Archives and Special Collections

Archives, Historical Records, Special Collections

NU Athletics: If you can play, you can play.

In partnership with the organization You Can Play, Northeastern University Athletics has recently recorded a PSA supporting equality in sports. Northeastern student- athletes, coaches, administrators,and fans came together to express their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes, promoting their message that sexual orientation has no bearing in sport: if you can play, you can play. In their partnership with You Can Play, NU Athletics is been committed to creating an open, inclusive and supporting culture at Northeastern for LGBT athletes and students.

The cast of Triangle Theater Company’s “A Night Out with the Boys,” 1983. Archives Photo.

Supporting the LGBT community at Northeastern more broadly,the Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department highlights LGBT groups as part of the social justice collection strategy. Community members can view collections from organizations such as: Archives collections include materials such as documents, newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, and articles allow the Northeastern community to learn and gain an understanding of the history of the LGBT community and support for it in Massachusetts. These collections and others and be viewed in the library’s Archives and Special Collections Department located at 92 Snell Library.  

Preserving HOPE

Poder Latino AIDS/HIV training session, ca. 1995 The Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department is happy to announce our newest social justice collection, the historical records of HOPE, the Hispanic Office of Planning and Evaluation, Inc.. HOPE was a community-based organization established in 1971 to offer services and programs to benefit Massachusetts’ Hispanic/Latino residents. A wonderful addition to the Archives, the HOPE collection furthers our mission to collect and preserve the records of the Boston-area social justice organizations that serve under-represented communities. HOPE was a leader in creating innovative programs and services. In the mid-1970s, HOPE Talent Search was established to assist low-income youths in Boston and surrounding communities to stay in school, complete high school, and seek advanced or post-secondary education. During the 1990s, HOPE established Poder Latino (Latin Youth Power), a program to train Latino youth as peer educators about health promotion and disease prevention with particular emphasis on sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS/HIV. Another innovative program, PLENA (Padres Latinos Educando Nuestros Adolescentes/Latino Parents Educating Our Youth), trained volunteers to educate their own parents and family members on health issues. In 1995, HOPE established the Pedro Zamora Center, a peer center offering support services to Latinos and family members living with AIDS/HIV. HOPE promoted civic engagement and leadership development through its HOPE “Proyecto PLAN” Community Leadership Development and HOPE YouthPLAN and CommUNITYPLAN programs.  It also operated a computer-learning center and offered training classes to the community. HOPE worked closely with schools, cities, state-run organizations, and local non-profits until its closing in 2011. To learn more about HOPE’s contents or if you’re interested in our other social justice collections, please visit the Archives website.

Library helps tell the amazing history of Northeastern’s Co-op program

Here at Northeastern, it seems like everyone is familiar with the school’s signature cooperative education program. Most have heard the facts about the program’s success with job placement after graduation and for many students, the co-op program was the reason why they chose to come here. Although most people know about how the program can help with their own professional education, few know the interesting history of the legendary program. The Fall 2011 issue of the Cooperative Education and Internship Association’s Experience magazine features the fascinating history of Northeastern’s cooperative education program with the help of Northeastern University Libraries Archives and Special Collections Department, which provided the photos, document images, book excerpts, and stories included in the magazine. The featured article in the magazine, “Reflections of a Perplexed Practitioner” by Michelle Clare, highlights university co-op programs during the Great Depression. The spread features documents and photos from Northeastern Libraries’ own Archives and Special Collections Department, and contains excerpts from “Second to None: Seventy-five Years of Leadership in the Cooperative Education Movement” by Joseph Barbeau, a professor emeritus of Northeastern. The piece consists of remarkable information on the history of Northeastern’s cooperative education program in the period of the Great Depression, including co-op placement statistics from 1929-1932. The photos from the Northeastern’s Archives and Special Collections Department are unique snapshots documenting the life of a Northeastern co-op student during the Depression-era, showing co-ops from the 1930s working at companies such as the American Trust Company and General Radio. The article includes a quote from William C. White, Northeastern’s Executive Vice President until 1968, who said that during this time the co-op program proved its “capacity to endure the rigors of the worst industrial depression we have ever known.” So, although the current economic recession may seem like a challenge to the co-op program, fear not. In Northeastern’s cooperative education’s 100 year-plus history, the program has gotten through times of hardship before, namely the worst economic crisis of all time: the Great Depression. If the co-op program was able to weather that storm, then without a doubt the innovative program will survive this national recession and will hopefully be around for the next century too. Read the publication and learn more about the Cooperative Education & Internship Association (CEIA) here: CEIA website.

Take a glimpse into Northeastern’s history

Perhaps you have noticed the Library’s redesigned display board on the first floor in the stairwell? It now features historical photos of Northeastern University from the University’s Archives and Special Collections. Included with each image is a brief description about the photo and the date each was taken. These images range from the First World Series game to the first few engineering classes held on campus. Check out the board and catch a glimpse of a time when our Husky Pride began. To see the full digital collection of Northeastern University historical photographs, visit http://www.lib.neu.edu/nuphotos or stop in Archives, located in 92 Snell Library.

Cy Young, a Boston Americans pitcher, intensely throws a pitch during the the first ever World Series. The Boston Americans won 5-3 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

 

NU Archives Receives Grant to Digitize Boston Chinese Community Records

The Northeastern University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections Department recently received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the Library Services and Technology Act administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The award will go towards a project to digitize the entire Chinese Progressive Association collection comprising 12 cubic feet of historical material, including documents, posters, photographs, negatives, and audio and videotapes, dating from 1976-2006. Some of the images in the collection document rallies and protests, like the photo below, against the expansion of Tufts New England Medical Center in Chinatown. They also depict photos of celebrations in honor of Chinese holidays like Chinese New Year. To read more about the Chinese Progressive Association, the IMLS grant, and the collection read our published media advisory or visit the NU Archives and Special Collections website.

Protest against the New England Medical Center's proposal for a garage on Parcel C, ca. 1990.