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

Miles, Manly, 1826-1898

Manly Miles Papers

ca.1882-1886
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: FS 134
Depiction of Manly Miles
Manly Miles

A pioneer in scientific agriculture, Manly Miles was born in Homer, N.Y., in 1826. A naturalist by inclination with a strong practical streak, Miles took a degree in medicine at Rush Medical College (1850) and practiced as a physician for eight years. His interests in the natural sciences, however, soon left him to abandon medicine, and after accepting a position with the State Geological Survey in Michigan from 1858-1861, he turned to academia. An early member of the faculty at Michigan State College, and later Illinois State College, he was recruited to the agricultural faculty at Massachusetts Agricultural College by President Paul Chadbourne in 1882. Four years later, however, following Chadbourne’s untimely death, Miles returned to Lansing, Mich., where he remained until his death in 1898. During his career, he was noted for his interests in organic evolution and plant and animal breeding.

The Miles collection contains 8 notebooks containing notes on reading. In addition to a general notebook on scientific matters, the remaining seven are organized by subject: Breeds of animals, Farm buildings, Farm economy, Feeding and animals, Implements, Manures, and Stock breeding.

Subjects

Agriculture--Study and teachingAnimal breedingMassachusetts Agricultural College--FacultyMassachusetts State College. Department of Agricultural Economics

Contributors

Miles, Manly, 1826-1898

Types of material

Notebooks
Miller Family

Miller Family Photographs

ca.1880-1980
1 boxes, 1 oversize envelope 1.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 119

Four generations of the Miller family from Roxbury and Hull, Massachusetts. Includes photographs mounted on twenty-eight sheets of posterboard and 158 slides stored in two slide trays that are comprised of formal and informal family portraits; family businesses; church and business gatherings; a wedding announcement; and postcards from the early 1900s depicting public recreation sites. More recent photographs reveal how the public recreation sites have changed over the years. Robert Parker Miller, a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the Miller family, displayed these images in an exhibit entitled “Trying to Live the American Dream” (1986, Wheeler Gallery).

Subjects

Family--United States--HistoryHull (Mass.)--PhotographsMassachusetts--Social life and customs--19th century--PhotographsMassachusetts--Social life and customs--20th century--PhotographsRoxbury (Mass.)--Pictorial works

Contributors

Miller family

Types of material

Photographs
Miller, Cynthia

Cynthia Miller Papers

1973-1995
6 boxes 2.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 869

Known in the psychiatric survivors’ movement as Kalisa, Cynthia Miller was a radical activist on behalf of the mentally ill. An ex-patient based in New York, she became a member of Project Release in the early 1970s, one of the first wave of organizations fighting for the civil rights of mental patients and combatting forced institutionalization, and was a contributor to Madness Network News and other publications. A poet, writer, and a committed feminist and out lesbian, she took part in civil disobedience to oppose electroconvulsive therapy, working with Judi Chamberlin, George Ebert, Leonard Roy Frank, and others.

Though varied and fragmentary, Cynthia Miller’s collection is a rich resource for study of the early history of the psychiatric survivors movement and the work of one activist in resisting psychiatric oppression. The collection contains some of Kalisa’s writings and correspondence along with ephemera and a varied collection of newspapers, newsletters, and other publications relating to Project Release and several other organizations that Kalisa supported, including the Mental Patients Liberation Front and the Alliance for the Liberation of Mental Patients.

Subjects

AntipsychiatryElectroconvulsive therapyEx-mental patientsFeminismMentally ill--Civil rightsPsychiatric survivors movement--New York (City)

Contributors

Alliance for the Liberation of Mental PatientsChamberlin, Judi, 1944-2010Mental Patients Liberation FrontProject Release

Types of material

Newsletters
Miller, J. Wesley (John Wesley), 1941-

J. Wesley Miller Papers

ca.1970s-2005
9 boxes 13.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 460

A nearly lifelong resident of Springfield, Massachusetts, J. Wesley Miller was actively engaged in the city’s politics. Often described as an eccentric activist, Miller graduated from Colby College and later earned his law degree from Western New England College of Law. Although he never practiced as an attorney, Miller did sue the law school upon graduation for “educational malpractice,” a suit that was settled out of court. Miller taught English at Heidelberg College in Ohio and at the University of Wisconsin, and it is at the latter institution where it seems he formed his habit of collecting street literature, mostly posters and fliers. Evidently consumed by a desire to collect such materials, Miller accrued a vast quantity of street literature by the time of his death in 2005.

The collection consists primarily of flyers and posters collected by Miller in Madison, Wisconsin and throughout western Massachusetts that reflect the contemporary history of the two regions. The literature ranges from announcements of student protests and rallies to advertisements for local pubs. Miller signed each item, possibly as part of a ritual to catalog the collection. Also included is a microfilm copy of Miller’s diaries.

Subjects

Activists--MassachusettsPopular cultureStreet literature

Contributors

Miller, J. Wesley (John Wesley), 1941-

Types of material

DiariesMicrofilm
Millers River Publishing Co.

Millers River Publishing Co. Records

1983-1989
2 boxes 3 linear feet
Call no.: MS 805

The journalist and activist Allen Young founded Millers River Publishing Co. in 1983 to produce “fine books about New England.” Nearly a one person shop, the company began in Athol, Mass., with what would become the most successful of its publications, North of Quabbin, Young’s own guidebook to the nine towns rimming the Quabbin Reservoir. Over the next five years, Millers River issued at least fifteen titles in regional and local history, fiction, and children’s books. Soon after Young left his job at the Athol Daily News in 1989 to accept a position in public relations at the community hospital, the company ceased its operations.

The records of the Millers River Publishing Co. document the active years of a small regional press in northern Massachusetts. In addition business records, the collection includes correspondence from authors and readers along with book proposals and manuscripts, including some for works not published. Most of the Millers River publications are available in SCUA.

