Overview
The first clubhouse of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston (BGCB) was founded in Charlestown in 1893. The club was meant to be a refuge and alternative space for young boys whose home life and education were not conducive to their development into productive citizens. Over a century later, the BGCB serves more than 8,000 urban youths, largely from disadvantaged circumstances, in its five clubhouses in Charlestown, Chelsea, Dorchester, Roxbury and South Boston. In 1981, girls were admitted to...
Dates:
1893-2004; Majority of material found within 1950s-1980s
This collection was originally part of the Bromfield Street Educational Foundation (BSEF) records. As part of its Prisoners Project efforts, the BSEF collected newsletters that were sent to them from various prisons and organizations located across the country and Canada.
Overview
The Bromfield Street Educational Foundation was originally established as the Gay Community News in 1973. Until the Bromfield Street Educational Foundation ceased operation in 1999 due to financial difficulties, the Gay Community News was one of the oldest, most progressive, national newspapers in the gay community. Eight Boston gays and lesbians started the newspaper in 1973 to create a community voice for gays and lesbians in the Boston area. In 1978, the Gay Community News became national...
Dates:
1963-2003; Majority of material found within 1985-1993
Overview
In 1939, Northeastern University (NU) became the first private institution in the country to found a Bureau of Business Research. The Bureau was created to "...make studies and conduct research into the problems of New England business development, expansion of the New England market for New England industry...and investigations into special problems of individual business concerns..." (NU Review, Nov/Dec. 1939, Vol. 1, No. 2). The Bureau began under the guidance of Dr. Asa S. Knowles, then...
Overview
Born in Indiana in 1899, Byron K. Elliott was a member of the Northeastern University Corporation from 1954 to 1996 and Board of Trustees from 1955 to 1972. In 1959, he became Chair of the Corporation and the Board of Trustees, and served as such until 1971. In 1963, Elliott also co-developed the Graduate School of Actuarial Science at Northeastern University with Harold A. Garabedian and Asa S. Knowles. Byron K. Elliott earned a Bachelor's degree from Indiana University in 1920 and a law...
Calista M. Greenough (née Folsom) was a member of the first co-ed class to enroll at Northeastern University in 1943, making her one of the first female graduates of Northeastern University. She graduated from Northeastern in 1946 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts, after which she became a librarian. She married Mager R. Greenough who died in 1997. As of April 2011, Calista resides in Danvers, Massachusetts.
Founded in 1988, the Cambridge Eviction Free Zone (EFZ) was a tenant-run community organization that worked for social and economic justice in the areas of housing and tenants' rights, rent control, and immigrant voting rights. It also addressed issues of affordability and conditions in rental housing. Until its disbandment in December 2007, EFZ assisted tenants in exercising their legal rights, providing information and support to tenants facing evictions and rent increases.
Dates:
1972-2007; Majority of material found within 1988-2007
Overview
Carl Stephens Ell was the second President of Northeastern University from 1940 to 1959. He was born in Staunton, Indiana on November 14, 1887, son of Jacob and Alice (Stephens) Ell. His education included an A.B. in 1909 from DePauw University, a S.B. in 1911 and M.S. in 1912 in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an Ed.M. in 1932 from Harvard University. He married Etta May Kinnear on June 10, 1913 and had one daughter, Dorothy. He began teaching at...
Overview
Community activist Carmen A. Pola was born Carmen A. Villanueva Garcia in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, in 1939. In 1955 she moved to the continental United States with her family, settling briefly in the Bronx, New York, before moving to Oakland, California, where the family worked in agriculture. In 1960 she married Juan Pola, and they have five children. While in California, Pola became involved in community activism, participating in a number of grassroots organizations concerned with...
Dates:
1970-2006; Majority of material found within 1975-2000
Overview
Carolyn Hooky W. Darack was an activist in the Boston area for social rights and public health. Carolyn grew up in Brookline and attended Simmons College School for Social Work (1942?). During the 1950's she worked with Ehrmann on abolishing capital punishment in Massachusetts. During this time, her name was Carolyn W. Mork. Her first husband was Arnold P. Mork. He and Carolyn had three children: Arnold Jr., David, and Doretta. She later remarried (Melvin Darack) after her first husband...
