Ranging from an autobiographical account that outlines his development as an activist (prepared in anticipation of a trial for conspiracy charges under the Smith Act) to drafts and notes relating to his book Giving Them Hell, the Sidney Lipshires Papers offers an overview of his role in the Communist Party and as a labor organizer. The collection also contains his testimony in a 1955 public hearing before the Special Commission to Study and Investigate Communism and Subversive Activities, photographs, and biographical materials.

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.

The Davenport Papers contain a thick sheaf of letters and documents pertaining to her Navy service before and during World War II, along with assorted biographical and genealogical data, materials collected during educational trips to Poland and elsewhere, and approximately one linear foot of family photographs and photo albums.

The Bajgier collection documents the lives of a Polish family in Chicopee, Mass., from the time of immigration through the 1970s. The core of the collection surrounds the life of Joseph Bajgier, and includes a number of documents and a diary from the time of his emigration in 1927, a fascinating series of letters from relatives in Turaszowka, Poland before and after the Second World War, and several photographs of the family and their business in Chicopee.

Drafts of published and unpublished short stories and poems comprise the bulk of this collection. Letters to and from Halley, in particular those that depict her education at Wellesley and her professional life during the 1960s-1980s, make up another significant portion of her papers. Publisher’s correspondence and a draft of Halley’s afterward document the Chametzkys effort to release a new edition of Mary Doyle Curran’s book, The Parish and the Hill, for which Halley and Chametzky oversaw the literary rights. Photographs of Halley’s childhood in Germany and New York as well as later photographs that illustrate the growth of her own family in Minnesota and Massachusetts offer a visual representation of her remarkable professional and pesonal life.

The Dillon Papers consist of 178 letters written by Dillon to his family during his service in World War II, along with several written to him and an assortment of documents and ephemera. Beginning with basic training, the letters provide an essentially comprehensive account of Dillon’s military experience and interesting insight into a relatively quiet, but sparsely documented theater of war.

Collected by historian Waldo Heinrichs, the Enola Gay Controversy Collection contains the various versions of the scripts of the planned exhibition and copies of correspondence, memos, publications, and the three volumes of “Revisionism gone wrong: Analysis of the Enola Gay controversy” issued by the Air Force Association.

The Lea Papers consist chiefly of two types of material: research notes and correspondence. The nearly 200 letters written by Henry A. Lea during his military service in the Second World War provide an excellent account, albeit a self-censored account, of his experience from training through deployment and return. Lea’s research notes include notebooks on Werfel and files on Mahler and Hildesheimer. Other items include a pre-war album containing commercial photographs collected during a vacation and a baby book from an American family living in occupation-era Germany.

Correspondence, memos, reports, clippings, and other papers, relating to matters at issue during Van Meter’s presidency of University of Massachusetts including the building program, World War II veterans, accreditation, and the university seal; together with published writings, biographical material, military records, and material from Van Meter’s inauguration as university president.

A faithful and colorful correspondent, the bulk of Miriam Chrisman’s papers consist of letters written to family and friends stretching from her college days at Smith through the year before her death. The bulk of the correspondence is with her husband, Donald Chrisman, an orthopedic surgeon who was enrolled at Harvard Medical School during their courtship. Soon after the Chrismans married in November 1943, Donald left for active duty in the Navy on the U.S.S. Baldwin. The couple’s war correspondence is unusually rich, offering insight on everything from the social responsibilities of married couples to their opinions on the progression of the war. Of particular note is a lengthy letter written by Donald during and immediately after D-Day in which he provides Miriam a real-time description of the events and his reactions as they unfold. Later letters document Miriam’s extensive travels including a trip around the world. .

Background on Miriam Usher Chrisman

A noted scholar of the social impact of the German Reformation, Miriam Usher Chrisman was born in Ithaca, New York, on May 20, 1920. With degrees from Smith College, American University, and Yale, she served for over thirty years on the faculty of the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, becoming a well-loved professor and treasured mentor to a generation of students.

