The records of the Western Massachusetts locals and district councils of the UBCJA documents the rise of unionization among carpenters in the Connecticut River Valley since the 1880s. This collection represents a merger of separate accessions for the District Councils in Springfield (MS 110), the Pioneer Valley (MS 231), and Holyoke (MS 108), along with post-merger records for Local 108. In general, each has been maintained as a distinct series.
Oral history with the Gagnon family, part of the Franco-American community in Springfield since 1953. Topics include their participation in Franco-American activities at St. Joseph’s Church, their interest in Franco-American studies, and what nationality means to them, as people with roots in America, Canada, and France.
Collection includes statutes and by-laws, minutes, administrative records, correspondence, financial records and receipts, scholarship records, publications, records of programs and events, and artifacts and ephemera.
For the most part, this collection is made up of personal letters, photographs, cards, notebooks, and scrapbooks. There are maps of and documents about New Canada. Other non-personal documents: Will of Georgiana Bourgoin, Naturalization papers of Alfred Bourgoin, and a description of the plot of land in New Canada that Nora and Joe Baker bought from Joseph Daigle in 1949.
Julienne Jacques was born on August 12, 1890 in Tilbury, Ontario to Louis and Elmire (Peltier) Jacques. As is noted in French on the back of the photo, she was 11 when she received her First Communion, also in Tilbury. She would go on to immigrate to northern New York and marry a Monsieur Bouchard. She died in 1920 in Clinton County, NY near Redford. Mr. Bouchard returned to his home of Napierville, Quebec with their four children following Julienne's death.
