarding French American communities in Lowell, Lawrence, New Bedford, and Worcester, Mass., as well as in Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, and it includes publications of associations such as the Ralliement Français en Amérique, the Association Canado-Americain, and the Alliance Française de Lowell.

Language(s): French

Subjects

Franco-Americans--ConnecticutFranco-Americans--MassachusettsFranco-Americans--New HampshireFranco-Americans--Rhode IslandFrench Canadians

Contributors

Santerre, Richard
Restrictions: Collection currently unavailable due to renovation in SCUA
Sargent, Orlando, 1728-1803

Orlando Sargent Account Book

1753-1808
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 139

Prosperous, slave-owning farmer from Amesbury, Massachusetts, who also served as town warden, selectman, and representative. Includes details of the purchases of agricultural products (corn, potatoes, lamb, rye, hay, molasses, wood, cheese), and related services with some of the town’s earliest settlers, widow’s expenses, expenses in support of his grandmother, and family dates.

Subjects

Agricultural prices--Massachusetts--Amesbury--History--18th centuryAmesbury (Mass.)--Economic conditions--18th centuryAmesbury (Mass.)--History--18th century--BiographyAmesbury (Mass.)--Officials and employees--History--18th centuryFarm produce--Massachusetts--Amesbury--History--18th centuryFarmers--Massachusetts--Amesbury--Economic conditions--18th centurySargent family

Contributors

Sargent, Orlando, 1728-1803

Types of material

Account books
Sawin-Young Family Papers

Sawin-Young Family Papers

1864-1924
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 583
Depiction of Atop Mt. Tom
Atop Mt. Tom

At the turn of the twentieth century, Albert Sawin and his wife Elizabeth (nee Young) lived on Taylor Street in Holyoke, Massachusetts, with their three children, Allan, Ralph, and Alice. Elizabeth’s brother, also named Allan, traveled in the west during the 1880s, looking for work in Arizona, Utah, and Montana.

The bulk of the Sawin-Young Family Papers consists of letters exchanged between Elizabeth “Lizzie” Sawin, her sisters, and Jennie Young of nearby Easthampton. Later letters were addressed to Beatrice Sawin at Wheaton College from her father Walter E. Sawin, who contributed to the design for the Holyoke dam. The photograph album (1901) kept by Alice E. Sawin features images of the interior and exterior of the family’s home, as well as candid shots of family and friends and photographs of excursions to nearby Mt. Tom and the grounds of Northfield School.

Subjects

Holyoke (Mass.)--Social life and customsMontana--Description and travelSawin familyUtah--Description and travelYoung family

Contributors

Sawin, Alice E.Sawin, BeatriceYoung, AllanYoung, Elizabeth

Types of material

Letters (Correspondence)Photographs
Scott, Job, 1751-1793

Job Scott Collection

ca.1790-1946
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 931

A traveling minister for the Society of Friends, Job Scott was born in Providence, R.I., in October 1751. After a spiritual experience at the age of 19, Scott became deeply religious, joining Smithfield Monthly Meeting, and at the age of 22, he took a position teaching the children of Moses Brown, helping to convince Brown to join the Society in 1774. Removing to Springfield, Mass., at the time of the American Revolution, Scott was authorized as a traveling minister, eventually visiting communities from New England to Georgia and England. A quietist in principle, he preached and wrote about both the importance of the Inward Light and the importance of scripture, insisting on the dependence on the immediate movings of the spirit that in some ways prefigures the debate at the center of the Hicksite separation of 1827. He died of smallpox while traveling in Ireland in 1793. His posthumously published journal was highly influential throughout American Quakerism.

The Scott collection is a slender compilation of works by and about the Quaker minister Job Scott. In addition to a thin folder of family materials, the collection includes several unpublished essays by Scott (Brief remarks upon the knowledge of the one Lord; Salvation by Jesus Christ the most important of all subjects; Remarks on the nature of salvation; and On perseverance), several of his published works, and research notes and a biographical essay about him compiled by Jessie G. Carter (1940-1946).

