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.
Marguerite Delavarre Dubois kept this diary from 1907-1908. Most entries were made in 1907 and describe her social life in New York City; study of French and German; painting; attendance at theaters; visits to Saratoga, Lake George, Plattsburgh, Montreal, Albany, and the Catskills.
Carrie Anne Connally's photograph of collar makers probably shows Standard Manufacturing Co. (750 2nd Ave, between 120th and 121st St. in Lansingburgh, Troy) at its heyday in the 1920s. Matt Apple's Franco-American maternal great-grandmother worked here together with his maternal Irish-American great-grandmother, his paternal Dutch/German-American great-grandmother, and their Jewish-American and Eastern European-American neighbors - probably right around when the second generation's children intermarried between formerly separate ethnic groups (or maybe even because they all worked together, the matchmaking began...)
