Special Collections & University Archives
New England Federation of Agricultural Students
New England Federation of Agricultural Students Records, 1907-1915.
1 box (0.5 linear feet).
The New England Federation of Agricultural Students was organized in 1907 for the purpose of bringing together agricultural students of New England colleges for the study and advancement of agriculture and allied sciences and to learn about each others’ work. The Federation organized annual contests in fruit grading and packing, poultry, field crops, and stock.
Correspondence (1915), minutes (1915), constitution, treasurer’s report (1914-1915), records of the secretary and treasurer (1907-1915), contest scores and results (1914), and judging regulations (1913-1916).
» Read more »
Subjects- Agricultural education--New England--Societies, etc.--History
- Agricultural students--New England--History
- Agriculture--Competitions--New England--History
Contributors- New England Federation of Agricultural Students
Call no.: MS 333
View related collections: Agricultural education, New England : : No Comments
Founded under the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 as the Massachusetts Agricultural College, UMass Amherst has long been dedicated to the study and teaching of agriculture and the natural sciences. One of two land grant institutions in the Commonwealth (along with MIT), the university has played an important role in the development of scientific agriculture in New England and has been a major factor in agricultural instruction through its classes and extension service.
SCUA’s collections contain a wealth of information on the history of agriculture and related fields, including horticulture, botany, entomology, animal husbandry, gardening, and landscape design. The strength of the collection lies in documenting the development of American agricultural sciences with an emphasis upon the northeastern states, but it is supplemented with numerous works on British, French, and German agriculture. Adding additional depth are the records of the several departments at UMass Amherst charged with instruction in the agricultural sciences and the papers of individual agricultural educators.
Currently, SCUA is particularly interested in documenting the growth of organic agriculture, heritage breeds, and the practices of sustainable living.
Significant Manuscript collections (view all)
- Agricultural education
- Papers of faculty members at Massachusetts Agricultural College and UMass Amherst, as well as educational organizations dedicated to instruction in the agricultural sciences. Among the individuals represented are the agricultural educator, Kenyon Butterfield; Levi Stockbridge, the first farm manager and long-time instructor at MAC; and William Smith Clark, William Penn Brooks, and William Wheeler, who were instrumental in the 1870s in establishing the agricultural college in Hokkaido, Japan.
- Farming and rural life
- Correspondence, farm accounts, and other records of farming and rural life, primarily in New England, as well as materials relating to the sociology of rural life.
- Botany and horticulture
- Collections relating to the scientific study of botany, horticulture, forestry, and related sciences.
- Landscape and gardening
- The papers and photographs of the landscape designer Frank Waugh, and other collections.
- Other natural sciences
- Including entomology and geology.
Printed works: Collecting areas
- Agriculture
- Early works through the late nineteenth century on agriculture in America, Britain, and Europe, including those by John Fitzherbert, Thomas Hale, Arthur Young, “Columella,” John Smith, Gervase Markham, et al.
- Animal husbandry
- Works on sheep culture in the United States (Robert R. Livingston, Samuel Bard) and England (Lord Somerville, John Lawrence); dairy and beef cattle, horses, poultry science.
- Beekeeping and entomology
- Among the earliest rare books acquired by the Massachusetts Agricultural Library were a collections of rare books in beekeeping, including key works by Thomas Hill, John Keys, Daniel Wildman, Henry Eddy, from the late 17th through late 19th centuries. Works by Maria Sibylla Merian, John Curtis, Dru Drury, Johann Jakob Romer, Jacob l’Admiral
- Botany and Silviculture
- Important works on American botany by Frederick Pursh, Thomas Nuttall, Humphry Marshall’s Arbustrum Americanum, François André Michaux, early editions of Linnaeus
- Gardening and landscape design
- Three editions of Bernard M’Mahon’s American Gardener’s Calendar, William Cobbett, Alexander Jackson Davis, Humphry Repton, and others.
- Genetics, eugenics, animal breeding
- Essentially compete runs of Eugenics Quarterly, and key works in eugenics.
- Pomology, viticulture, and fruit culture
- William Prince, William Coxe, William Chorlton, et al.
Electronic resources
View related collections: : : No Comments
Ebenezer Akin Account Book, 1842-1869.