From birth, Chrisman seemed destined for a career in academia. Chrisman’s roots in the intellectual elite of Massachusetts ran deep — an ancestor Hezekiah Usher, imported the press and type with which John Eliot’s Indian Bible was printed — and her father, Abbott Payson Usher, was a distinguished economic historian at Cornell and later Harvard. Graduating magna cum laude with an A.B. from Smith College (1941) shortly before the onset of the Second World War, Chrisman’s plans for an academic career were delayed. After marrying Don Chrisman, a medical student at Harvard, on November 29, 1943, Miriam took a series of jobs with the federal government in Washington, D.C., while Don served on active duty with the Navy aboard the Gleaves-class destroyer, U.S.S. Baldwin in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

At the end of the war, the Chrismans returned home to Massachusetts and settled in Northampton, where Donald began a practice in orthopedics at Cooley Dickinson Hospital while Miriam resumed her studies. After earning graduate degrees in education (Smith College, 1948) and economics (American University), she studied history at Yale (MA,1959, and PhD, 1962), completing her dissertation, “Church and city in Strasbourg, 1480-1548: A study of the stages of the Reformation,” in 1962, just prior to joining the History Department at UMass Amherst.

During her long career, Chrisman became a leading authority on the social history of the German Reformation, the city of Strasbourg forming the intellectual locus of much of her work. The first of her seven books, Strasbourg and the Reform (1967), was quickly recognized as a landmark in its field, balancing an understanding of both high and low culture with an appreciation for the impact of the Reformation on the lives of the non-elite. In later works such as Lay Culture, Learned Culture: Books and Social Change in Strasbourg, 1480-1599 (1982) and Conflicting Visions of Reform: German Lay Propaganda Pamphlets, 1519-30 (1996), Chrisman explored the impact of print culture in German cities during the early Reformation, again with an eye on social movements and the common people. An avid world traveler, her several research trips to Strasbourg influenced her life in other ways: her experiences there and in other locations abroad led her husband, Donald, to embark on a second career in archaeology upon his retirement from medicine.

Widely recognized for her scholarship, Chrisman was awarded the Prix d’honneur by the Societe des Amis de Vieux Strasbourg, the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale University, and received an honorary doctor of humane letters from Valparaiso University. She was twice awarded the UMass Chancellor’s Medal, first as a Distinguished Faculty Lecturer in 1985 and again in 2000 for her support of the Du Bois Library. In her honor, the Society for Reformation Research established the Miriam U. Chrisman Travel Fellowship, which provides grants of $1500 every other year to support advanced graduate students in conducting research abroad. Chrisman formally retired in 1985, but continued to teach for almost a decade more.

Donald Chrisman died in 2002, with Miriam following on November 17, 2008. They are survived by two sons, Nicholas Ramsey Chrisman and David Abbott Chrisman.

Contents of Collection

The Chrisman collection details the life of an affluent, well-educated, New England woman, Miriam Usher Chrisman. Beginning in the late 1930s while Chrisman was in her late teens, the collection contains extensive personal and (to a lesser degree) professional correspondence throughout her life. Of particular note are a dense series of courtship letters written during the Second World War mixing a budding romance with information from the front lines in Europe. A series of meticulous continuous account books, beginning in 1944 and stretching through the 1990s, outline the daily aspects of wartime life, along with the complexities facing a new bride in arranging the domestic sphere of her new life.

Chrisman was unusually well-traveled, as illustrated in a copious series of notes, itineraries, and receipts from both professional and personal trips. The three major research trips to Strasbourg are particularly well documented, augmented by extensive personal correspondence during that trip with her two sons. In its most recent years, the collection focuses on Chrisman’s personal life, with ample correspondence demonstrating a rich, cherished relationship with her grandchildren. Overall, Chrisman comes across as a highly organized, detail-oriented person who spent significant time planning and organizing her life.