Gift of Allen Young, Dec. 2013

Subjects

Publishers and publishing--Massachusetts

Contributors

Young, Allen, 1941-
Millman, George H. (George Harold), 1919-

George Millman Papers

1944-1945
3 boxes 3 linear feet
Call no.: MS 728
Depiction of George and Lillian Millman
George and Lillian Millman

Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1919, George Millman attended Massachusetts State College briefly, but was forced to drop out after his freshman year due to financial hardship. After attending a three-month intensive training course, Millman was employed by the War Department in 1941 as a civilian inspector in the munitions plant in New London, Connecticut. In the months that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor, he felt it was his patriotic duty to join the armed forces and enlisted on May 28, 1942. Called to active duty six months later, Millman was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps on April 29, 1943. Already dating his soon-to-be-bride Lillian, the couple decided to marry immediately before he could be sent overseas. Assigned to a class on the theoretical aspects of radar at Harvard University, Millman was ordered to report to the Army Air Force Technical School in Boca Raton in late 1943. On June 24, 1944, he received secret travel orders assigning him to the 5th Air Force Service Command in Brisbane, Australia. There he began training fighter pilots on the use and operation of the newly developed airborne radar, AN/APS-4. Throughout his tour in the Pacific, which ended in early 1946, Millman traveled throughout the region, including time in Australia, the Netherlands East Indies, the Netherlands New Guinea, and the Philippines.

Containing almost 400 letters written to his wife Lillian during World War II, Millman’s papers detail nearly every aspect of life in the service during wartime. From chronicling extreme environmental conditions to his feelings of frustration while awaiting assignment, Millman’s letters offer a personal perspective of the impact of war on an individual and his loved ones. While his letters carefully avoid any details about his work that could have been censored, they capture in extraordinary detail the day-to-day life of a serviceman in the Pacific theater during WWII. Millman published his letters to his wife in 2011 in a book entitled Letters to Lillian.

Subjects

World War, 1939-1945

Contributors

Millman, George H. (George Harold), 1919-

Types of material

Letters (Correspondence)
Milne, Teddy

Teddy Milne Papers

1952-2010
36 boxes 54 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1048
Depiction of Teddy Milne, ca. 1981
Teddy Milne, ca. 1981

Born in 1930 in Delaware, Ohio, Margaret Theodora “Teddy” Milne, graduated from Boston University in 1952 before attending the University of Paris in 1953-1954 for post-graduate studies. Milne moved to Northampton, Mass. in 1959 to teach at the Northampton School for Girls. She married Alexander W. Milne, general manager of radio station WHMP, in 1965 and together the couple had three sons: Timmon, Peter, and James. Milne worked as a writer, serving as a reporter and copy editor at the Daily Hampshire Gazette, before establishing and editing two journals focused on peace: Laser, a children’s newsletter, and Compassion Magazine. She owned and operated the Pittenbruach Press, which published her journals as well as several book she authored, including Peace Porridge (v. 1-3, 1987-1995), War is a Dinosaur (1987), Solo Publishing (1990), Mooncakes and Flower Beans (1994), and Calvin Coolidge Doesn’t Live Here Any More (1994), and contributed articles, stories, and crossword puzzles to magazines and newspapers.

As an active author and peace activist, the Teddy Milne Papers cover all of her primary passions from parenting and teaching to publishing and anti-nuclear activism. The collection contains photographs and newsletters from her days as a teacher at the Northampton School for Girls as well as articles and columns she prepared for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. There are extensive records documenting the Pittenbruach Press, which Milne operated, including materials related to the journals and books she published. A series of letters along with files related to committee work and Milne’s membership in Quakers United in Publishing (QUIP), reveal the important role her Quaker faith played in her life.

Subjects

Antinuclear movement—United StatesAuthors and publishersNorthampton School for Girls (Northampton, Mass.)Peace movementsPublishers and publishing—Vocational guidanceQuakers—New England

Types of material

CorrespondencePhotographs
Miniature books

Miniature Book Collection

1785-1986 Bulk: 1965-1980
4 boxes 2 linear feet
Call no.: RB 018

Typically defined as being less than three inches in height, miniature books have been favorites in the book trade since the sixteenth century. Their small stature focuses attention on details such as paper quality, layout, illustration, and choice of type, and their portability enhances their personal appeal.

This miscellaneous assortment of miniature books was assembled primarily for convenience in shelving. The volumes date primarily from the second half of the 20th century with subject matter ranging from poetry to biography, history, and religion. A number of toy books, chapbooks, and other miniatures intended for children are housed in the Massachusetts Rural Printing and the Early Childrens’ Literature Collections.

Acquired individually.

Subjects

Miniature books
Miscellaneous Manuscripts

Miscellaneous Manuscripts

1717-2003
6 boxes 5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 719

Miscellaneous Manuscripts is an artificial collection that brings together single items and small groups of related materials. Although the collection reflects the general collecting emphases in SCUA, particularly the history of New England, the content ranges widely in theme and format.

Subjects

Massachusetts--Economic conditions--18th centuryMassachusetts--Economic conditions--19th centuryMassachusetts--HistoryMassachusetts--Politics and governmentMassachusetts--Social conditions--18th centuryMassachusetts--Social conditions--19th centuryMassachusetts--Social conditions--20th century

Types of material

Account booksCorrespondencePhotographs
Miscellaneous Periodicals

Miscellaneous Periodicals Collection

1905-1910
7 boxes 3.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 373

This miscellaneous periodicals collections contains single issues or short runs of a variety of journals, such as: Farm and Home, Farm Journal, Red Men’s Official Journal, Home and Health, and The Ladies World.

Subjects

Agriculture--Periodicals