Digital Commons Network^™

Preliminary Report Of The Hasp 2023 Field Season: Coring And Excavations At Efri-Ás, Laufskálaholt, Brekkukot, Grafarkot, Kálfsstaðir, Kjarvalsstaðir, Nautabú, Ingveldarstaðir, Skúfsstaðir, Garðakot, Hringver, Hólakot, And Viðvík In Hjaltadalur With Additional Geophysics At Skúfsstaðir, Guðný Zoëga, John M. Steinberg, Chiara M. Torrini, Trace J. Podder

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

This report outlines the 2023 work, including Geophysical survey, Coring, and Excavations at Efri-Ás, Laufskálaholt (on the Efri-Ás land of the Ásholt summer house), Brekkukot, Kálfsstaðir, Kjarvalsstaðir, Nautabú, Ingveldarstaðir, Skúfsstaðir, Garðakot (part of Víðines) Grafarkot (part of Víðines), Hringver, Hólakot (part of Viðvík), and Viðvík) in Hjaltadal as part of the Hjaltadalur Archaeological Survey Project (HASP). This is the third year of a scheduled three-year project. The purpose of the project is to outline the settlement sequence and regional development in Hólar and around Hjaltadal and compare them with similar studies that have been carried out in Skagafjörður. The 12 …

Chinese Laundries In Massachusetts: An Oral History Project, Shauna Lo

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

No abstract provided.

Beginning Anew: Archives Education At University Of Massachusetts Boston, 2010-2014, Darwin H. Stapleton

History Faculty Publication Series

This essay discusses the creation of an M.A. Archives Track for the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2010-2014. After laying out the process of creating the Track, and developing its curriculum, the essay discusses the relationship between the history and archives professions. Drawing on student feedback, the essay concludes with an evaluation of history-based archival education in an era when archival education has been increasingly based in library science programs.

Preliminary Report Of The Hasp 2022 Field Season: Geophysics, Coring, And Excavations At Neðri-Ás, Kálfsstaðir, Hlíð, Hrafnhóll, Hvammur, Reykir, And Víðines, In Hjaltadalur With An Appendix By Magnús Á. Sigurgeirsson, Guðný Zoëga, John M. Steinberg

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

This report outlines the 2022 work at Neðri Ás, Kálfsstaðir, Hlíð (formally called both Hrappsstaðir and Hrafnsstaðir), Hrafnhóll, Hvammur, Reykir, and Víðines (including Grófarstekkur) in Hjaltadal as part of the Hjaltadalur Archaeological Survey Project (HASP). This is the second year of a scheduled three-year project. The purpose of the project is to outline the settlement sequence and regional development in Hólar and around Hjaltadal and compare them with similar studies that have been carried out in Skagafjörður. The eight farms investigated in 2022 all seem to have been established well before the Hekla 1104 (H1104) tephra fell. Neðri Ás, Kálfsstaðir, …

Hip-Hop History: Grades 9-12 Local History Curriculum, Sivia K. Malloy

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

As the founders and trailblazers mature, and sadly depart this life, a new generation is left behind with limited to no knowledge of the influence hip-hop has on current popular culture locally, nationally, or internationally. Research for this learning intervention determines what and how local hip-hop history incorporates into a social studies/history course with high school (9-12 grade) students, bridging local stories to the national and international trends and events of the past. Informal discussions took place with local hip-hop subject-matter experts throughout the northeast region of New England with ties to Massachusetts. Their recommendations were to wrestle with the …

Preliminary Report 2021: Geophysics, Coring, And Excavations At Hólar; Geophysics At Kálfsstaðir, Guðný Zoëga, John M. Steinberg

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

This report outlines the 2021 work at Hólar in Hjaltadalur as part of the Hjaltadalur Archaeological Survey Project (HASP). The results of soil coring suggest that the farmstead of Hólar is the most extensive farmstead measured using this method in the area of Skagafjörður. After over 1200 cores and 17 excavations (6 of which were part of the 2021 research), there are still no confirmed pre-1104 cultural deposits at Hólar. This difficulty in identifying the pre-1104 domestic occupation implies that Viking Age Hólar was probably not large. The Hólar farmstead domestic space seems to be tightly defined and constrained rather …

Preliminary Report 2021: Coring And Excavations At Hof In Hjaltadalur, John M. Steinberg, Zachary N. Guttman, Guðný Zoëga

