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

Collections: A

American Watch Company. Band

American Watch Company Band Engagement Book

1878-1883
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 364

Band of musicians who worked at the Waltham Watch Company in Waltham, Massachusetts. Engagement book itemizes engagement dates and locations, and membership (including recent immigrants), and includes information about rehearsals, business meetings, and payment.

Subjects

American Watch Company--Employees--RecreationAmerican Watch Company--Employees--Social life and customsAmerican Watch Company--HistoryBrass bands--Massachusetts--WalthamIndustrial recreation--Massachusetts--WalthamWaltham (Mass.)--Social conditions--19th century

Contributors

American Watch Company. BandSouth Side Brass Band (Waltham, Mass.)

Types of material

Appointment books
American Writing Paper Company

American Writing Paper Company Records

1851-1960
19 boxes 9.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 062

Paper company based in Holyoke, Massachusetts that at one time controlled 75% of the total United States fine paper output. Records include board of directors’ minutes, by-laws, blueprints, land transactions, merger agreements, and publications. Labor files (1936-1960) comprise the bulk of the collection and include contracts, correspondence, grievances, and negotiations.

Gift of Bill Casamo, Oct. 1985 (1985-094)

Subjects

Collective bargaining--Paper industry--Massachusetts--HolyokeHolyoke (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryHolyoke (Mass.)--Economic conditions--20th centuryLabor unions--Massachusetts--HolyokePaper industry workers--Labor unions--MassachusettsPaper industry--Massachusetts--HolyokeStrikes and lockouts--Paper industry--Massachusetts--Holyoke

Contributors

American Writing Paper Company

Types of material

BlueprintsPhotographs
Americans for the Arts

Americans for the Arts Records

1953-2008
16 24 linear feet
Call no.: MS 953

With roots extending back to 1965, Americans for the Arts is one of the first and most influential arts advocacy organizations in the United States. Founded as the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies (NALAA), the organization has collaborated with arts organizations at the local, state, and federal level; with government agencies; private individuals; and funders to represent and serve local communities and to raise awareness of the value of the arts in American lives. NAFTA plays a key role in sustaining creative communities and generating public and private sector policies, leadership, and resources for the arts and arts education. AFTA assumed its current name in 1996 after the merger of NALAA and the American Council for the Arts.

The records are focused on AFTA’s early years and include minutes of meetings and other organizational records, selected publications, and promotional materials.

Gift of AFTA, 2016-2017

Subjects

Arts--ManagementArts--United StatesCommunity arts projects
Amesbury Friends Meeting

Amesbury Friends Meeting Records

1700-2010
11 vols., 3 boxes 2.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 A447

The Amesbury Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends, tied historically to the Hampton and Seabrook Monthly Meetings, has met on the coast of Massachusetts and New Hampshire for over three hundred years.

The records of Amesbury (Hampton and Seabrook) Monthly Meeting document over three centuries of Quaker practice in New England coastal communities. The meeting minutes for both men’s and women’s meetings are relatively complete for the period 1701 to the late 1880s, and after nearly a century-long hiatus, pick up again in the mid-1980s.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Amesbury (Mass.)--Religious life and customsHampton (N.H.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MassachusettsQuakers--New HampshireSeabrook (N.H.)--Religious life and customsSociety of Friends--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--New Hampshire

Contributors

Hampton Monthly MeetingNew England Yearly Meeting of FriendsSeabrook Monthly Meeting

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)NewslettersVital records (Document genre)
Amherst (Mass.)

Amherst Town Records

ca.1750-1860
3 reels 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 338 mf

Incorporated in 1775, Amherst was settled by Massachusetts Bay colonists who moved west, first to the Springfield area, then to Amherst. The microfilm records of the town consist of tax and valuation lists.

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--History

Types of material

Microfilm
Amherst (Mass.)?

Grocer's Daybook

1888-1890
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 137 bd

Unnamed grocer who was possibly from the town of Amherst in either Massachusetts or New Hampshire. Daybook includes customers’ names, their account numbers, and the items that they purchased whether food or supplies.

