Arts and Humanities Commons^™

"Full Of Light And Fire": John Brown In Springfield, Louis J. Rocco Jr.

Graduate Masters Theses

History remembers radical abolitionist John Brown (1800-1859) as the man who directed the slaughter of five pro-slavery settlers in Bleeding Kansas in 1856 and for his failed October 1859 raid on the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. But before he committed these infamous and life-defining acts, John Brown lived and worked in Springfield, Massachusetts, from 1846 to 1849. Though originally drawn to Springfield to work as an agent for wool growers who were being taken advantage of by powerful New England mill owners, it was during his time in western Massachusetts that the nature of Brown’s abolitionism changed. While …

'Improvement The Order Of The Age': Historic Advertising, Consumer Choice, And Identity In 19th Century Roxbury, Massachusetts, Janice A. Nosal

Graduate Masters Theses

During the mid-to-late 19th century, Roxbury, Massachusetts experienced a dramatic change from a rural farming area to a vibrant, working-class, and predominantly-immigrant urban community. This new demographic bloomed during America’s industrial age, a time in which hundreds of new mass-produced goods flooded consumer markets. This thesis explores the relationship between working-class consumption patterns and historic advertising in 19th-century Roxbury, Massachusetts. It assesses the significance of advertising within households and the community by comparing advertisements from the Roxbury Gazette and South End Advertiser with archaeological material from the Tremont Street and Elmwood Court Housing sites, excavated in the late 1970s, to …

The Integration Of African Americans In The Civilian Conservation Corps In Massachusetts, Caitlin E. Pinkham

Graduate Masters Theses

The Civilian Conservation Corps employed young white and black men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. In 1935 Robert Fechner, the Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps, ordered the segregation of Corps camps across the country. Massachusetts’ camps remained integrated due in large part to low funding and a small African American population. The experiences of Massachusetts’ African American population present a new general narrative of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Federal government imposed a three percent African American quota, ensuring that African Americans participated in Massachusetts as the Civilian Conservation Corps expanded. This quota represents a Federal acknowledgement …

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 …

Ubiquitous And Unfamiliar: Earthenware Pottery Production Techniques And The Bradford Family Pottery Of Kingston, Ma, Martha L. Sulya

Graduate Masters Theses

Redware ceramic sherds are frequently found in New England historical archaeological sites; however, detailed data has not always been published regarding excavated New England earthenware pottery production sites. The goal of this thesis is to contribute to the small body of research on New England redware production through the study of the life and ceramic production techniques of the Bradford family pottery. Their workshop operated in Kingston, Massachusetts, from the 1780s to the 1870s, a time when stoneware production and industrial scale ceramics manufacturing took hold in America. Documentary study of the Bradford family and the ceramics industry shows that …

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.

Germs, Pigs And Silver: King Philip's War And The Deconstruction Of The Middle Ground In New England, Benjamin M. Roine

Graduate Masters Theses

Early in the seventeenth century Algonquians peoples of southern New England and English colonists built a middle ground which benefitted both groups. Trade, the existence of competition from Dutch and French colonies and powerful Algonquian tribes maintained this middle ground. However, as trade items, such as beaver pelts and wampum became rare or lost value and continued English immigration to New England weakened Dutch claims to the area, the middle ground began to crumble. As English-style farms and livestock changed the ecology of New England and the colonists sought to assert their will, Algonquians lost the ability to live as …

The Personal And Family Challenges Of Reentry: Interview With Helen Credle, Kenneth J. Cooper

Trotter Review

For 40 years, Helen Credle has worked with prison inmates and exoffenders in Massachusetts, from inside or outside the state corrections system. The Boston native, who grew up in Roxbury, did not set out to become an advocate for prisoners and their families. Oddly, it was music that first took her inside prison walls and into that role. As director of community services for the New England Conservatory of Music, Credle organized concerts by bluesman B.B. King and balladeer Bobby Womack in state prisons. Her involvement grew deeper when the conservatory’s administrators and faculty members decided to teach inmates to …

Mass. Memories Road Show: Your Place In Massachusetts History, Andrew Elder, Carolyn M. Goldstein, Joanne Riley, 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 family photographs and stories shared by the people of Massachusetts. We work with local communities to organize free public events where everyone is invited to bring photographs to be scanned and included in the archives at UMass Boston.

To date, the Mass. Memories Road Show has digitized more than 5,000 photographs and stories from across the state, creating an educational resource of primary sources for future generations. Over time, we plan to visit each of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts.