Series Descriptions

Series 1. Correspondence	1878-2008	73 folders (1.5 linear feet)
Series 1 contains extensive correspondence between Chrisman and the people she held close throughout her lifetime. Beginning with a letter from Donald Chrisman’s mother in 1878, this series spans Miriam Chrisman’s entire life, beginning during Chrisman’s college years at Smith (roughly 1937 to 1941) and ending with several letters from a niece in 2008. The earliest letters detail Chrisman’s daily experiences in college and her involvement with the American Friends Service Committee in Northampton. Of particular note are the courtship, engagement, and newlywed letters between Miriam and her husband, Donald Chrisman. Not only do these letters reveal the couple’s feelings for one another, they offer a glimpse into the conventions of courtship and marriage in World War Two-era America, even to the details of how they planned to arrange the furniture in their new home. Their letters after the wedding are equally interesting, written while Donald was deployed on the destroyer, U.S.S. Baldwin, off the European coast. This extensive correspondence hints at the feelings of thousands of wartime couples, and offers a perspective on censorship issues of the day — many of Donald’s letters were modified by the United States government to ensure they revealed nothing sensitive — all while providing insight into the experiences of husband in the theatre of conflict and wife on the home front. Of special note is a Donald’s long and unusually detailed letter written by Donald regarding his experiences on D-Day, outlined hour-by-hour, and a letter reflecting on Donald’s experiences at Yalta. After the war, the focus of Chrisman’s correspondence returns to her educational pursuits, from discussing her fears at writing her first thesis to letters to her publisher for her second book. There is extensive correspondence with her two sons, Abbott and Nick, from their childhood days at boarding school and camp to their collegiate years and early adulthood. Also of note is Chrisman’s correspondence home during three research trips to Strasbourg: rather remarkably, each trip resulted in a new book on the German Reformation. Finally, this series contains some correspondence between Don and his parents in his earlier years, including his acceptance into Harvard Medical School.
Series 2. Travel	1938-2001	23 folders
A rambling record of Chrisman’s world travels, series two begins with detailed notes of museum trips around the Mediterranean in 1952, and continues for almost five decades, including a round-the-world trip in 1972, an early visit to the newly opened Peoples Republic of China in 1982, travel to Russia in 1985, and the Spice Route in 1985. The series also contains a wonderfully detailed diary of a summer-long trip to France. The series is arranged chronologically.
Series 3. Family	1930-2008	20 folders
Series three is a somewhat scattered collection of family memorabilia from the Chrismans’ lives. Several folders of postcards and Christmas cards, mostly undated, join a small number of professional and community honors, such as an award for volunteer service from the University of Massachusetts Library and newspaper clippings of Don Chrisman’s achievements. The series includes an autobiography written by Don in 1935 as well as an audio cassette of Don’s father’s memories of post-Civil War politics in Missouri. A large portion of the series consists of home publications and artwork made by her grandchildren. One of the most fascinating items in this series is a folder of Christmas Lists, with corresponding receipts, from 1991 through 2000.
Series 4. Account books	1944-1995	43 folders
Series four consists of a continuous set of household account books from 1944 through 1985 kept by Miriam Chrisman and her husband, Don. Beginning in 1944, these accounts detail annual household budgets, rent or mortgage payments, taxes including some years’ W2 forms, food, clothing, entertainment, travel, and education expenses among others. In addition to tracking daily costs, Ms. Chrisman detailed the items needed to set up a household after their marriage in extensive, meticulous lists within many of the earlier account books. She also kept detailed size, item, and cost information for both her and her husband’s clothing for many years. There is limited information as well on the costs associated with operating her husband’s medical practice. As with nearly every aspect of this collection, Chrisman proves herself once again to be a highly organized, meticulous individual through the consistency and detail of these account books. As their professional lives advance, their movement into the upper middle class can be tracked by extensive line item details regarding luxury expenditures, charitable giving, and professional development costs.

