The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
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Collections: A

Amherst Railway Society

Amherst Railway Society Records

1963-2007
1 box 1.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 794

Founded in 1963 and chartered one year later, the Amherst Railway Society is a non-profit organization of railroad enthusiasts based in the Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts. Meeting monthly, the Society sponsors lecturers and programming on railroad-related topics, and since 1968 it has hosted the annual Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show, now held at the Eastern States Exposition. Some of the proceeds from the Hobby Show are used to provide grants to support historic preservation and other railroad-related projects throughout the country.

Documenting the history of the ARS from its founding, this collection contains organizational materials, minutes of meetings, membership lists, officers’ reports, mailings and correspondence, and other materials relating to the Society’s programs.

Subjects

HobbiesRailroads--HistoryRailroads--Models
Amherst Study Circles: Dialogues on Race and Class

Amherst Study Circles: Dialogues on Race and Class Records

2002-2016 Bulk: 2002-2006
1 box .4 linear feet
Call no.: MS 917

Amherst Study Circles: Dialogues on Race and Class flier

The Amherst Study Circles: Dialogues on Race and Class were a series of dialogue and project action groups begun in 2002 to discuss and enact social change in the school districts and communities around Amherst, MA. They arose as a response by the Amherst Regional High School (ARHS) Parent Center to a question to their group: What were they going to do about racism in the Amherst Schools? The ARHS Parent Center Board suggested the study circle model, and a round of facilitated pilot groups were run in February 2003. The successful pilots stirred the organizers to seek additional support, and with funding from the Amherst Education Foundation and the Amherst Drugs Free Partnership, additional groups were organized each year, building awareness, trust, and power amongst those striving to improve the community’s schools for all students. Almost 200 people, including school administrators, teachers, staff, students, parents, and community members participated over the course of several years, and each group culminated in an action forum and set up action groups to propose and enact tangible steps towards specific goals. Action groups affected change in school climate, policies, and course offerings, and organized a standing committee of the ARHS Parent Center called RaDAR: Race and Discipline, Action, Rights.

The Amherst Study Circles: Dialogues on Race and Class Records consist of descriptive materials from the ARHS Parent Center; an organizer’s binder with sections on the origin in 2002, participants, action groups, finances, curriculum, and evaluations; and additional materials such as evaluations for study circle sessions and facilitators, newspaper clippings of articles about the group and their work, and documents for student study circles, such as advertisements, curriculum, and certificates.

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--HistoryAmherst Regional High School (Amherst, Mass.)Classism--MassachusettsEducation--MassachusettsRacism--Massachusetts

Contributors

Amherst Regional High School Parent CenterWolf, Jackie
Ancient Order of United Workmen. Deerfield Valley Lodge No. 150

Ancient Order of United Workmen. Deerfield Valley Lodge No. 150 Records

1895-1920
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 453

The Ancient Order of United Workmen, a fraternal benefit society, was originally founded in Pennsylvania in 1868. The Massachusetts lodge was founded in 1879 with the Deerfield Valley Lodge incorporated in 1880.

The collection consists of records dating from 1895–1920, including financial documents, membership information, and correspondence.

Subjects

Fraternal Aid AssociationFraternal organizations--MassachusettsShelburne Falls (Mass.)--History

Contributors

Ancient Order of United Workmen. Deerfield Valley Lodge No. 150

Types of material

Letters (Correspondence)Receipts (Financial records)
Andrews, Carol D.

Carol D. Andrews Collection

2001-2002
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: PH 031

A resident of New Braintree, Massachusetts, Carol Andrews became interested in the work of gravestone carvers when working on the history of her local cemetery. She has subsequently conducted research on the history and production of carvers from central and western Massachusetts during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The Andrews Collection contains photographs and research notes arranged in alphabetical order regarding the work of identified Massachusetts carvers. Among the names represented in the collection are Abercrombie, Codner, Colburn, Daugherty, Geyer, Hartwell, Hastings, Kenfield, Kilburn, Kinney, Lewis, New, Park, Pool, Pratt, Rankin, Reed, Sikes, White, and Woods. Andrews assembled more comprehensive representations of the work of the Soules (Beza Sr. and Jr., Coomer, et al.), William Young, and Thomas Harmon. The collection also includes some correspondence with Vincent Luti and Robert Drinkwater relating to her research.