Recovering A Sordid Past: Public Memory Of Scollay Square, Joan Ilacqua

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

Boston’s own entertainment district, Scollay Square, has been eradicated from Boston’s landscape, both physically and in public memory. In its prime, Scollay Square housed dime museums, theaters, burlesque attractions and its answer to Nathan’s hot dogs, Joe and Nemo’s. Eventually, Scollay Square deteriorated and was targeted for urban renewal. At present, Boston’s Government Center and City Hall Plaza occupy what once was a thriving local attraction. Beyond the plaque dedicated to the Howard Athenaeum, a strong public memory of Scollay Square is not evident in Boston. Following the rise and fall of Scollay Square and analyzing rhetoric used to support …

Data Recovery Excavations Of The Carriage House, Greenhouse, And Greenhouse/Carriage House Well At Gore Place, Waltham, Massachusetts, J.N. Leith Smith, Christa M. Beranek, John M. Steinberg, Michelle G. Styger, Heidi Krofft, Rita A. Deforest

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

Excavations and ground penetrating radar at Gore Place in Waltham, Massachusetts, examined the original 1793 carriage house site, the 1806 greenhouse, and the greenhouse/carriage house well, all associated with Christopher and Rebecca Gore. The carriage house was moved in 1968, and its cellar was filled at that time. Mechanical removal of the fill in a portion of the carriage house cellar revealed that the lower portion of at least the rear (north) foundation wall is well preserved along with the cellar floor. Documentary evidence indicated that the carriage house cellar had been used for manure (compost) preparation, while the first …

Class, Class Mobility, And The Consumption Of Household Technology In Salem, Massachusetts, 1890-1914, Candace Stephens

Graduate Masters Theses

This study looks at the rise of household technologies available in Salem, Massachusetts from 1890-1914, and examines how these technologies, from importation to sale and consumption, defined class and class aspirations in the city and reflect transformations seen throughout the United States during the turn of the twentieth century. So that we can best understand how technology was used within individual homes, this research centers almost exclusively around four families whose businesses, and residences are dissected to better identify how their consumption of goods and technology created new opportunities, as well as problems, for household members and domestic servants employed …

Documentary Research And Archaeological Investigations At The Waite-Kirby-Potter Site, Westport, Massachusetts, Katharine M. Johnson, Christa M. Beranek, Kathryn A. Catlin, Laura W. Ng

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

Research on the Waite-Kirby-Potter house in Westport, Massachusetts, included mapping historical resources visible on the surface and excavating 25 test pits and units near the house foundations in the fall of 2009. Field investigations were complemented by extensive documentary research including a complete chain of title and genealogical research on the three families who have owned the property between the late 17th century and the present. The visible historical features include elements associated with the former stone ender (the standing stone end and chimney, an adjacent brick chimney, and a stone-lined cellar hole), stone walls, a 19th-century barn foundation, a …

Archaeological Site Examination Of The Field East Of The Grapery/Greenhouse, Drive Circle, Straight Walk, And South Lawn At Gore Place, Waltham, Massachusetts, J.N. Leith Smith, Christa M. Beranek, John M. Steinberg

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

A landscape restoration plan for the 45-acre historic estate of Massachusetts governor and United States senator, Christopher Gore and his wife Rebecca, recommended archaeological investigations to identify the location, character, and integrity of Gore-period features that could potentially be included in restoration efforts. Investigations began in 2004, focusing on better known landscape elements including the carriage drive, carriage house foundation, greenhouse, vegetable and flower gardens, and the site of the grapery/fruitwall (Smith and Dubell 2006). The 2008 investigations focused on the new site of the carriage house (reported under separate cover) and on lesser known elements of the estate that …

A Historical Overview Of Poverty Among Blacks In Boston, 1950-1990, Robert C. Hayden

Trotter Review

Like most nineteenth-century residents of Boston, blacks worked hard to maintain their homes and families. Even before the Civil War, both enslaved and free blacks in "freedom's birthplace" worked long and arduous hours. Those who migrated to Boston from the South in the 1800s had come to secure higher wages, mobility, and opportunity for themselves and their families. Boston's black population grew from 2,000 in 1850 to 8,125 in 1890, and to 11,591 by 1900. In 1900, 39 percent of black Bostonians were northern-born (New England, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania), and 53 percent were southern-born.