1 vol. (0.25 linear feet).
Businessman, town clerk, owner or part-owner of many ships, merchant, lawyer, and involved citizen in the town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Includes activities as town clerk, accounts for ships he may have owned, entries made as the executor of several estates, accounts of expenditures for clothing and incidentals, and accounts of lot purchases and loans. Also contains genealogical information about the Blossom family of Bridgewater and the family of Benjamin and Eunice Akin.
» Read more »
Subjects- Akin, Benjamin, 1715-1802
- Akin, Eunice
- Blossom family
- Clothing and dress--Prices--Massachusetts--Fairhaven
- Fairhaven (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century
- Fairhaven (Mass.)--Politics and government--19th century
- Hesper (Bark)
- Merchants--Massachusetts--Fairhaven
- Napoleon (Ship)
- Shipowners--Massachusetts--Fairhaven
- Shipping--Massachusetts--Fairhaven
- William Rotch (Ship)
- Winthrop (Bark)
ContributorsTypes of material- Account books
- Genealogies
- Inventories of decedents estates
Call no.: MS 220 bd
View related collections: Business & industry, Massachusetts (East), Personal finance : : No Comments
Ebenezer Bailey Papers, 1852-1882.
1 box (0.25 linear feet).
Ebenezer Bailey was a wholesale shoe purchaser and distributor from Massachusetts. The collection comprises just over 100 items, the bulk of which are receipts for the purchase and sale of shoes and slippers, covering the period from 1852 to 1882.
» Read more »
Subjects- Business records--Massachusetts
- Dearborn, J. J
- Lynn (Mass.)--History
- Shoe industry--Massachusetts--Lynn
- Shoe industry--New England--History--19th century
ContributorsTypes of material- Receipts (Financial records)
Call no.: MS 448
View related collections: Business & industry, Massachusetts : : No Comments
Boarding House Register, 1850.
1 vol. (0.25 linear feet).
Twenty-four page register kept by unnamed person, possibly from a Quabbin town, listing boarders by name, payment received, and employee accounts. Payments noted in detail from February to October, 1850. Boarders included several doctors and L.S. Hills, possibly Leonard S. Hills of the Amherst, Massachusetts hat factory. Employee accounts list many women with Irish surnames, including Ellen O’Leary, Ellen Callahan, and Margaret Murphy.
» Read more »
Subjects- Boardinghouses--Massachusetts--19th century
- Irish American women--History--19th century
Types of material
Call no.: MS 098
View related collections: Quabbin : : No Comments
Dall Family Correspondence, 1810-1843.
2 boxes (2 linear feet).
Chiefly correspondence from various Dall family members in Boston, Massachusetts, particularly father William Dall, Revolutionary War veteran, merchant, businessman and former Yale College writing master, to sons William and James Dall in Baltimore, Maryland. Letters of son James Dall, then a student at Harvard University, provide accounts of Boston political and cultural activities of the time.
The correspondence documents the daily changes in the life of a merchant’s family in the early 19th century, reflecting anxiety over trade restrictions, embargoes, and other economic disruptions resulting from the War of 1812. The elder Dall (William 3rd) and much of his family lived in Boston, but two sons lived in Baltimore. The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters to the younger son, William 4th, who was then apprenticed to a Baltimore merchant. The letters of son James Dall, then a student at Harvard University, provide accounts of Boston political and cultural activities.
» Read more »
Subjects- Baltimore (Md.)--Biography
- Baltimore (Md.)--Economic conditions--19th century
- Boston (Mass.)--Biography
- Boston (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century
- Boston (Mass.)--Intellectual life--19th century
- Boston (Mass.)--Politics and government--19th century
- Dall family
- Family--United States--History--19th century
- Harvard University--Students
- Merchants--Maryland--Baltimore
- Merchants--Massachusetts--Boston
Contributors- Dall, James, 1781-1863
- Dall, John Robert, 1798-1851
- Dall, John, 1791-1852
- Dall, Joseph, 1801-1840
- Dall, Maria, 1783-1836
- Dall, Rebecca Keen
- Dall, Sarah Keen, 1798-1878
- Dall, William, 1753-1829
- Dall, William, 1794 or 5-1875
Call no.: MS 282
View related collections: Family, Massachusetts (East), Mercantile : : No Comments
Democratic Socialist Conference Collection, 1984-1991.