Subjects

Sepulchral monuments--MassachusettsStone carving--Massachusetts

Contributors

Andrews, Carol DAssociation for Gravestone StudiesDrinkwater, RobertLuti, Vincent

Types of material

Letters (Correspondence)Photographs
Angelo, William J.

William J. Angelo Papers

1973-1990
5 boxes 2.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 441

As a staffer for Congressman Silvio Conte, Angelo researched numerous small business and economic development issues, both for constituents and for national legislation, prepared subcommittee and committee hearings, and wrote numerous articles and floor statements for Conte. The collection provides an overview of Conte’s work with and for small businesses, as well as Angelo’s contributions to the Small Business Act.

Subjects

Conte, Silvio O. (Silvio Oltavio), 1921-1991Massachusetts--Politics and government--1951-Small business--Laws and LegislationUnited States. Congress

Contributors

Angelo, William J

Types of material

Bills (legislative records)Letters (Correspondence)
Anglin family

Anglin Family Papers

1874-1955 Bulk: 1914-1926
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 699
Depiction of Anglin family and friends, ca.1921
Anglin family and friends, ca.1921

Born in Cork, Ireland to a prosperous family, the Anglin siblings began immigrating to Canada and the United States in 1903. The first to relocate to Canada, brothers Will and Sydney pursued vastly different careers, one as a Presbyterian minister and the other as a salesman at a Toronto slaughterhouse. George and Crawford both served in the military during World War I, the former in the British Infantry as a medical officer and the latter in the 4th University Overseas Company first in France and later in Belgium where he died saving the life of a wounded soldier. Gladys Anglin trained as a nurse, but worked in a Canadian department store and at the Railway Office before suffering a mental breakdown and entering the Ontario Hospital as a patient. Ethel remained in Ireland the longest where she taught Domestic Economics at a technical school. The only Anglin to immigrate to the United States and the only female sibling to marry, Ida and husband David Jackson settled in Monson, Massachusetts where they raised four daughters.

The Anglin siblings were part of a close knit family who stayed in contact despite their geographic separation through their correspondence. Siblings wrote and exchanged lengthy letters that document not only family news, but also news of local and national significance. Topics addressed in their letters include World War I, the Irish revolution, medicine, religious ministry, and domestic issues from the ability of a single woman to support herself through work to child rearing.

Subjects

Anglin family--CorrespondenceIreland--Emigration and immigration--HistoryIreland--History--War of Independence, 1919-1921Irish--Canada--HistoryIrish--United States--HistoryWorld War, 1914-1918
Antinuclear Activism

Antinuclear Activism Collection

ca.1977-1990
32 boxes 47.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 547

In the mid-1970s, Western Massachusetts was a hotbed of antinuclear activism, sparked both by the proposal to build a nuclear power plant in Montague, Mass., and by the construction and operation of plants nearby in Rowe, Mass., and Seabrook, N.H. A group of activists associated with the Liberation News Service and Montague Farm commune, including Anna Gyorgy, Sam Lovejoy, Harvey Wasserman, Steven Diamond, Chuck Light, and Dan Keller, were instrumental in organizing popular opposition to nuclear power and they helped establish several antinuclear organizations, ranging from the Alternative Energy Coalition to the Renewable Energy Media Service, Clamshell Alliance, and Musicians United for Safe Energy.

