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

Collections: mss

United States Works Progress Administration of Massachusetts

United States Works Progress Administration of Massachusetts Water Pollution Surveys Collection

1936-1938
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 068

Under the federal New Deal in the late 1930s, the Works Project Administration authorized a series of surveys of major watersheds to gauge water quality and sources of pollution. In Massachusetts, the studies were coordinated by the Massachusetts Department of Health and resulted in a series of more or less detailed reports issued between September 1936 and January 1938.

The pollution survey collection contains reports for six major watersheds in New England — the Blackstone, Hoosic, Housatonic, Merrimack, Nashua, and Ten Mile — measuring the impact of both civic and industrial waste on regional water resources.

Subjects

Blackstone River Watershed (Mass. and R.I.)Hoosic River WatershedHousatonic River Watershed (Mass. and Conn.)Merrimack River Watershed (N.H. and Mass.)Nashua River Watershed (Mass. and N.H.)Ten Mile River Watershed (Mass.)Water--Pollution--MassachusettsWater-resources--Massachusetts

Contributors

Massachusetts. Department of Public HealthMassachusetts. State Planning Board
United Steelworkers of America. Local 3654

United Steelworkers of America Local 3654 Records

ca. 1940-1979
11 boxes 5.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 316

Local 3654 of the United Steel Workers of America was organized in Whitinsville, Massachusetts. Records include Minutes, by-laws, newsletters, grievances, company reports, and publications.

Subjects

Labor unions--Massachusetts

Contributors

United Steelworkers of America. Local 3654
University Anti-Intervention, Disarmament & Conversion Project

University Anti-Intervention, Disarmament and Conversion Project Resource Guide

1989
1 envelope 0.2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 280 bd

Founded in September 1989, the University Anti-Intervention, Disarmament & Conversion Project was developed by individuals in the UMass Amherst community who wanted to eliminate the university’s dependence on defense research. The purpose of the project was to serve as a resource center for students, faculty, and community activists working to break the link between the nation’s institutions of higher learning and the military industrial complex.

The collection consists of a resource guide created by the group.

Subjects

Peace movements--Massachusetts--Amherst
Uno, Roberta

Roberta Uno Collection of Asian American Women Playwrights' Scripts

1924-2005
25 boxes 9 linear feet
Call no.: MS 345
Depiction of Coconut masquerade postcard
Coconut masquerade postcard

Roberta Uno was the founder and long time artistic director of the New WORLD Theater at UMass Amherst, a theater in residence dedicated to the production of works by playwrights of color.

Established by Uno in 1993, the Asian American Women Playwrights Scripts Collection contains manuscripts of plays, but also production histories, reviews, and articles, along with biographies and audio and videotaped interviews with playwrights. Among the individuals represented are Brenda Wong Aoki, Jeannie Barroga, Marina Feleo Gonzales, Jessica Hagedorn, Velina Hasu Houston, Genny Lim, le thi diem thuy, Ling-Ai Li, Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, Nobuko Miyamoto, Bina Sharif, and Diana Son.

Subjects

Asian American women authorsNew WORLD TheaterPlaywrights

Contributors

Uno, Roberta, 1956-

Types of material

Scripts (Documents)
Unzicker, Rae

Rae Unzicker Papers

1979-1997
1 box 1.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 818
Depiction of Rae Unzicker
Rae Unzicker

Rae Unzicker’s exposure to the psychiatric system began at a young age. Growing up in an abusive home, her parents sent her to psychiatrists off and on for years before she was involuntarily committed. While there, she was quickly introduced to the chaotic and damaging atmosphere of a psychiatric institution, exposing her to mandatory drugs, seclusion rooms, forced feeding, and work “therapy” that required her to wash dishes six hours a day. Once she was release, Unzicker’s road to recovery was long, but after several suicide attempts and stays at other treatment facilities, she ultimately counted herself–along with her friend Judi Chamberlin, an early leader in the movement–a psychiatric survivor. Like Chamberlin, Unzicker embraced her role as an advocate of patient’s rights and for the radical transformation of the mental-health system. In 1995, President Clinton appointed her to the National Council on Disability; two years later she was elected president of the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA). Unzicker was widely known for her public appearances, conferences and speeches, and her writings, including numerous articles and contributions to the book Beyond Bedlam: Contemporary Women Psychiatric Survivors Speak Out. A survivor of cancer of the jaw and breast, Rae Unzicker died at her home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on March 22, 2001 at the age of 52.

Although a small collection, Rae Unzicker’s papers document her activities as a leading advocate for the rights of mental health patients, including transcripts of speeches and videotaped appearances, correspondence and feedback related to workshops and conferences, press kits, and newspaper clippings. The most important materials, however, are her writings. It is through her poems and her full-length memoir, You Never Gave Me M & M’s, that Unzicker’s story and voice are preserved.