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

This report outlines the 2021 work at Hof as part of the Hjaltadalur Archaeological Survey Project (HASP). The results of soil coring suggest that the site of Hof is relatively small compared to other settlement farms. The footprint of the farmstead expands substantially after the 11^th Century. The midden from the 11^th and 12^th centuries appears to be located just north of the main farmhouse (Hof 1). Cores from this area show an abundance of midden on either side of the white AD 1104 tephra. There is a notable absence of post-1300 midden deposits. The excavation unit …

Hollywood Imagines Revolutionary Haiti: The Forgotten Film Lydia Bailey (1952), Judith E. Smith

American Studies Faculty Publication Series

This essay explores the history of Lydia Bailey, the only US studio-made film to depict the Haitian Revolutionary period. It asks why, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, such an unlikely project might have seemed commercially promising enough to justify a significant production budget. The essay draws on private studio memos as well as public press discussions to shed light on the high stakes in debates over racial representation and colonialism/decolonization in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and to illuminate everyday assumptions of white supremacy as these shaped the making of the film and its promotion. Production files …

Documentary Research And Archaeological Investigations At The Turner House, Pembroke, Massachusetts, Elizabeth G. Tarulis, Christa M. Beranek

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

The Turner House (PEM.49) is an early 19th-century house in Pembroke, standing on land owned by the town. In order to assist the town’s Historical Commission in developing long term management plans for the property, the Fiske Center conducted a shovel test pit (STP) survey of the areas around the house. We excavated 50 x 50 cm STPs at 33 locations, two of which were expanded into larger excavation areas. Most of these test pits confirmed that use of the property in the late 20th and early 21st centuries had completely disturbed the historic deposits in most areas. In some …

“Destination Preservation”: Community-Based Cultural Heritage Survey Results, Sarah Collins, Andrew Elder, Carolyn M. Goldstein, Joanne M. Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

During summer 2019, University Archives and Special Collections (UASC) in the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston conducted a survey about participatory archiving, or the process of collecting and preserving materials in partnership with their community members. UASC collected survey responses from 208 respondents representing 33 states and the District of Columbia.

The results of the survey will inform the development of an online resource to guide libraries of all kinds and sizes through the process of hosting a participatory archiving event. The project is made possible by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of …

Civil Rights Gone Wrong: Racial Nostalgia, Historical Memory, And The Boston Busing Crisis In Contemporary Children’S Literature, Lynnell L. Thomas

American Studies Faculty Publication Series

On May 14, 2014, three white Boston city councilors refused to vote to approve a resolution honoring the sixtieth anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education because, as one remarked, “I didn’t want to get into a debate regarding forced busing in Boston.” Against the recent national proliferation of celebrations of civil rights milestones and legislation, the controversy surrounding the fortieth anniversary of the court decision that mandated busing to desegregate Boston public schools speaks volumes about the historical memory of Boston’s civil rights movement. Two highly acclaimed contemporary works of children’s literature set during or inspired by Boston’s …

The Role, Accomplishments, And Challenges Of The Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust, Ron E. Armstead

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

In 1971, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) began its seminal investigation of racism in the military. A year into the investigation, the caucus reported the military had done little, if anything, to address racism in the ranks (188 Cong. Rec., 6739-6744, 1972). The problem continued as one of the most critical issues for the CBC during the latter years of the Vietnam War (188 Cong. Rec. pp. E8674-8688).

Concurrently, in 1971, the CBC held its first annual dinner, which some 500 people attended, including the late actor Ozzie Davis. Over the years, this dinner has grown into a five-day legislative …

Project 400: The Plymouth Colony Archaeological Survey Report On The 2015 Field Season Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Christa M. Beranek, David B. Landon, John M. Steinberg, Brian N. Damiata

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

In May and June of 2015, a field school from the University of Massachusetts Boston, in partnership with Plimoth Plantation, undertook a third season of work in Plymouth, Massachusetts, as part of Project 400: The Plymouth Colony Archaeological Survey, a site survey and excavation program leading up to the 400th anniversary of New England’s first permanent English settlement in 1620, the founding of Plymouth Colony. This work was conducted under permit #3384 from the State Archaeologist’s office at the Massachusetts Historical Commission. The 2015 work focused on the eastern edge of Burial Hill along School Street in downtown Plymouth where …

'Very Quiet Day, Vague Tension': Digitizing And Sharing The Stories Of School Desegregation And Busing In Boston, Andrew Elder

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

In the summer of 2015, University Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston began to work with a number of area archival institutions to create “a digital library of material that can be widely disseminated for both curricular and scholarly use” related to the history of school desegregation and busing in Boston. Too often, the history of Boston school desegregation seems weighted down by some of the most visible characters involved – politicians, policy-makers, court officials – so we decided early on to focus largely on identifying materials that tell a more complex, personal history of school desegregation and busing …

