Collection Assessment and Training for the University Archives and Special Collections

FAIN: PG-258335-18

University of Massachusetts, Boston (Boston, MA 02125-3300)
Patricia Bruttomesso (Project Director: May 2017 to March 2022)

A preservation assessment of the materials held by the University Archives and Special Collections, which cover topics of local and national importance, including school desegregation in Boston during the 1970s (Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr.’s chambers papers on the Boston Schools Desegregation Case, 1972-97) and the history of private social welfare and charitable organizations (orphanages and settlement houses) in 19th- and early and mid-20th-century Boston. Accessed by social and family historians, as well as by students in archival instruction workshops, the collections offer researchers a view into the administration of these social welfare organizations (through annual reports, meeting minutes, and correspondence), as well as a glimpse into the lives of the women and children in their care.

The University Archives and Special Collections (UASC) at University of Massachusetts Boston requests a Preservation Assistance Grant in the amount of $6,367. This grant will allow UASC to contract with the New England Document Conservation Center to accomplish two goals in January 2018-March 2019: Conduct a general preservation assessment, with the assistance of a UMass Boston Archives or Public History graduate student; and host a photograph preservation training workshop, open to the public. UASC will use the assessment, resultant recommendations, and knowledge gained in the workshop to develop a 5-year preservation plan to ensure continued access to the unique collections that document the history of UMass Boston, support its urban mission, and allow the UASC to serve as a research destination for topics such as social welfare, Boston school desegregation, the Boston Harbor Islands, and other multidisciplinary research areas with rich applicability for research in the humanities.

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