Founders of the Niagara Movement,
ca.1905

The acquisition of the papers of W.E.B. Du Bois in 1972 established SCUA as a center for research in African American history. In subsequent years, the University of Massachusetts has supported the publication of three volumes of Dr. Du Bois’ correspondence and SCUA has served as a resource for many dozens of scholarly articles and books on Du Bois and his legacy. SCUA has also made efforts to build around the Du Bois collection, adding other important printed and manuscript materials both in African American history and in the history of efforts to promote social change.

Beyond Du Bois, significant collections in African American history include the papers of the abolitionist Hudson Family of Northampton, the expatriate playwright Gordon Heath, the sociologist, educator, and former president of Lincoln University, Horace Mann Bond.

Each February, in commemoration of Dr. Du Bois’s birthday, SCUA and the Du Bois Department of Afro-Americans Studies at UMass co-sponsor a colloquium on Du Bois and his legacy. Our lecturers have included distinguished scholars such as Herbert Aptheker, Randolph Bromery, Clayborne Carson, and David Levering Lewis.

• Antislavery Pamphlet Collection
  • Several hundred pamphlets relating to political antislavery in the United States, with an emphasis opn New England.
  • See our Antislavery pamphlets digital archive
• Aronson, James. Collection, 1946-1983
  • Editor of the National Guardian
• Banks, Katherine Bell. Papers, 1926-1960.
  • Letters from W.E.B. Du Bois to Banks, a family friend
• Bond, Horace Mann. Papers, 1830-1979
  • Educator, President of Lincoln University
• Brown, John. Papers (microfilm), 1826-1942 (bulk: 1856-1859)
• Du Bois, W. E. B. Papers, 1868-1963
  • See also Du Bois Central for additional resources on Du Bois, including photographs, digital collections, and more.
    See also the film documenting the Du Bois Homesite dedication ceremonies in Great Barrington, Mass., 1969.
• Heath, Gordon. Papers, 1940-1991
  • Expatriate writer, actor, director, and musician
• Hudson Family. Papers, 1780-1955
  • Family papers of the antislavery activist Erasmus D. Hudson
• International Oil Working Group. Records, 1981-1986
• Massachusetts. Special Commission on Unequal Education Opportunities. Records, 1974-1978
• Obrebski, Joseph and Tamara. Papers, 1923-1974
  • Anthropological field work in Jamaica, 1947-1948
• Urban League of Springfield (Mass.). Records, 1970s
• Trent, Lloyd A. Family Papers, 1850-1996

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Core Historical Literature of Agriculture, Cornell University
• The Natural Farmer, digital files of NOFA newspaper, 1999-2005