Archaeological Investigation Of The Drive Circle And West Hyphen At Gore Place Waltham, Massachusetts, Christa M. Beranek, Alexandra Crowder

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

In July of 2015, the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at UMass Boston conducted test excavations at Gore Place, the 1806 mansion house of Christopher and Rebecca Gore in Waltham, Massachusetts, to answer questions about changes in the landscape on the north side of the house. The excavations focused on areas of interest within the drive circle and against the west hyphen of the house. The project was carried out under State Archaeologist Permit #3559. The main results in the oval were the discovery of a Gore-period driveway under the grassy oval, indicating that the driveway was broader in front …

Literary Radicals In Radio’S Public Sphere, Judith E. Smith

American Studies Faculty Publication Series

Radio was THE emerging medium in the middle decades of the twentieth century, and radio historians have helped us understand some of the myriad ways it influenced the public sphere and created new forms of cultural consciousness and multivocal formulations of national community. Michele Hilmes has argued that radio was “significantly different from any preceding or subsequent medium in its ability to transcend spatial boundaries, blur the private and public spheres, and escape visual determinations while still retaining the strong element of ‘realism’ that sound—rather than written words--supplies.” Jason Loviglio has analyzed the techniques and implications of radio’s creation of …

Project 400: The Plymouth Colony Archaeological Survey, Report On The 2014 Field Season, Burial Hill Plymouth, Massachusetts, Christa M. Beranek, Justin A. Warrenfeltz, Richie Roy, David B. Landon, Alexandra Crowder, Katie Wagner

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

In May and June of 2014, a field school from the University of Massachusetts Boston, in partnership with Plimoth Plantation, undertook a second season of work in Plymouth, Massachusetts, as part of Project 400: The Plymouth Colony Archaeological Survey, a site survey and excavation program leading up to the 400th anniversary of New England’s first permanent English settlement in 1620, the founding of Plymouth Colony. This work was conducted under permit #3384 from the State Archaeologist’s office at the Massachusetts Historical Commission. The 2014 work focused on the eastern edge of Burial Hill along School Street in downtown Plymouth and …

Forging Connections And Building Collections: The Mass. Memories Road Show At Umass Boston, Jessica R. Holden

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

In this presentation, I explored three aspects of the Mass. Memories Road Show: the public event, the digital collection, and the archival record of Massachusetts communities. I discussed bringing archival resources out into communities (rather than vice versa), and thus reaching new audiences, as well as building new partnerships within those communities.

The Mass. Memories Road Show is a state-wide digital history project that documents people, places, and events in Massachusetts history through family photographs and stories. In partnership with teams of local volunteers, we organize public events to scan family and community photographs and record “the stories behind the …

We Want To Create Our Own History: Youth Power And Leadership In The Boston Youth Justice Movement 2005-2008, Mark Warren, Perri Leviss, Sandeep Jani

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

This collaborative research project aims to co-create new knowledge on the youth justice movement in Boston that will be useful to partner organizations in advancing their goal of building a stronger movement as well as to contribute to academic and broader public understanding of youth justice.

Results Of Archaeogeophysical Investigations Of The Fowler - Clark Farm Mattapan, Boston, Massachusetts, Brian N. Damiata, John M. Steinberg

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) and Frequency-Domain Electromagnetic (FDEM) surveys were employed over an extensively modified 50 m x 65 m city lot containing a farmhouse initially constructed between 1786 and 1806 and a later barn. Both geophysical methods suggested that most of the lot had experienced substantial disturbance and that there was limited sub - surface preservation. Both the GPR and EM surveys indicated a scatter of metallic debris and other disturbance s in the back yard at depths up to 1 m. Most of the front yard also presents as disturbed, except for two unusual but limited buried surfaces …

Doing History With Online Mapping Tools: Handout, Joanne M. Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

Handout listing resources and links that accompanied Riley's presentation "Doing History with Online Mapping Tools: an Introduction"

Doing History With Online Mapping Tools: An Introduction, Joanne M. Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

In November, 2014 the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Mass., offered a presentation titled "How to Do History with Online Mapping Tools" as part of a series related to the Museum and Library’s collection of historic maps sponsored by the Ruby W. and LaVon P. Linn Foundation. The invited presenters were Jessie Partridge from the MetroBoston DataCommon, a provider of free applications that make it possible to map data, and Joanne Riley, University Archivist and Curator of Special Collections in the Healey Library at UMass Boston. Both presenters helped lay historians, data fans, and map enthusiasts discover how visualizations of …

