History Commons^™

“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 …

'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 …

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 …

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, …

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.

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 …

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.

Crowdsourcing Transcriptions Of Archival Materials, Aaron G. Noll

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

Crowdsourcing is a method that has been effectively used to pool the knowledge and skills of large numbers of online volunteers for the creation of information resources utilized by historians, genealogists, and scientists. In recent years, archivists have begun to crowdsource the transcription of their handwritten records. Transcription of such records has traditionally been completed by professional transcribers who are skilled in reading multiple handwriting styles, knowledgeable about the creators and historical context of the records, and can interpret varying record formats and genres. However, increasingly limited resources of time and money have made traditional transcription more difficult to accomplish. …

Born Digital: Event-Driven Archives, Vincent Capone

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

The growth of the internet has brought numerous tools and opportunities for archivists to both enhance their collections and reach out to potential patrons. Archives across the globe have begun immense digitization efforts to bring collections into the digital age and make them accessible to a broader audience. But what challenges face new archives whose collections are born-digital? How do these archives prove that they are indeed an archival facility and not simply a memory institution? These questions have risen around numerous digital archives born in the past decade to document and commemorate social events and tragic disasters, including the …

Documenting A Movement: Creating And Sustaining The Occupy Boston Community Archive, Meghan Bailey

Meghan Bailey

A wave of dissatisfaction swept the country in fall 2011. This uneasiness manifested itself in numerous Occupy movements, featuring throngs of protestors speaking out against income inequality and the corruption in our financial sector. Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Boston took root on the Rose Kennedy Greenway at Dewey Square in Boston’s financial district during mid-October 2011. Thriving in the shadow of the Federal Reserve Bank, Occupy Boston was a vibrant and diverse community of individuals, from students to the working class, from professionals to the unemployed. The importance of preserving the Occupy movement quickly became clear. It’s been …

Mass. Memories Road Show, Heather Cole, Joanne M. Riley, Andrew Elder, Joseph P. Healey Library, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Mass. Memories Road Show is an event-based public history project that digitizes family photos and stories shared by the people of Massachusetts. We work with local communities to organize free public events where residents are invited to bring family photos to be scanned and included in the archives at UMass Boston.

The Mass. Memories Road Show: Some Notes On Bridging And Bonding, Joanne M. Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

Four years ago, the Mass. Studies Project at UMass Boston launched a cultural heritage project that we dubbed the “Mass. Memories Road Show,” a real-world mashup of PBS’s Antiques Road Show (people bring their personal stuff to a local event for professional perusal) and the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project (digitize historic stuff and share it with the world). Our ambitious goal was – and still is! – to visit each of the 351 communities in Massachusetts, inviting residents to bring in photographs that reflect themselves and their families in that community. At the public “Road Show” events, we …

Oliver Optic 1822-1897, Children's Author, Dale H. Freeman

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

No abstract provided.

Preservation Of The Records Of The Massachusetts Bay Company, Dale H. Freeman

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

A paper that dually examines the painstaking work done by Boston Historian Nathaniel Shurtleff in 1853, to preserve the records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; and the methods of record keeping within the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 and after.

Dorchester House Multi-Service Center: One Hundred Years Of Community Service, 1887-1987, Linda Genovese, Elizabeth R. Mock

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

Dorchester House has remained a vital part of its community since it was established in 1887. Beginning as a one-room industrial school in the Fields Corner neighborhood, Dorchester House has grown from a settlement house into a modern, multi-service center offering a wide range of social, educational, recreational, and health services to people of all ages. Over the past one hundred years, Dorchester House has continuously met the ever changing needs of the Dorchester community.