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

Collecting area: UMass faculty

Abramson, Doris E.

Doris E. Abramson Papers

ca.1930-2007
25 linear feet
Call no.: FS 127
Depiction of Doris Abramson
Doris Abramson

After earning her masters degree from Smith College in 1951, Doris Abramson (class of 1949) returned to UMass in 1953 to become instructor in the English Department, remaining at her alma mater through a long and productive career. An historian of theatre and poet, she was a founding member of the Speech Department, Theatre Department, and the Massachusetts Review. In 1959, a Danforth grant helped Abramson pursue doctoral work at Columbia. Published in 1969, her dissertation, Negro Playwrights in the American Theatre, 1925-1969, was a pioneering work in the field. After her retirement, she and her partner of more than 40 years, Dorothy Johnson, ran the Common Reader Bookshop in New Salem.
An extensive collection covering her entire career, Abramson’s papers are a valuable record of the performing arts at UMass, her research on African American playwrights, her teaching and directing, and many other topics relating to her diverse interests in literature and the arts.

Gift of Dorothy Johnson, Apr. 2008

Subjects

African-American theaterPoets--MassachusettsUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Theater

Contributors

Abramson, Doris E.
Aczel, Tamas

Tamas Aczel Papers

ca.1950-1994
18 boxes 26 linear feet
Call no.: FS 031

Born on Dec. 1, 1921, to a middle class family, Tamas Aczel became affiliated with leftist politics in Hungary prior to the Second World War, joining the Party after. With degrees in literature from Peter Pazmany University (BA 1948) and Eotvos Lorent University (MA 1950), Aczel quickly established a reputation as a literary talent, publishing seven novels and winning the Kossuth Prize (1949) and Stalin Prize for Literature (1952). During this period, he became disenchanted with the Communist government and during the short-lived rebellion in 1956, he served as press secretary for Prime Minister Imre Nagy. When Nagy was deposed, Aczel escaped through Yugoslavia to Austria and then England. In 1966, he was invited to teach modern European literature at UMass, where he became Director of the MFA program (1978-1982). Aczel died in 1994, leaving his wife Olga A. Gyarmati (an Olympic gold medalist in the long jump, 1948) and son Thomas.

The Aczel collection consists primarily of numerous drafts of several novels, including The Hunt (1990), Illuminations (1981), and Ice Age (1965), along with other writing, translations, some student essays, and autobiographical material. Some material is in Hungarian.

Subjects

Authors--MassachusettsPoets--MassachusettsUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of English

Contributors

Aczel, Tamas
Agha, Shahid Ali, 1949-

Shahid Ali Agha Collection

1972-1979
2 vols. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 636

A poet and translator of Kashmiri descent, Agha Shahid was raised in a household where poetry was recited in Persian, Urdu, Hindi, and English. Born in New Delhi on February 4, 1949, he was educated at the University of Kashmir, Srinagar, and University of Delhi, earning earned a doctorate in English from Pennsylvania State University in 1984 and an MFA from the University of Arizona in 1985. The author of nine volumes of poetry, and widely anthologized, Ali was on faculty in the MFA Program at University of Massachusetts Amherst, when he died of brain cancer in December, 2001.

This small collection contains copies of Ali’s first two books, Bone-Sculpture (1972) and In Memory of Begum Akhtar (1979), a self-produced chapbook, and a rough manuscript of poems. All are inscribed to his colleague and friend Zabelle Stodola.

Subjects

Poets--MassachusettsUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of English

Contributors

Agha, Shahid Ali, 1949-
Albertson, Dean, 1920-

Dean Albertson Papers

1966-1968
11 boxes 16.5 linear feet
Call no.: FS 109

A long-time faculty member at UMass Amherst, Dean Albertson was a twentieth century U.S. historian with a specialty in oral history. A veteran of the Second World War, Albertson received his BA from University of California Berkeley (1942) and doctorate from Columbia (1955), joining the Department of History at UMass in 1965 after several years at Brooklyn College. Interested throughout his career in new methods in research and teaching history, he was author of books on Dwight Eisenhower, Claude Wickard (Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Agriculture), and the student movements of the 1960s. Albertson died at his home in Longmeadow, Mass., on March 31, 1989, at the age of 68.

The Albertson Papers consist of the records of three summer institutes in history at UMass run during the summer 1966-1968, and funded by the National Defence Education Act (NDEA). Aimed at high school teachers of social sciences and history in western Massachusetts, the institutes were designed to provide in-service training and to expose teachers to newer material and techniques in teaching U.S. history. See also Dean Albertson’s collection of oral histories.

Subjects

University of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of History

Contributors

Albertson, Dean, 1920-
Alexander, Charles P. (Charles Paul), 1889-1981

Charles P. Alexander Papers

1922-1959
4 boxes 2 linear feet
Call no.: FS 036
Depiction of Charles P. Alexander
Charles P. Alexander

Charles Paul Alexander, a professor and head of the Entomology Department from 1922 until 1959, was the international expert on the crane fly (Tipulidae). Alexander was born in Gloversville, New York in 1889, earned his B.S. (1913) and Ph.D. (1918) from Cornell University and joined the Massachusetts Agricultural College faculty in 1922. Alexander became the head of the Entomology Dept. and the Zoology Dept. in 1937 and then the dean of the the School of Science in 1945 and while at the University, classified nearly 13,000 species of crane fly. His personal collection of crane flies is held by the Smithsonian Institute. Alexander died in 1981.