Inventory of Collection

Series 1. Correspondence	1878-2008	1.5 linear feet
Correspondence: Miriam Chrisman notes	1878		Box 1:1
Correspondence: Travels in France and Spain	1927		Box 1:2
Correspondence: Father to Miriam and Eunice	1929		Box 1:3
Correspondence: Don Chrisman	1932		Box 1:4
Correspondence: To Miriam	1935		Box 1:5
Correspondence	1936		Box 1:6
Correspondence	1937		Box 1:7
Correspondence: Miriam to her family; AFSE	1938		Box 1:8
Correspondence: College: Miriam and Family	1939		Box 1:9
Correspondence	1940		Box 1:10
Correspondence: College: Miriam and Family; Courtship	1941		Box 1:11
Correspondence: Courtship	1942		Box 1:12
Correspondence: Engagement	1943 January		Box 1:13
Correspondence	1943 February		Box 1:14
Correspondence	1943 March-April		Box 1:15
Correspondence	1943 May-July		Box 1:16
Correspondence: Charleston Naval Yard, Casablanca I [August-September 25], Casablanca II [October 15-November 24]	1943 August-October		Box 1:17
Correspondence: The Wedding	1943 November- December		Box 1:18
Correspondence	1944 January-March		Box 1:19
Correspondence: Lead up to D-day	1944 April-May		Box 1:20
Correspondence: D-day	1944 June		Box 1:21
Read a transcript of Donald’s letter describing D-day
Correspondence	1944 June-July		Box 1:22
Correspondence	1944 August		Box 1:23
Correspondence	1944 September		Box 1:24
Correspondence	1944 October-December		Box 1:25
Correspondence: Yalta, Washington	1945-1946		Box 1:26
Correspondence	1948		Box 1:27
Correspondence	1949		Box 1:28
Correspondence	1950		Box 1:29
Correspondence	1951-1955		Box 1:30
Correspondence: From Father; Miriam Chrisman’s professional/academic advancements	1956-1960		Box 1:31
Correspondence	1961		Box 1:32
Correspondence	1962		Box 1:33
Correspondence: Abbott, Cottonwood Gulch, Pasquany, photos	1963		Box 2:1
Correspondence: Strasbourg	1964 May-August		Box 2:2
Correspondence	1964 September-December		Box 2:3
Correspondence: Choate	1965		Box 2:4
Correspondence	1966		Box 2:5
Correspondence	1967		Box 2:6
Correspondence	1968		Box 2:7
Correspondence: Strasbourg	1969		Box 2:8
Correspondence	1970 January-February		Box 2:9
Correspondence	1970 March		Box 2:10
Correspondence	1970 April-May		Box 2:11
Correspondence	1970 June-August		Box 2:12
Correspondence	1970 September-December		Box 2:13
Correspondence	1971 January-August		Box 2:14
Correspondence	1971 September		Box 2:15
Correspondence	1971 October		Box 2:16
Correspondence	1971 November-December		Box 2:17
Correspondence	1972		Box 2:18
Correspondence: Strasbourg	1973		Box 2:19
Correspondence: Strasbourg	1975		Box 2:20
Correspondence	1976		Box 2:21
Correspondence	1977		Box 2:22
Correspondence	1978		Box 2:23
Correspondence	1979		Box 2:24
Correspondence	1980		Box 2:25
Correspondence	1981		Box 2:26
Correspondence: Strasbourg	1983 February		Box 2:27
Correspondence: Grandchildren	1988-1990		Box 2:28
Correspondence	1992		Box 2:29
Correspondence	1993		Box 2:30
Correspondence: Abbott	1994		Box 3:1
Correspondence	1995		Box 3:2
Correspondence	1996		Box 3:3
Correspondence	1997		Box 3:4
Correspondence	1998		Box 3:5
Correspondence	2004		Box 3:6
Correspondence: Arlene	2005		Box 3:7
Correspondence	2006		Box 3:8
Correspondence	2007		Box 3:9
Correspondence	2008		Box 3:10
Series 2. Travel	1938-2001	23 folders
Correspondence: Don Chrisman	1938-1954		Box 3:11
Travel: Turkey, Crete, Greece, Palermo, Naples, Paris	1952		Box 3:12
Travel: Three Mile	1955-1958		Box 3:13
Travel: World tour preparations	1971		Box 3:14
Travel: World tour, part 1	1972		Box 3:15
Travel: World tour, part 2	1972		Box 3:16
Travel: World tour, part 3	1972		Box 4:1
Travel: China, part 1	1982		Box 4:2
Travel: China, part 2	1982		Box 4:3
Travel: Russia	1985		Box 4:4
Travel: Indonesia	1986		Box 4:5
Travel: Spice Route	1986		Box 4:6
Travel: Spain	1987		Box 4:7
Travel: Pacific Northwest	1989		Box 4:8
Travel: Strasbourg	1990		Box 4:9
Travel: Florence	1997		Box 4:10
Travel: Southwest	1998		Box 4:11
Travel: Saint Barths	2000		Box 4:12
Travel: Tucson	2001		Box 4:13
Travel Diary: Scotland, London, Brussels, Italy			Box 4:14
Travel Diary: France			Box 4:15
Travel: Notes on the British Museum			Box 4:16
Travel: Passports	1964		Box 4:17
Series 3. Family	1930-2008	20 folders
Family: Alfred Mainzer Postcards	2006-2008		Box 5:1
Family: Christmas Lists	1972-2000		Box 5:2
Family: Christmas and other Cards			Box 5:3
Family: The Chronicles of Simon De Montfort			Box 5:4
Family: Don Chrisman in the News	1991-1996		Box 5:5
Family: Don Chrisman’s Autobiography	1935		Box 5:6
Family: Don Chrisman’s Official Matters	1942-1943		Box 5:7
Family: Ellen Thompson Weiss: Memories of Growing up at Brushwood	1930-1937		Box 5:8
Family: Gocky Newsletter and Letters from Lindsey			Box 5:9
Family: Gramps Chrisman Oral History [Listen]			Box 5:10
Family: Grandchildren, Part 1			Box 5:11
Family: Grandchildren, Part 2			Box 5:12
Family: Library Award 2000			Box 5:13
Family: Nick’s School in France			Box 5:14
Family: Notes on Archiving Papers			Box 5:15
Family: Notes for Career Day			Box 5:16
Family: Obituary of Miriam’s Father	1947		Box 5:17
Famly: The Peasant’s Alphabet			Box 5:18
Family: Photograph Cards			Box 5:19
Family: St. John’s Church Bulletin	1992		Box 5:20
Series 4. Account books	1944-1995	43 folders
Accounts	1944		Box 6
Accounts	1945-1946		Box 6
Accounts	1947		Box 6
Accounts	1948		Box 6
Accounts	1949		Box 6
Office	1949		Box 6
Accounts	1950		Box 6
Accounts	1951		Box 6
Accounts	1952		Box 6
Accounts	1953		Box 6
Accounts	1954		Box 6
Accounts	1955		Box 6
Accounts	1956		Box 6
Accounts	1957		Box 6
Accounts	1958		Box 6
Accounts	1959		Box 6
Accounts	1960		Box 6
Accounts	1961		Box 6
Accounts	1962		Box 6
Accounts	1963		Box 6
Accounts	1964		Box 6
Accounts	1965		Box 6
Accounts	1966		Box 6
Accounts	1967		Box 6
Accounts	1968		Box 6
Accounts	1969		Box 6
Accounts	1970		Box 6
Accounts	1971		Box 6
Accounts	1972		Box 6
Accounts	1973		Box 6
Accounts	1974		Box 6
Accounts	1975		Box 6
Accounts	1976		Box 6
Accounts	1977		Box 6
Accounts	1978		Box 6
Accounts	1979		Box 6
Accounts	1980		Box 6
Accounts	1981		Box 6
Accounts	1982		Box 6
Accounts	1983		Box 6
Accounts	1984		Box 6
Accounts	1985		Box 6
Account Books	1993-1995		Box 6