Overview
Catherine Louise Allen was born in Columbus, Georgia in 1909. She began her career as an educator in Georgia schools in 1936. After receiving a master's degree from Columbia University, she was appointed professor of physical education and recreation at the University of Tennessee in 1941. During World War II, Allen served as director of special activities in the Pacific region for the Red Cross from 1944 to 1946. After the war, she returned to Tennessee to teach until 1955, when she moved...
Overview
Plans for Northeastern University's centennial celebration began in 1990. In 1992, the plans formally took shape under the direction of NU President John A. Curry, assistant director of University Relations Barbara Burke and History Department Chair William M. Fowler. The planning ultimately spanned nine years and culminated with a large celebration that included a concert by the Boston Pops and an appearance by actress Shirley Jones, who is best known for her starring role in the 1970s...
Dates:
1990-1998; Majority of material found within 1992-1997
Overview
The Center for Community Health Education Research and Service (CCHERS) was established in 1991 through a grant submitted by Northeastern University's College of Nursing in partnership with six other Boston institutions to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Community Partnerships in Health Professions Education Initiative. The Center was designed to bring undergraduate medical and nursing students into the communities surrounding their schools and provide them with real-world experience as part...
Dates:
1990-2000; Majority of material found within 1991-1997
Overview
Northeastern University's (NU) Center for Continuing Education (CCE) offered a variety of credit and non-credit evening classes for students and professionals. The Office of Adult and Continuing Education (OACE) opened in 1960 under the direction of Dr. Albert E. Everett. OACE was comprised of four departments: Bureau of Business and Industrial Training, Special Programs in Cooperation with Civic Groups, Special Programs in Cooperation with Professional and Trade Groups, and State-of-the-Art...
Overview
The Office for the Support of Effective Teaching was created in 1989, with the goal of improving the effectiveness of professors in the classroom. At its inception, the office focused on improving course and teacher evaluations, faculty portfolios, and classroom skills through brochures, handbooks and workshops. In 1994, further improvement in undergraduate teaching was discussed in several roundtable forums which resulted in more funding for faculty to attend conferences, tenure decisions...
Overview
The Center was established in 1976 to house the research files of Asa Knowles' International Encyclopedia of Higher Education. As part of the internationalization of Northeastern, it served as a hub for international activities, arranging conferences on global topics and hosting foreign visitors. The Center conducted research on topics such as the role of multinational corporations in foreign education, the status of women in academics, and an international survey of cooperative education...
Dates:
1966-1986; Majority of material found within 1977-1985
Overview
The first non-denominational Northeastern University chapel service for students was held in 1927. The position of Dean of Chapel was established in 1940, and the Bacon Memorial Chapel was erected in the student center in 1947. After 1960, when NU President Asa Knowles lifted the ban against denominational religious groups on campus, religious life at NU began to flourish. In 1966, the volunteer chaplains formed the Chaplain's Association to help support the administrative aspects of...
Dates:
1961-2012; Majority of material found within 1977-2010
Overview
Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society (CSSS) was founded by Richard Lapchick in 1984 to increase awareness of sports and their relation to society, and to explore the use of sports in bringing about positive social change. As one of its first projects to reform high school and college sports, in 1985 CSSS established the National Consortium for Academics and Sports to advocate for a balance between academics and athletics. CSSS's programs later addressed more...
Dates:
1978-2003; Majority of material found within 1985-1998
Overview
Anne Fanton served as executive director of the Central Artery Environmental Oversight Committee which monitored environmental commitments of the Big Dig construction project in Boston, Massachusetts from 19922009. The Big Dig project revitalized the Central Artery by replacing the elevated Interstate 93 with the Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Tunnel and adding the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. In addition, Interstate 90 was extended to Logan International Airport and Route 1A with the...