University Archives And Community Organizations: Ensuring Access Through Collaboration, Jessica R. Holden, Andrew Elder, Joanne Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

How can a university archives establish a successful ongoing relationship with a community organization? What are the benefits and challenges of such a collaboration? University of Massachusetts Boston’s Archives and Special Collections (UASC) explored these questions while working with The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA) to preserve and provide access to 79,000 mortuary records from the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. Elements of the collaboration included shifting stewardship of the records from the Foresters to TIARA to UMass Boston, integrating TIARA’s efforts in processing and indexing the records into the Archives’ workflow, providing in-person and electronic access to the records, …

Historians In The Community: Public History Practicum Projects, History 625 - The Art And Craft Of Interpretation, Jane Becker

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Public historians work among and for the public—they put their skills as historians to work in our communities. Using historical materials, public historians help people understand personal and community histories and their relationships to broader historical contexts.

The Public History Track at UMass Boston serves and supports community endeavors to document, preserve, curate, interpret, and make accessible their various histories, and to connect their pasts with the present. Our partnerships provide graduate students with opportunities to apply theory to practice, and to build their professional networks and portfolios.

Indigenous Women, Mother Tongues, And Nation Building In New England: A Tribal Policy Leadership Series, Amy Den Ouden, Chris Bobel

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

In collaboration with the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP), Indigenous women educators and leaders, the Dept. of Women’s and Gender Studies is redesigning WOST/WGS 270, Native American Women in North America, to incorporate a lecture series on nation building and a semester-long community engagement project fostering student leadership in a research and policy formation project focused on legislating and funding a Native American language education law in Massachusetts.

Mass. Memories Road Show Heads To Wayland, Allston-Brighton, The West End, And Umass Boston, Carolyn Goldstein, University Archives & Special Collections, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Mass. Memories Road Show is an event-based public history project that digitizes personal photographs and stories shared by the people of Massachusetts. We work with local communities to organize free public events where every-one is invited to bring photographs to be scanned and included in the archives at UMass Boston. The goal of the Road Show is not only to document local history, but to build and strengthen connections within the communities of Massachusetts.

The Emancipated Century: A Staged Reading Series, Robert Lublin, Clifford Odle, Barbara Lewis

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

A coordinated series of dramatic staged readings of the plays of August Wilson in theatres throughout greater Boston. This project aims to pay tribute to the 150th anniversary of the Emancipated Proclamation with a full presentation of August Wilson’s monumental 10-play cycle on African American life in each decade of the twentieth century. The accompanying Re-Visioning Tomorrow Forums explored ongoing themes in urban communities.

Working With Data In Archival Settings, Joanne M. Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

Structured data plays a vital role in archival administration, preservation and access activities. Three case studies are presented that demonstrate different applications of metadata: Medici Archive Project: Documentary Sources for the Arts and Humanities 1537 – 1743 (Relational database); The History of the Accademia di San Luca, c. 1590 – 1635: Documents from the Archivio di Stato di Roma (Text markup – TEI); Healey Library’s OpenArchives (Dublin Core Schema in a proprietary data system).

Cycling Historiography, Evidence, And Methods, Lorenz J. Finison

Boston’s Cycling Craze, 1880-1900: A Story of Race, Sport, and Society

My purpose in Boston’s Cycling Craze, 1880-1900, was to unearth a largely hidden social cycling history from the point of view of the ordinary, not the famous. While there were many Boston connections to racing champions like Major Taylor, Eddie McDuffee, and Nat Butler, and there are abundant sources of evidence about them, the research was not just about them, nor just about bicycle racing, nor just about unique or fast bikes. I wanted to write about what bicycling meant to ordinary citizens of Boston and its surrounding towns— and to write about the worsening social climate of the …

Building Bridges In The Clouds: Connecting Researchers And Hidden Works, Andrew Elder, Joanne M. Riley, Daniel Ortiz-Zapata, Ann Blum, Reyes Coll-Tellechea

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

The work of two researchers, Mercedes Agullo and Rita Arditti, is the raw material for the development of two projects using cloud-based turn-key solutions. The resulting digital libraries bring together primary and secondary sources to a global audience of scholars and researchers that previously could not access these valuable yet hidden scholarly works.

Mercedes Agulló y Cobo is a Spanish historian who, over the course of her career, has produced important scholarly reference works in the historiography of the book, painting, sculpture, and theater. The Library at UMass Boston was approached by a faculty member in Latin American & Iberian …