Upcoming events:  TBA

Changes:  TBA.

Developments at the Famous Long Ago Archive: Discussions are underway to incorporate the papers of John Abrams’ South Mountain Company in Tisbury, Massachusetts, a worker-owned green building firm.  Already part of the archive are the extensive papers of John Maslow, a journalist and writer who spent a summer at Montague Farm, and farm visitor and friend Steve Lerner, whose focus is social justice in prisons and the environment. In 2010 Ray Mungo moved his papers to the archive from Boston University, where they had been on loan.

Note: The 2009 Symposium on Social Change, University of Massachusetts, focused on the founding of the farms and celebrated the 40^th anniversary of their first complete year on the land, as well as the untimely death of Montague’s Marshall Bloom. The speakers were Blake Slonecker, Ray Mungo, and Todd Gitlin. The 2010 symposium featured a talk by Steve Lerner on his new book Sacrifice Zones, and a later lecture on the racial aspects of sports. Symposium 2011 focused on the experience of Vietnam.

The Archive’s first program, in conjunction with the Department of Special Collections and University Archives, and the University’s Program in Social Thought and Political Economy, was a colloquium, held at the University on October 31, 2005. Publicity material for the event is below.

Colloquium on Social Change

On Monday, October 31, the W. E. B. Du Bois Library and the Program in Social Thought of the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst, will sponsor “Crossroads: A Colloquium on Social Change; Reflections on the past, present and future of social change in America.” Speakers will be Thomas Fels, historian and writer, of Bennington; Catherine Blinder, feminist, activist and writer of Hartford; and Carl Oglesby, former president of the Students for a Democratic Society, of Cambridge and Amherst Massachusetts. The colloquium will be held from 4-6 PM at the Campus Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The “Crossroads” colloquium celebrates the Du Bois Library’s department of Special Collections and University Archives, which houses the papers of the African-American scholar and writer W. E. B. Du Bois, and focuses on collecting materials related to social change in the region.

The colloquium also announces the founding of the department’s Famous Long Ago Archive. This new collection was formed to hold, care for, and make available materials from the era of the 1960s, the sources of its inspiration, and evidence of its later influence. Its particular focus is the area centered on western Massachusetts, and southern Vermont. Among the materials collected are papers, diaries, photographs, publications, and other archival materials generated by individuals, communities, organizations and their extended families.

The colloquium also celebrates the Department of Special Collection’s acquisition of the voluminous Hapgood Collection, which encompasses the lifetime papers of Elizabeth Hapgood, of Greenfield, Massachusetts, including letters, papers, writings, and extensive materials relating to her family and the many endeavors focused on education and social change with which she has been associated. The collection was acquired with the cooperation and assistance of Beth Hapgood, with the understanding that it be preserved, shared and made available for use.

The Famous Long Ago Archive was founded by Bennington historian and writer Thomas Weston Fels in cooperation with Dr. Robert Cox, director of the department of Special Collections and University Archives of the library. For further information contact Tom Fels, tfnbvt AT sover DOT net or Robert Cox, rscox AT library.umass DOT edu. The colloquium is free and open to the public.

The opening talk of the colloquium, given by Thomas Fels, the only text among the day’s three talks available at this time, is presented here.