Gift of the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, 2016

Subjects

Quakers--Rhode IslandSalvationSociety of Friends--DoctrinesSociety of Friends--Rhode Island
Service Employees International Union, Local 925 (Tufts University)

SEIU Local 925 (Tufts University) Records

1978-1980
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 589
Depiction of SEIU Local 925
SEIU Local 925

In October 1978 a group of clerical workers at Tufts united in an effort to organize their coworkers with Local 925, S.E.I.U. Isolated and scattered across campus, the clerical employees at the university greeted this call to unionize with support, hoping it would mean an improvement in salaries and in grievance procedures. By the summer of the following year, 60% of eligible employees signed authorization cards, more than required to vote on the issue, and an election early that fall was expected. Tufts administration, however, delayed the election by disputing the composition of the bargaining unit. Formal hearings took place from September through the end of the year, but instead of resolving the case, the Boston Labor Board referred it to Washington on January 25, 1980. Nine months later the election was finally held, but the results were not what were anticipated more than a year earlier. Rather than an easy victory to unionize, the majority of clerical staff at Tufts voted not to make Local 925 their exclusive bargaining representative. The administration’s anti-union campaign waged throughout 1979 and 1980 had a tremendous impact on the employees at the university, and a number of concessions made on wages, health insurance, and vacations further eroded support for organizing with Local 925.

The collection documents the efforts of Tufts clerical workers to unionize during 1978-1980. The group’s biweekly newsletter, Inside Tufts, written by the university’s employees and published by Local 925, offers an important behind-the-scenes look on two fronts: the issues and grievances of the clerical staff at Tufts and the reasons behind their decision to unionize. Materials relating to the efforts of other Boston-area institutions, in particular colleges and universities, are also included.

Subjects

Labor unions--MassachusettsLabor unions--Organizing

Contributors

Service Employees International Union. Local 925
Shattuck, Louise F.

Louise F. Shattuck Papers

1881-2006
34 boxes 24 linear feet
Call no.: MS 563
Depiction of Louise Shattuck
Louise Shattuck

A life-long resident of Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts, and a third-generation Spiritualist, Louise Shattuck was an artist, teacher, and noted breeder of English cocker spaniels.

Shattuck’s work as a teacher, writer, artist, and dog breeder are documented in this collection through decades of correspondence and diaries, artwork, publications, and newspaper clippings. Of particular note are the materials associated with the Spiritualist history of Lake Pleasant, including three turn of the century spirit slates, samples of Louise’s automatic writing, a ouija board and dowsing rods, and an excellent photograph album with associated realia for the Independent Order of Scalpers, a Lake Pleasant.

Subjects

Dogs--BreedingEnglish Cocker spanielsLake Pleasant (Mass.)--HistoryMediums--MassachusettsMontague (Mass.)--HistorySpiritualism

Contributors

Shattuck, Louise FShattuck, Sarah Bickford

Types of material

DiariesPhotograph albumsPhotographsSpirit slatesSpirit writing
Shearer, James

James Shearer Daybook

1836-1838
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 418 bd

During the late 1830s, James Shearer operated a general store near Palmer, Massachusetts, trading in the gamut of dry goods and commodities that made up the country trade in Massachusetts, from dried fish, butter, rum, and brandy, to soap, nails, chalk, cloth, sugar, molasses, spices, coffee, and tea. Although some customers paid their accounts in cash, most appear bartered goods (e.g, with butter) or services (carting).

The Shearer daybook contains detailed records the transactions of a general store located in or near Palmer, Mass., during the years surrounding the financial panic of 1837. The volume is attributed to Shearer based on a single signature on the last page of the volume, closing out a lengthy account with J. Sedgwick. Although Shearer cannot be identified with certainty, it appears likely that he was a member of the prolific Shearer family of Palmer in Hampden County.