The Antinuclear Activism Collection contains the results of the grassroots opposition to nuclear power in Western Massachusetts. The bulk of the collections consists of a variety of publications produced by or collected by a group of antinuclear activists in Franklin County, Mass. In addition to a large number newspapers (e.g. Clamshell Alliance News) and pamphlets, the collection includes t-shirts and bumper stickers, ephemeral publications, notes, sporadic correspondence, and other information collected both for research purposes and to aid in their public campaigns. Of particular interest are a set of early minutes of the Clamshell Alliance Coordinating committee (1977-1978), and information on protests at the Seabrook and Rowe nuclear facilities and the proposed facility at Montague. The collection is part of the Famous Long Ago Archive.

Subjects

Antinuclear movement–MassachusettsClamshell AllianceGyorgy, AnnaNuclear energy--MassachusettsRenewable Energy Media Service

Contributors

Alternative Energy Coalition
Antipa, Gregory A.

Gregory A. Antipa Papers

1953-1960
10 boxes 15 linear feet
Call no.: MS 567

A specialist in ciliate development and ecology, Gregory Antipa received a doctorate in Zoology at the University of Illinois in 1970, and since 1978, has been on faculty at San Francisco State University. Working with Paramecium, Conchophthirus, and other taxa, Antipa’s research has ventured into structure/function relationships, chemotaxis, and cellular adaptations, and he has been involved in research into the decomposition of organic wastes by protozoa. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Society for Cell Biology,the Microscopy Society of America, and the International Society of Protistologists.

The Antipa collection consists primarily of electron micrographs of ciliates Condylostoma, Trichodina, Conchophthirus, and the mussel encommensal Mytilophilus, along with a lab manual on protist culture and assorted notes.

Subjects

ConchophthirusCondylostomaProtozoans--DevelopmentTrichodina

Contributors

Antipa, Gregory A

Types of material

Scanning electron micrographs
Antislavery

Antislavery Pamphlet Collection

1725-1911
7.5 linear feet
Call no.: RB 003

The Antislavery Collection contains several hundred printed pamphlets and books pertaining to slavery and antislavery in New England, 1725-1911. The holdings include speeches, sermons, proceedings and other publications of organizations such as the American Anti-Slavery Society and the American Colonization Society, and a small number of pro-slavery tracts.

Subjects

Abolitionists--MassachusettsAntislavery movements--United StatesSlavery--United States

Contributors

American Anti-Slavery SocietyAmerican Colonization Society
Restrictions: Collection currently unavailable due to renovations in SCUA
Arbib, Michael A.

Michael A. Arbib Papers

1960-1985
26 boxes 76 linear feet
Call no.: FS 188
Depiction of Arbib at his desk in the UMass Amherst Dept. of Computer Science, ca. 1985
Arbib at his desk in the UMass Amherst Dept. of Computer Science, ca. 1985

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

The founding director of UMass Amherst’s Computer Science Department, Michael Arbib’s research on neuroscience and computing has been significantly influential and led to work on early neural networks and advances in both our understanding of the brain and artificial intelligence and computing. Born in 1940, Arbib was raised and educated in New Zealand and Australia, earning a BSc in 1960 at the University of Sydney. He then came to the US, earning his PhD at MIT and working closely with Warren McCulloch. Arbib was an assistant professor at Stanford University for five years before joining the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he helped found the Computer and Information Science Department. He left UMass in 1986 for the University of Southern California, where he is currently the Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science. Arbib has been prolific, publishing almost forty books and hundreds of articles and continues to do research on the coordination of perception and action in both human cognition and machine vision, neural networks, and robotics.

The Michael Arbib Papers are a rich documentation of Arbib’s work while at Stanford and the University of Massachusetts, including his complete professional correspondence during that period, research files and notes, manuscript drafts of his publications, and the records of his administration of the Computer Science Department at UMass.

Subjects

CyberneticsMachine theoryNeural networks (biology)Neural networks (computing)University of Massachusetts Amherst--Faculty

Contributors

University of Massachusetts Amherst . Department of Computer Science