Residential segregation for …

Investigating The Heart Of A Community: Archaeological Excavations At The African Meeting House, Boston, Massachusetts, David B. Landon, Teresa Dujnic, Kate Descoteaux, Susan Jacobucci, Darios Felix, Marisa Patalano, Ryan Kennedy, Diana Gallagher, Ashley Peles, Jonathan Patton, Heather Trigg, Allison Bain, Cheryl Laroche

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

In collaboration with the Museum of African American History, an archaeological research team from the University of Massachusetts Boston carried out a data recovery excavation at the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill. The African Meeting House was a powerful social institution for 19thcentury Boston’s free black community. The site played an important role in the abolition movement, the creation of educational opportunity, and other community action for social and political equality. The Meeting House was originally built in 1806, and renovations in preparation for the 2006 bi-centennial celebration prompted an investigation of areas of the property to be impacted …

Report On The Archaeological Site Examination Of The Entrance Drive, Carriage House, Greenhouse, Vegetable Garden, Flower Garden And Grapery At Gore Place, Waltham, Massachusetts, J.N. Leith Smith, Gregory Dubell

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

Alandscape restoration plan for the 45-acre Gore Place property in Waltham and Watertown, MA, calls for restoration of grounds, gardens and structures to depict and interpret the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century occupation of Massachusetts governor and United States senator, Christopher Gore, and his wife, Rebecca. The restoration plan includes archaeological investigation to help identify the location and integrity of six historically documented features on the Gore Place grounds. Blocks and transects of shovel test pits at 5, 10 and 20 meter intervals along with 1 x 1 m excavation units and trenching were employed in the archaeological site examination …

Phase I Archaeological Intensive Survey Of Hassanamesitt Woods Property, Grafton, Massachusetts, Jack Gary, Stephen Mrozowski, David B. Landon

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

The Center for Cultural and Environmental History conducted a Phase I archaeological intensive survey of the Hassanamesitt Woods property in Grafton, Massachusetts from October 2004 through January 2005. Documentary evidence has suggested that the property may contain remains of the church for the Praying Indian village of Hassanamisco, established by John Eliot in 1660. Historical deed research has also placed several Nipmuc families on the property in the early 18th century, suggesting the area was resettled by the original inhabitants of Hassanimisco in the aftermath of King Philip's War. Throughout the course of the 18th and 19th centuries the property …

Higher Education In The 1960'S: The Origins Of The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Diane D'Arrigo

American Studies Graduate Final Projects

On June 18, 1964, Governor Endicott Peabody signed the bill to create the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Just fifteen months later, in the fall of 1965, the University of Massachusetts Boston opened its doors for its first class of students. Joining the more than 1200 students were 75 faculty and 10 staff people. They were pioneers in creating an institution which held enormous hope and promise of serving its urban community at a time of major change in higher education, specifically and in society, generally.

Today, the University of Massachusetts Boston is one of five campuses that make up …

From Italy To Boston's North End: Italian Immigration And Settlement, 1890-1910, Stephen Puleo

Graduate Masters Theses

More than four million Italian immigrants entered the United States between 1880 and 1920, a number greater than any other ethnic group during America's peak immigration years. From 1900 to 1910 alone, more than two million Italians flowed through American ports. This thesis examines the great Italian migration to and settlement in the United States, focusing on one of America's strongest and most vibrant ethnic communities, Boston’s Italian North End.

The vast majority of Italian immigrants were peasants from agrarian Southern Italy, seeking refuge in America from nearly unbearable conditions in their homeland. They were mostly young, usually poor and …

The African-American Business Tradition In Boston, Robert C. Hayden

Trotter Review

African Americans in Boston have been exhibiting their interest and talents in business for a long time. Those in business today are continuing a tradition that goes back to the African culture of preslavery days. Enslaved Africans who were brought to America came from a business tradition, from a culture of great traders, merchants, and craftsmen. Many enslaved blacks, in fact, purchased their freedom by marketing their skilled services and handmade products.

Commentary: Blacks In U.S. History, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

During Black History Month many people paused to discuss and reflect on the presence and the contributions of African-Americans in the history of the United States. During February two years ago we had a visit from a white Navy veteran from nearby Quincy, Massachusetts, who had his own black history story — although he did not express it as such.

Boston School Desegregation: The Fallowness Of Common Ground, Robert A. Dentler

Trotter Review

This essay scrutinizes the book by J Anthony Lukas, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, to assess whether it presents a valid and reliable account of the issues, people, and events it chronicles. The substantive core of the book is shown to be the politics of Boston public school desegregation. The parts played by the three families in this event are dramatically portrayed but cannot be corroborated and are not interpreted. The parts played by five major policy leaders, when tested against other evidence, are found to be distorted, questionable legends woven in …