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--HistoryConsumers--New England--History--19th centuryGroceries--New England--History--19th centuryGrocers--New England--History--19th centuryGrocery trade--New England--History--19th century

Types of material

Daybooks
Amherst Community Association (Amherst, Mass.)

Amherst Community Association Records

1939-1978
5 boxes 2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 050

Contains bylaws, incorporation papers, minutes, budgets, reports, and correspondence relating to the administration and fundraising activities of the Amherst Community Association, including the Community Chest fund drive. Also included are budget proposals and agency profiles documenting organizations such as the Amherst Boys Club and Girls Club, Children’s Aid and Family Service, Hampshire County Association for Retarded Citizens and Camp Anderson.

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--HistoryCamp AndersonSocial service--Massachusetts--Amherst

Contributors

Amherst Boys' Club (Amherst, Mass.)Amherst Community Association (Amherst, Mass.)Amherst Girls' Club (Amherst, Mass.)Children's Aid and Family Service of Hampshire County (Hampshire County, Mass.)Hampshire County Association for Retarded Citizens (Hampshire County, Mass.)Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Amherst Disarmament Coalition. Vigil for Peace and Justice

Amherst Disarmament Coalition Collection

1979-1987.
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 165

Vigil for Peace and Justice group that peacefully protested the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons, and government policy in Central America and the Middle East by organizing a weekly vigil in downtown Amherst, Massachusetts. Includes handouts and news clippings.

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--Social conditions--20th centuryAnti-imperialist movements--Massachusetts--AmherstAntinuclear movement--MassachusettsNuclear Moratorium Vigil (Amherst, Mass.)Peace movements--Massachusetts--AmherstSocial movements--Massachusetts--AmherstVigil for Peace and Justice (Amherst, Mass.)

Contributors

Amherst Disarmament Coalition (Amherst, Mass.)Crowe, Frances, 1919-

Types of material

Handbills
Amherst Friends for the Homeless

Amherst Friends for the Homeless Records

1989-2017
2 boxes .75 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1004

Amherst Friends for the Homeless, Inc. was a corporation committed to operating a shelter for homeless single women and started in 1989. After researching homelessness in the area, the Social Concerns Committee of the Unitarian-Universalist Society of Amherst decided that the needs for emergency shelter were not being met in the community of Amherst, Hadley, Pelham, and Shutesbury. To help this problem, Amherst Friends for the Homeless opened Rosemary’s Place on December 11, 1989. However, it was shut down after less than two years of operation in 1991 when the Grove Street Inn, a new shelter for men and women, had opened in Northampton. The corporation continued with one event a year, called Shelter Sunday, in which volunteers went door-to-door for donations for the Amherst Survival Center, First Call for Help, Grove Street Inn, and Not Bread Alone. The organization was dissolved in 2017.

Included in this collection are the documents pertaining to the operations of Amherst Friends for the Homeless, including financial records, meeting minutes, Shelter Sunday records, and Rosemary’s Place records.

Gift of Aaron Bousel, 2017.

Subjects

Shelters for the homeless

Types of material

Minutes
Amherst Growth Study Committee, Inc.

Amherst Growth Study Committee Records

1971-1974
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 543
View of the proposed the Amherst Fields
View of the proposed the Amherst Fields

In May 1971 Otto Paparazzo Associates announced their plans to develop 640 acres of land in East Amherst upon which a proposed 2,200 residential units, a commercial center, and a golf course would be built. Concerned about unnatural growth of the community and about the effect such a development would have on the environment, a group of residents formed the Amherst Growth Study Committee within a few months of the announcement. Despite these concerns, the Zoning Board of Appeals issued a formal permit for construction in December 1971, which the AGSC immediately appealed. Even though the group was unable to overturn the zoning board’s decision, they did achieve their ends, in part, when state and town agencies prevented the project from moving forward due to an overloaded sewage system. More importantly, the group increased public awareness about growth and housing in the town of Amherst.

Records include notes from AGSC meetings, correspondence, and newspaper clippings documenting coverage of the story in local papers.

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--HistoryAmherst (Mass.)--Politics and government

Contributors

Amherst Growth Study Committee, Inc