The collection documents Jack Quinlan’s work as the Director for Public Affairs for the Central Artery/Tunnel project also known as “The Big Dig” (1991-2007). The 521 color photographs, circa 1991-2006, were used by Quinlan in slide presentations on the progress of the Big Dig. The slides include project design charts, as well as aerial photographs and detailed photographs of the construction. All slides are digitized and available in Northeastern University’s Digital Repository Service.
Charles Bruce was born in 1884 in Boston, Massachusetts. Bruce worked at the Boston Navy Yard (then the Charlestown Navy Yard) until 1933. Little is known about Bruce's training or instruction in photography. In 1908, Bruce married Goldie Glover Bruce, with whom he had three children. Bruce was also a Master Mason with the Prince Hall Masons of Cambridge, Massachusetts, receiving his certificate in August, 1912. Bruce died in 1975.
Dates:
1884-1928, 2009; Majority of material found within circa 1910
Charles Harold Berry (1889-1965) was a professor of mechanical engineering at Northeastern University from 1955-1964. He taught at Cornell University from 1913-1918 and at Harvard University from 1928-1955. His work focused on thermodynamics and the steam power industry. He was also a technical engineer of power plants for the Detroit Edison Company and associate editor of Power magazine.
Dates:
1879-1963; Majority of material found within 1917-1963
Overview
Charles Joseph Collazzo (CJC) was a professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University, ca. 1962-1984. He was also an alumnus of Northeastern University (College of Liberal Arts, 1943) and a World War II veteran. CJC served on many University committees, including the Graduate Council, ca. 1979-1981; the Library Operations Committee in the 1970s and 1980s; the Library Planning Committee, ca. 1980-1984; and the Search Committee for the Director and...
Overview
Chas. T. Main, Inc. was a Boston engineering company founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate Charles T. Main in 1893. Main was a mechanical engineer working in the textile mills of New England and a major developer in the new field of hydroelectric power. He also served as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' President from 1918-1919. In 1926, the company was incorporated as Chas. T. Main, Inc. Main and his associates decided that all stock would be privately owned...
Overview
The Chinese Progressive Association is a grassroots community organization founded in Boston's Chinatown in 1977 to advocate "for full equity and empowerment of the Chinese community in the Greater Boston area and beyond." The focus of the Association was to provide Chinatown residents a forum for their concerns and a way to communicate their vision for the community to officials of the City and Commonwealth. The Association aimed to provide support for workers and immigrants, particularly...
Overview
In 1972, Mary Ellen Smith, Hubert Jones, Francis Parkman, Clyde Miller and other citizens, parents, and community activists met to find a way to participate in the process of choosing a superintendent of the Boston Public Schools. The Coalition sought input from large numbers of neighborhood residents and organizations to help develop "Community Agenda for the Boston Public Schools," an outline of questions and issues to use during the interview process. Although unsuccessful in choosing a...
Overview
On June 19, 1993 Northeastern University (NU) held its 91st commencement ceremony at the Boston Garden in the North End. The morning ceremony featured the recently inaugurated President William Jefferson Clinton (WJC) as the commencement speaker. WJC, who was the 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001), received an honorary Doctorate of Public Service at the ceremony. NU began courting WJC soon after his inauguration on January 20, 1993. Leading NU's efforts was Tom Keady, NU's...
Overview
Clyde Frederic Joslyn attended Northeastern University as an accounting major, graduating in 1939 with a Bachelor of Science from the College of Business Administration. While a student at Northeastern, Joslyn was a member of many student organizations and a leader in several: a feature editor for the Northeastern News, the president of Phi Beta Alpha fraternity, a trumpet player in the band and Musical Club, and a member of the Junior Prom Committee, the International Relations Club, the...
Overview
The Coalition to Stop Institutional Violence was founded in Boston in 1975 in response to the proposed establishment of a "special unit for violent women" at Worcester State Hospital. Comprising ex-mental patients, mental health workers, and prisoner rights groups, the Coalition launched an extensive letter-writing campaign forcing the Department of Mental Health to hold public hearings on the need for the unit. Widespread opposition to the plan prevented the unit from ever opening. The...