Subjects

General stores--Massachusetts--PalmerPalmer (Mass.)--History

Contributors

Shearer, James

Types of material

Daybooks
Shutesbury (Mass.)

Shutesbury (Mass.) 250th Anniversary Collection

1961-2014
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 957

The town of Shutesbury was founded as “Roadtown” in 1735 and was incorporated as a town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1761. The town celebrated its 250th Anniversary in 2011 and planned a year’s worth of events, lectures, and celebrations.

This collection comprises the flyers and notes for several of these events and includes commemorative albums and town histories. A perfect example of a small New England town, these materials are a snapshot of the history of Shutesbury and a celebration of the town’s legacy.

Subjects

Shutesbury (Mass.)--History.Shutesbury 250th Anniversary Steering Committee.

Types of material

Correspondence.Flyers.
Sidney Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends)

Sidney Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends) Records

1791-1915
1 vol., 1 folder 0.2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 S536

Quaker meeting for worship began in Sidney, Maine, in 1795, under the care of Vassalboro Monthly Meeting and advanced to preparative meeting status in 1800, before finally being set off as a monthly meeting in 1802. One of a number of meetings established in the Kennebec River Valley in the decades after the American Revolution, Sidney became the parent of worship groups in several nearby towns at the turn of the nineteenth century, the most successful of which was the one in Fairfield, which was set off from Sidney as a monthly meeting in 1911. Sidney was laid down to Winthrop Monthly Meeting in 1932.

The records for Sidney Monthly Meeting held in SCUA consist of a single volume each of minutes from the Women’s meeting (1791-1809) and from Ministry and Counsel (1907-1915). The bulk of the records for the meeting are held in the collections of the Maine Historical Society.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2016

Subjects

Quakers--MaineSidney (Me.)--Religious life and customsSociety of Friends--Maine

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Siggins, Betsy, 1939-

Betsy Siggins Papers

1958-2018
6 boxes 6 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1022
Depiction of Betsy Siggins, ca.1959. Photo by Alan Klein
Betsy Siggins, ca.1959. Photo by Alan Klein

A key figure in the New England folk revival of the 1960s, Betsy Siggins (nee Minot) entered Boston University in the fall 1958 just at the music was taking off. Along with her college friend Joan Baez, she soon left school for the lure of the bohemian musical scene in Cambridge. At the age of 20, Betsy married the banjo player for the Charles River Valley Boys, Bob Siggins, who was also a founding member of Club 47, the most important venue for folk music in the region. For musicians from Baez and Bob Dylan to Jim Kweskin, Eric Von Schmidt, and Jim Rooney Club 47 was a career launching pad and despite the segregation of the era, it was a place where white northern audiences first encountered African American and blues musicians. Siggins worked full time at Club 47, filling a variety of jobs from office work to waitress to art gallery manager, eventually becoming program officer, arranging the schedules for musicians booked by Rooney or Byron Linardos. After Club 47 closed in 1968, Siggins went on to work for a succession of not for profit organizations, including the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife and for programs for the homeless and poor.
The Siggins Collection contains important materials on Club 47 and its successor, Club Passim, including business records, ephemera, clippings, and some remarkable scrapbooks featuring performers such Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Richard Farina. The collection contains dozens of photographs (many taken by Charlie Frizzell), showing Siggins, her friends, and musicians at home, at Club 47, and at folk festivals in Newport, Brandeis, and Monterey. Of particular note in the collection is a remarkable series of 27 reel to reel tapes of performances at Club 47 featuring John Hammond, Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Eric Von Schmidt, Jim Rooney, Jeff and Maria Muldaur, Jackie Washington, the Charles River Valley Boys, Joan Baez, and others. Additional material on Siggins and the Minot family was retained by the Cambridge Historical Society.

Transferred from Cambridge Historical Society, April 2018

Subjects

Club 47 (Cambridge, Mass.)Dylan, Bob, 1941-Folk music--New England