2 boxes (0.5 linear feet).
Includes transcripts of papers delivered at conferences (1985-1990) on democratic socialism, and correspondence (1984-1991) between Stephen Siteman, former Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America, and Frank Zeidler, former Mayor of Milwaukee, Socialist Party candidate for President of the United States, and national chairperson of the Socialist Party USA.
» Read more »
Subjects- Socialism--Africa
- Socialist Party of the United States of America
- United States--Politics and government--1981-1989
- United States--Politics and government--1989-1993
Contributors- Siteman, Stephen
- Zeidler, Frank P
Call no.: MS 325
View related collections: Communism & Socialism, Social change : : No Comments
Luke Drury Papers, 1746-1831.
4 boxes (3 linear feet).
Soldier in Revolutionary War and Shays Rebellion, later a state legislator and local politician from Grafton and Marlboro, Massachusetts. Drury’s papers contain family and business (farm and mill) correspondence, notes of hand, bills, receipts, and legal papers as well as records pertaining to the town of Grafton. Collection also includes papers of Timothy Darling and the Goulding, Place, and Sherman families.
» Read more »
Subjects- Grafton (Mass.)--History
- Massachusetts--History
- Shays' Rebellion, 1786-1787
Contributors- Darling, Timothy
- Drury, Luke, 1737-1811
- Goulding, Israel
- Sherman, Thankful Temple
Types of material
Call no.: MS 258
View related collections: Family, Massachusetts (Central), Politics & governance : : No Comments
W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1984.
328 boxes (168.75 linear feet).
W.E.B. Du Bois
Scholar, writer, editor of The Crisis and other journals, co-founder of the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, and the Pan African Congresses, international spokesperson for peace and for the rights of oppressed minorities, W.E.B. Du Bois was a son of Massachusetts who articulated the strivings of African Americans and developed a trenchant analysis of the problem of the color line in the twentieth century.
The Du Bois Papers contain almost 165 linear feet of the personal and professional papers of a remarkable social activist and intellectual. Touching on all aspects of his long life from his childhood during Reconstruction through the end of his life in 1963, the collection reflects the extraordinary breadth of his social and academic commitments from research in sociology to poetry and plays, from organizing for social change to organizing for Black consciousness.
» Read more »
Subjects- African Americans--Civil rights
- African Americans--History--1877-1964
- Crisis (New York, N.Y.)
- Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963--Views on democracy
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- Pan-Africanism
- United States--Race relations
Contributors- Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963
Types of material
Call no.: MS 312
View related collections: African American, Antiracism, Civil rights, Communism & Socialism, Digital, Du Bois, W.E.B., Peace, Political activism, Social change, Social justice : : No Comments
Girls Club of Greenfield Records, 1895-1995.
21 boxes (27 linear feet).
Founded in 1895, the Girls Club of Greenfield provides high quality early care and educational services to the girls of Franklin County, Massachusetts, and advocates for the rights of children and their families. During the school year, the Club offers diverse programming, ranging from an infant room and preschool to after school activities that promote teamwork, community spirit, social skills, and confidence. Since 1958, they have also operated a summer camp, Lion Knoll, in Leyden.
The records of the Girls Club of Greenfield include by-laws, annual reports, reports and meeting minutes of the Board of Directors, correspondence, and ledgers and account books. Also contains program files for daycare, summer camp, education worker programs, and others, personnel records, membership and committee lists, newsletters, press releases, ledgers, account books, scrapbooks, news clippings, photographs, slides, and artifacts.
» Read more »
Subjects- Girls--Massachusetts--Greenfield--Social conditions
- Girls--Massachusetts--Greenfield--Social life and customs
- Girls--Massachusetts--Greenfield--Societies and clubs--History
- Greenfield (Mass.)--Social conditions
- Greenfield (Mass.)--Social life and customs
Contributors- Girls Club of Greenfield (Greenfield, Mass.)
Types of material- Account books
- Photographs
- Scrapbooks
Call no.: MS 379
View related collections: Civic organizations, Massachusetts (West), Women : : No Comments