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

University of Massachusetts Amherst. Classes by Year

1871-2018
206 boxes 93 linear feet
Call no.: RG 050/6

The new Massachusetts Agricultural College welcomed its first contingent of 34 students to campus on October 1, 1867, resulting in the first graduating class of 28 — the Pioneer Class of 1871. The student body waxed and waned in ensuing years as the college slowly began to diversify its curriculum and the students population itself, admitting international students as early as 1870, followed by graduate students (first degree awarded 1896), African Americans (class of 1901), and women (class of 1905). Enrollment at the university first topped 1,000 in 1945 rising to 6,000 by 1960. Following a tumultuous period of great expansion, UMass had over 23,000 students in 1970.

Organized by class year, this series includes a diverse body of material generated by undergraduate students at Massachusetts Agricultural College, Mass. State College, and UMass Amherst from its beginning to the present day. Although the content varies widely from class to class and by period of time, typical years includes basic data on the graduating class, publications by alums, reunion information, class notes, photographs, or small collections of letters written while in school. In a few cases, the quantity representing an individual almuna or alumnus has led SCUA to treat the materials as a separate collection with its own finding aid.

Subjects

College students--Massachusetts--AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--Students

Types of material

Photographs
University of Massachusetts Amherst. Arts Extension Service

Arts Extension Service Records

1973-2005
7 boxes 9.5 linear feet
Call no.: RG 007/5
Depiction of

The Arts Extension Service (AES), a national arts service organization located at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is the nation’s leading provider of professional arts management education, serving the arts through education, research, and publications. The AES distinguished itself as the first program in the nation to offer a bachelor’s degree in Arts Administration and it has subsequently added a range of training programs for state, regional and local arts agencies, including Peer Advising and Artist-in-Business, research services, and two online Certificates in Arts Management.

The records of the Arts Extension Service (AES) are divided into three series: Administration; Programs; and Publications. Series one dates from 1973-2004 and contains correspondence, consulting logs, contracts, course catalogs, organizational plans, press releases, books, booklets, forms and documents. Series two dates from 1977-2005 and contains correspondence, handouts, flyers, news clippings, brochures, pamphlets, reports, proposals, registration forms, grants, evaluation forms, schedules, and planning documents. Series three is composed of news manuals, catalogs, news clippings, newspapers, books, booklets, advertisements, correspondence, entry forms and handbooks that date from 1974-1999.

Subjects

Arts--EducationArts--Management
University of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Theater

University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Theater Records

1962-2010
41 boxes 60.5 linear feet
Call no.: RG 025 T3

Although theater has been part of community life at UMass Amherst since the early days of the school, the move to formalize study came only during the boom years of the 1960s. Initially connected to the Department of Speech, Theater was set off as a separate department in 1972. Its goal is to expose students to different perspectives and varied aspects of the field though classes in acting, directing, play analysis, dramaturgy, design, theater technology and stage management. The Bachelor of Arts degree offers concentrations in Dramaturgy, Performance, or Design and Production, while the M.F.A. program includes Directing, Dramaturgy, Costume Design, Lighting Design, or Scenic Design. The Department stages productions throughout the year on their two stages, The Rand and The Curtain, enabling students to share their work widely.

The records of the UMass Amherst Theater Department include play files, administrative communications, publications, and other documentation from the beginning of the department to recent years. Along with files for many individual performances, the collection contains information on academic service by faculty members, honors and achievements, correspondence with alumni, departmental operations, news clippings, and publications. There is also a wealth of audio and visual materials (still photographs and video) documenting individual performances.

Subjects

Theater--Massachusetts--AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--Faculty
University of Massachusetts Literary Society

University of Massachusetts Literary Society Collection

1953-1959
6 boxes 2.75 linear feet
Call no.: RG 40/3 L4

In 1955, the Literary Society of the University of Massachusetts and Professor H. Leland Varley received a grant of $5,800 from the Educational Television and Radio Center to produce a series of one-hour radio programs centered on a discussion of the impact of eight major American novelists from a European perspective. The subjects included Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, and John Steinbeck (who replaced the original choice, John Marquand).

The collection is comprised of administrative documents, transcripts, and sound recordings relating to the Literary Society radio program, ‘As others see us.’ Moderated by a member of the UMass Department of English, each broadcast featured discussions by distinguished literary critics such as W.H. Auden, R.P. Blackmur, Perry Miller, Maxwell Geismar, and Renato Poggioli. Dos Passos, Faulkner, and Steinbeck participated in person. Also included is a related item from an earlier program sponsored by the Literary Society: E.E. Cummings reading Twelve Poems.

Subjects

Authors, AmericanNovelists, AmericanPoets--United States

Contributors

Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973Bailey, Robeson, 1906-Barron, LeoneBlackmur, R. P. (Richard P.), 1904-1965Coindreau, Maurice EdgarCollins, Carvel Emerson, 1912-Cowie, Alexander, 1896-1978Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962Dos Passos, John, 1896-1970Faulkner, William, 1897-1962Fenton, CharlesGeismar, Maxwell David, 1909-Girard, Rene, 1923-Goldberg, Maxwell Henry, 1907-Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961James, Henry, 1843-1916Klarmann, Adolf D. (Adolf Donald), 1904-1975Koehler, StanleyLevin, Harry, 1912-1994Lewis, Sinclair, 1885-1951Lohner, EdgarMagny, Claude-Edmonde, 1913-1966Miller, Perry, 1905-1963Niedeck, Arthur E.Peyre, Henri, 1901-Poggioli, Renato, 1907-1963Rudin, Seymour, 1922-Savage, Richard C.Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968Varley, H. LelandWolfe, Thomas, 1900-1938

Types of material

Sound recordings
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