The Charles Paul Alexander Papers contains mainly Alexander’s published reports on the crane fly as well as some of his lecture notes.

Subjects

EntomologyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Entomology

Contributors

Alexander, Charles P. (Charles Paul), 1889-1981
Alfange, Jr., Dean

Dean Alfange, Jr. Papers

3 boxes 4.5 linear feet
Call no.: FS 214

Dean Alfange, Jr. was a professor in the political science department at UMass Amherst teaching constitutional law and civil liberties until his retirement in 1999. During that time he also served in the positions of Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Acting Provost. Growing up on New York’s West Side, he earned a B.A. at Hamilton College in 1950. He served in the military from 1952 to 1957; this was followed by twenty years of serving in the Air Force Reserves, retiring in 1980 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1960 he earned a master’s degree from the University of Colorado followed by a doctorate from Cornell University in 1967. During his teaching career he received distinguished teaching awards from both Lafayette and UMass. The Dean Alfange Lecture Series in Constitutional Law was funded by a group of former students and brought distinguished scholars in that field to speak annually. Following his retirement from teaching, he was able to pursue his interest in the arts and became a supporter of several small theatrical groups in New York City.

The Alfange papers contain a small array of correspondence, photographs, course syllabi, handwritten lecture notes, writings, awards, and documents related to the Alfange lecture series. A small amount of files relate to his time in the military and his interest in theater and music.

Gift of Barbara Alfange, 2024.
Allen, Dwight William, 1931-

Dwight William Allen Papers

1967-1975
7 boxes 8.5 linear feet
Call no.: FS 165
Depiction of Dwight Allen in classroom
Dwight Allen in classroom

A influential and flamboyant educational reformer, Dwight W. Allen served as Director of Teacher Education at his alma mater Stanford from 1959 until accepting a position as Dean of the School of Education at UMass Amherst in 1967. A proponent of integrating technology into teaching and co-developer of the technique of microteaching, Allen cemented his reputation as an innovator during his time at UMass (1968-1975), a time that coincided with the rapid expansion of the university. Allen helped recruit students of color to the graduate program in significant numbers, opened admissions to students with unconvential credentials, allowed students a voice in directing and governing the program, and abolished grading, among other initiatives, but while supporters lauded the creativity and excitement of the period, his radical ideas elicited considerable opposition as well. He resigned in 1975, in part due to the increasing demands his international consulting, later accepting a position at Old Dominion University, where he remained until his retirement in 2008. Allen is author of nine books, including American Schools: The $100 Billion Challenge, written with his former graduate student Bill Cosby.
The Allen papers contain a wealth of materials pertaining to the tumultuous years at UMass, including Allen’s curricular and teaching reforms, special projects, and his efforts to recruit African American students and address institutional racism. The correspondence, memos, and private reports that Allen maintained are particularly valuable for understanding the period as are the various surveys, studies, and reports on the state of the School of Education. The collection also includes material relating to some of Allen’s academic interests in education, including microteaching, alternative schools, and certification.

Gift of Dwight Allen, Aug. 2013

Subjects

Alternative educationEducational changeRacism in educationUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. School of Education
Alspach, Russell K. (Russell King), 1901-

Russell K. Alspach Papers

1950-1978
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: FS 025

Russel K. Alspach earned his PhD in 1932 from the University of Pennsylvania where he taught English from 1924-1942. After four years of service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he spent eighteen years as head of the Department of English at West Point Military Academy before retiring in 1965 with the rank of Brigadier General. A specialist in Irish literature with wide ranging interests running from William Butler Yeats to Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Faulkner, Alspach published prolifically throughout his career. He took a post-retirement appointment at UMass in 1966, but hardly retired, eventually becoming Head of the Department of English, and teaching until his final retirement and death in 1980.

The Alspach Papers consist of professional correspondence, drafts of writing, and reviews written by Russell K. Alspach. The small collection includes grant applications and notes for Alspach’s Yeats Study Series, as well as a 3.75 inch monographic recording of readings and music by unidentified artists. The Department of Special Collections and University Archives is also home to the Alspach Yeats Collection of rare books.

Gift of Russell K. Alspach, 1999

Subjects

University of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of EnglishYeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939

Contributors

Alspach, Russell K. (Russell King), 1901-
Alumnus Magazine

Alumnus Magazine Photograph Collection

ca. 1974-1989
12 linear feet
Call no.: RG 147
Depiction of Julius Erving during basketball workshop at UMass, 1980
Julius Erving during basketball workshop at UMass, 1980

The once active photo morgue of the Alumnus Magazine, the Alumnus Magazine Photograph Collection captures diverse aspects of campus life during the 1970s and 1980s, including portraits of campus officials, sports events, commencements, a visit to campus by Julius Erving, and assorted campus buildings and scenery.

Subjects

University of Massachusetts Amherst--AlumniUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--Students

Contributors

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Types of material

Photographs
Alvord, Henry E.

Henry E. Alvord Papers

1859-1866
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: FS 037

An officer in the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry during the Civil War, Henry Alvord (1844-1904) became a Professor of Dairy Science at Massachusetts Agricultural College and a founder of the American Association of Land Grant Colleges. He went on to a distinguished career in education and work with agricultural experiment stations in Maryland and Oklahoma.

Subjects

Massachusetts Agricultural College--Faculty

Contributors

Alvord, Henry E