Dates:
1972-1989; Majority of material found within 1976-1981
Overview
The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is one of the Basic Day Colleges that makes up Northeastern University (NU). It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in the arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics, and natural sciences. Headed by a dean, CAS is organized by academic department, interdisciplinary program, or center for specialized study. The dean has responsibility for managing educational policy, faculty issues, student services, and budgeting, and often delegates these...
Dates:
1924-2002; Majority of material found within 1965 - 1992
Overview
Northeastern University's (NU) College of Business Administration was established in 1922 as a conventional four-year program leading to the Baccalaureate Degree in Science. It was the second day college at NU. In 1924, the college adapted its programs of instruction to the five-year Cooperative Education Plan. In 1960, NU's evening School of Business merged with the day College of Business Administration. The evening program began in 1907 as the School of Commerce and Finance of the Greater...
Overview
Northeastern University's (NU) College of Computer Science (CCS) was the first college in the United States devoted exclusively to computer science. Despite the vigorous protest of NU's engineering faculty, NU's Faculty Senate resolved to establish the CCS in April 1982, and the Board of Trustees approved the CCS in June 1982. The CCS linked the theoretical approaches taught in the Dept. of Mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences with the practical approaches taught in the College of...
Overview
Northeastern University (NU) established the College of Criminal Justice (CCJ) in 1967 to provide professional training and support study and research in the administration of criminal justice. CCJ emerged from the University College's Department of Law Enforcement and Security, which was founded in 1961 and offered part-time baccalaureate and associate degree programs. Initially designed to prepare students for careers in law enforcement, CCJ's academic program has expanded to include...
Overview
The Northeastern University's (NU) College of Engineering was founded in 1909, when the Evening Institute of the Boston YMCA began to offer day courses in engineering. In 1920, the Massachusetts Legislature authorized NU to grant bachelor of engineering degrees in chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering. Between 1939 and 1941, all programs gained accreditation by the Engineer's Council for Professional Development. By 1960, the College had become the largest undergraduate...
Overview
The Northeastern University (NU) College of Nursing opened in 1964 with two programs: a three-year cooperative associate degree program and a five-year cooperative bachelor's degree program. The program was supported by Massachusetts General, Beth Israel, and Children's hospitals. The college's associate degree program was accredited in 1968 and the bachelor's degree program in 1972. Answering the demand for continuing education opportunities, the College of Nursing established a Licensed...
Overview
Records of the Northeastern University Commencement Committee document commencement ceremonies between 1912 and 2002. The first series documents eligible degree candidates and is restricted. The second series contains information about Northeastern University commencement ceremonies, including planning and publicity efforts, the students who were in the ceremonies, and the individuals who received honorary degrees and gave addresses. Included are scattered commencement addresses,...
The Committee for Cambridge Rent Control (CCRC) was founded by Cambridge Eviction Free Zone to develop an initiative petition to re-establish rent control in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2003, CCRC gathered enough signatures to place its initiative petition on the ballot for the November elections, but the measure failed to win enough votes to pass. CCRC disbanded in late 2003.
Dates:
1998-2003; Majority of material found within 2002-2003
Overview
The Committee on the Status of Women at Northeastern University (NU) was founded in the spring of 1985 to explore issues of concern to full-time female employees. Decision Research Corporation conducted the survey called Women Working at NU and compiled its results. The surveys were sent out in May 1986 to all full-time female employees at NU. Recommendations based on the survey were sent to the Executive Vice President John Curry on October 6, 1986 and then released to the Northeastern...
Overview
Community Resources for Justice formed in 1999 as a successor to multiple Boston- and New England-area organizations devoted to criminal justice, prisoner or released prisoner support, and correctional reform. Community Resources for Justice's immediate predecessors were the Crime and Justice Foundation, a group devoted to correctional reform, and Massachusetts Half-Way Houses, Inc., which owned and operated residential and non-residential programs for ex-offenders. The Crime and Justice...