Provenance

Acquired from Chrisman, 1999.

Processing Information

Processed by Rusty Annis, Yolanda Clarke, and Catherine Sebastian, December 2010.

Bibliography

Chrisman’s major published works (all housed in the Du Bois Library) include:

• Miriam Usher Chrisman. Strasbourg and the Reform: A Study in the Process of Change. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967. Call no.: BR848.S7 C45
• Miriam Usher Chrisman (editor, with Otto Grundler). Social Groups and Religious Ideas in the Sixteenth Century. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, 1978. Call no.: CB367.C66
• Miriam Usher Chrisman. Bibliography of Strasbourg Imprints, 1480-1599. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982. Call no.: Z2184.S83 C47
• Miriam Usher Chrisman. Lay Culture, Learned Culture: Books and Social Change in Strasbourg, 1480-1599. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982. Call no.: DC801.S77 C47
• Miriam U. Chrisman, “Printing and the Evolution of Lay Culture in Strasbourg, 1480-1599,” The German People and the Reformation, Edited by R. Po-Chia Hsia (Cornell University Press, 1988).
• Phillip N. Bebb and Sherrin Marshall, eds. The Process of Change in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of Miriam Usher Chrisman. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1988. (Festschrift for Chrisman). Call no.: D231.P74 1988
• Miriam Usher Chrisman. Conflicting Visions of Reform: German Lay Propaganda Pamphlets, 1519-1530. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1996. Call no.: BR355.P36 C47 1996

Related Material

In addition to the papers of several of Chrisman’s colleagues in the History Department at UMass Amherst, SCUA holds the papers of Children’s Aid and Family Service (MS 008) , of which Chrisman was President in the mid-1950s.

Copyright and Use (More information)

Cite as: Miriam Usher Chrisman Papers (FS 128). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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