Subjects

AntipsychiatryEx-mental patientsPeople with disabilities--Civil rightsPeople with disabilities--Legal status, laws, etc.Psychiatric survivors movement

Contributors

Unzicker, Rae

Types of material

MemoirsVideotapes
Upholsters International Union. Local 58

Upholsters International Union Local 58 Minutebooks

1901-1939
7 vols. 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 018

Upholsterers were among the earliest trades in the United States to organize into a national union, with the first efforts dating to the 1850s. The most successful of their unions, the Upholsterers International Union of North America, was founded in Chicago in 1892 and affiliated with the American Federation of Laborers in 1900. One year later, UIU Local 58 was established to organize workers in Washington, D.C.

The minutebooks of UIU Local 58 document the history of the union from its formation in 1901 through the late 1930s.

Subjects

Labor unions--Washington (D.C.)Upholsterers--Labor unions

Contributors

Upholsters International Union

Types of material

Minutebooks
Upper Connecticut Valley Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends)

Upper Connecticut Valley Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends) Records

1957-1959
1 folder 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 U674

In about 1954, a number of local Quaker meetings and worship groups in Vermont and New Hampshire coalesced to form the independent Vermont and New Hampshire Friends, which joined the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends in 1956 as the Upper Connecticut Valley Monthly Meeting. A loose confederation based in Woodstock, Vt., it included groups in Burlington, Hanover, Middlebury, Rockingham, Rutland, and Springfield during the brief period of existence. In 1959, the Upper Connecticut Valley Meeting was supplanted by the new Northwest Quarter.

This small but interesting collection contains an apparently complete run of newsletters from the evanescent Upper Connecticut Valley Monthly Meeting.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2016

Subjects

Quakers--VermontSociety of Friends--VermontWoodstock (Vt.)--Religious life and customs

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Newsletters
Upperman, Mae

Mae Upperman Collection

3 boxes, ca. 200 books 3 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1194

Born in 1937, Mae Upperman grew up Asbury Park, New Jersey, a town segregated by race and wealth. She was educated at Tufts University, receiving a B.A. in adult education and physical therapy, and Boston University, receiving a Master’s degree in education. Her career features work in several fields, each one with a focus on improving lives of vulnerable individuals in society. These contributions include: working as a physical therapist for the Visiting Nurses Association of Boston; working at the Action for Boston Community Development, a non-profit dedicated to helping Boston residents out of poverty; researching new initiatives in Head Start; and developing and managing a center-based early intervention program for children with developmental disabilities. Alongside Upperman’s professional achievements, she is also an artist, poet, and book collector.

The Mae Upperman Collection consists of more than 200 books by Black women authors and Upperman’s artwork, much of which depicts abstract Black figures. An article about Upperman and her collection appeared in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian in 2023.

Gift of Mae Upperman, 2023

Subjects

African American women artistsAfrican American women authors

Types of material

PaintingsWorks of art
Urban League of Springfield

Urban League of Springfield Records

1972-1975
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 150

A community development and service agency founded in 1914, the Urban League of Springfield works to secure equal opportunity for minority groups in such fields as employment, education, housing, health, and personal welfare.

This small collection is tightly focused on the period of the school busing (desegregation) crisis in Springfield, 1974-1975, and the League’s efforts to analyze and respond to the underlying issues in race relations and political engagement. The contents include surveys on racial attitudes and voting behavior in the city along with a selection of publications from the League and a set of board minutes and handouts.

Subjects

School integration--Massachusetts--SpringfieldSpringfield (Mass.)--History--20th centurySpringfield (Mass.)--Politics and governmentSpringfield (Mass.)--Race relations
Urbana Wine Company

Urbana Wine Company Records

1881-1911
6 boxes 9 linear feet
Call no.: MS 660
Depiction of Urbana Wine Co. document
Urbana Wine Co. document

Founded by John W. Davis, H.H. Cook, A.J. Startzer and others in 1865, the Urbana Wine Company was among the earliest and most successful wineries in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Organized in Hammondsport, N.Y., the center of the eastern wine industry, Urbana’s claim to fame was its widely popular Gold Seal Champagne and other sparkling wines and along with Walter Taylor, they dominated regional wine production during the Gilded Age. The winery survived passage of Prohibition in 1919 , both World Wars operating under the Gold Seal label, but was closed by its parent company, Seagrams, in 1984.

The Urbana Records are concentrated in the period 1881-1885, as the company was growing rapidly. Among other materials, the collection includes a range of correspondence, receipts, some financial records, and tallies of grapes. Additional material on the company is located in Cornell University’s Eastern Wine and Grape Archive.

Subjects

GrapesViticultureWine industry--New York

Contributors

Urbana Wine Company