Overview
Northeastern University was incorporated in 1916 as the Northeastern College of the Young Men's Christian Association. In its first two decades, at least two-thirds of Northeastern University's Corporation members were directors of the Greater Boston Y.M.C.A. The Board of Trustees of the Endowment Funds was established in 1924. In 1927, it became the Board of Trustees of the Permanent Funds, but disbanded in 1932. On January 22, 1937 the Corporation founded the Northeastern University Board...
Northeastern University's Office of University Advancement was established in 1959 and includes the division of Corporations and Foundations, which promotes capital gifts and grants from corporations, foundations, and other organizations. Its efforts have resulted in funding for new buildings, expanded academic offerings, professorships, and scholarships at Northeastern University.
Overview
Dana C. Chandler, Jr., noted African American artist, activist, and educator, was born in Lynn, Mass. in 1941. He was educated in Boston Public Schools, and earned a B.S. in Teacher Education from the Massachusetts College of Art. Chandler participated in the black integrationist movement since his high school years. Chandler joined the black nationalist movement in the 1960s, after witnessing police brutality against a group of peaceful welfare protestors. Chandler has used his art to...
Dates:
1973-1991; Majority of material found within 1977-1979
Overview
Daniel McNichol served as Deputy Director for Public Affairs and spokesperson for the Big Dig construction project in Boston, Massachusetts from 1993-2000. In 2000, he left the position to publish numerous articles and books about the project. The Big Dig project revitalized the Central Artery by replacing the elevated Interstate 93 with the Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Tunnel and adding the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. In addition, Interstate 90 was extended to Logan International...
Dates:
1764-2008; Majority of material found within 1989-2008
Daniel Webster (1782-1852) was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1812 and served three terms. In 1827 he was elected senator from Massachusetts. Webster made a failed run for the presidency in 1836. In 1841 President William Henry Harrison named Webster secretary of state. He resigned in 1843, but President Millard Fillmore re-appointed him in 1850 and Webster served until his death in 1852.
David L. Wilmarth graduated from Northeastern University's College of Liberal Arts in 1949. In 1960, he returned to the University as an Associate Professor in Earth Sciences. He retired in 1986.
The collection includes minutes of the Committee's meetings and interim reports which are interfiled chronologically. Both document various personal petitions, scholastic and disciplinary probation sentences, withdrawal petitions, and hearings for rescheduling exams.
Overview
The Northeastern University Deaf Club existed in an unofficial capacity during the fall semester of 1990, and it became an officially recognized special interest organization in the spring semester of 1991. The mission of the Deaf Club was to provide support to deaf and hearing impaired students in their academic pursuits, promote awareness of the deaf community, help deaf and hearing impaired students acclimate to the Northeastern campus, and provide a social forum for deaf and hearing...
Overview
Northeastern University's Office of Admissions formed in 1927 under director Milton John Schlagenhauf, replacing a Committee on Admissions. Enrollment increased drastically after World War II, from 3,623 students in 1944 to 10,671 in 1947, and it steadily increased each succeeding year. Northeastern University made a concerted effort to recruit students and provide scholarships to those who could not afford college. In 1960, an Associate Director of Admissions was hired in response to the...
Overview
The Department of Afro-American Studies was created in 1973 by the College of Liberal Arts in response to the demands of Northeastern's African American students and a nation-wide trend towards the foundation of ethnic studies departments. During the 1970s, the Department worked to establish itself and appeal to a wide range of student interests by offering classes on the African American experience in literature, art, music, history, politics, and film. The Department worked co-operatively...
Overview
In 1921, Northeastern University's (NU) Department of Student Activities was established, with divisions of Publications, Athletics and Miscellaneous Activities. In 1924, athletic participation in six sports at NU was formalized, with requirements for eligibility, letter awards, and other phases of intercollegiate competition. From 1929 to 1953, Edward Parsons was Director of Student Activities, with the later title of Director of Health, Physical Training and Student Activities. In 1953,...