Supporting Community Commemoration: 50 Years of the Garrity Decision

Outreach work in archives often intersects with observing anniversaries. This is especially true at Northeastern’s Archives and Special Collections, which houses records of community-based organizations that are still around today. This year, in 2024, community members across the Greater Boston area have been observing the anniversary of the court decision by Judge Arthur Garrity to desegregate Boston’s public schools.

My role as Reference and Outreach Archivist is to connect the community members and organizations with records relevant to their needs in the most meaningful way possible. I do this type of work regularly by providing classes, workshops, and reference and research services. But for occasions such as a 50-year anniversary, reference and outreach work requires customized approaches.

This summer, I managed a very customized approach to archival outreach: coordinating and designing a multi-archive and guest-curated exhibit on school desegregation for installation in the Boston Public Library’s (BPL) Gallery J. While discussion of creating the exhibit began a year ago, when leaders in the Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative (BDBI helped submit a proposal to the BPL, the curation, exhibition selection, design, and installation happened quickly over the last couple of months. What resulted is a 20-case exhibition in the central branch of Boston’s public library entitled, “A History of Public Education Reform and Desegregation in Boston.”

A glass case containing archival documents and photos
One chapter of the “A History of Public Education Reform and Desegregation in Boston” exhibit in Gallery J of Boston Public Library
Archivist Molly Brown stands on a stool and hangs archival materials in a glass display case
Molly Brown installing exhibit pieces

Community historian Jim Vrabel lent his deep knowledge to propose an exhibit observing 10 chapters of Boston’s desegregation history, beginning in 1635 and ending today in 2024. Paired with each chapter was a timeline of events in the long history of education activism and desegregation in the city. Area archives, including the City of Boston Archives, the John Joseph Moakley Archive and Institute at Suffolk University, and the University of Massachusetts Boston Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library, contributed records that were selected by Vrabel to illustrate the narratives in each chapter. This collaboration resulted more than 90 archival records and excerpts included in the 10 timelines.

After the exhibit narrative had been written and the archival materials selected, it was up to me to design, format, and caption the exhibit, as well as make reproductions to display in the exhibit cases. Northeastern University Library sponsored the printing of the reproductions. All of the exhibit elements were installed for viewing on Sept. 18, in time to serve as a part of BPL’s citywide forums on Sept. 28, offering visual and tangible evidence to the emotional personal stories and responses to the events of school desegregation that still reverberate today.

A glass case containing archival documents and photos

But not all outreach takes place in an exhibit. Sometimes, a custom outreach project looks like making large-scale reproductions of documents and photographs to spark conversation, kept and stewarded by a partner organization, as I did last September for the BDBI. Other times, it can be providing in-depth rights and permissions labor, approving use of images in projects and suggesting other images to include, as I did for the BDBI and WGBH for their digital walking tour of school desegregation history.

Beyond the digital resources, you can also view the exhibit for yourself by visiting the Boston Public Library’s Central Branch (700 Boylston Street). It will be on display in Gallery J until Jan. 7.

Follow the BDBI for more events and updates, and consider attending their forums at the BPL this Saturday, Sept. 28.

Box by Box: Inventorying the Nancy Walker Papers

Since last fall, the processing team has been focused on inventorying unprocessed collections. Inventories allow staff and researchers to learn more about what’s in a collection, help locate materials of interest, and help staff strategize further processing or digitization work, as resources allow. A previous blog post described inventorying the Stull & Lee records. Currently, processing assistants are inventorying more recent donations to the archives. Over the next few months, we will be featuring collections our staff has found particularly interesting to inventory in their own words.

The Nancy Walker Papers

By Samuel Edwards, Processing Assistant

Nancy Walker, Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

The Nancy Walker papers, donated to the archives this past year, document the life of lesbian activist and writer/journalist Nancy Walker (1935-1996). Walker was a writer for the Gay Community News, Bay Windows, and the Boston Phoenix, and was a prominent figure in Boston’s LGBTQ+ community from the late 1970s to the ’90s.

Part of what makes this collection fascinating is not just Walker’s own writing, but also her dedication to collecting all manner of LGBTQ+ periodicals and ephemera. Her papers provide a glimpse into the beginning of the gay liberation movement through the eyes of someone who considered herself a political moderate. Her collection is a snapshot of an important time in Boston’s LGBTQ+ history, when the gay rights movement was starting to have real organizing power and institutions like Gay Community News were taking shape.

When I go through the collection, I imagine that I’m Nancy Walker herself, reporting on issues that matter to the gay community that few in the mainstream would cover at that time, and embroiled in a whole mess of loving yet intense intracommunity debate. As someone who has also been involved in LGBTQ+ activism, it strikes me how, in some ways, things have really changed, but in other ways, they haven’t at all!

One item that showcases that complex, interconnected, and exciting social world is the 14th Annual Boston Lesbian & Gay Pride Celebration Calendar of Events, with the iconic Lavender Rhino on the cover. I love these event calendars because it makes it even easier to envision what life was like in this community at the time. It shows many expected social groups and dances, as well as organizations that are still active today, like the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (BAGLY). However, it also showcases some events you may have never considered, like a Lesbian Whale Watch.

14th Annual Boston Lesbian & Gay Pride Celebration Calendar of Events cover and page, 1984. Nancy Walker papers, Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

The collection documents more than just Boston history and Walker’s own identities, and some items showcase unexpected LGBTQ+ history. One example is an article from Back/Chat, a newsletter for the Community Homophile Association of Toronto. It was written in 1974 by Lee Paul Anderson, a trans teenager, and describes some of his experiences and frustration with gender roles. This document reflects the history of trans youth prior to contemporary mainstream media attention.

An article from Back/Chat
Back/Chat first page, Volume 4 Number 3, 1974. Nancy Walker papers, Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

This collection provides a window not into just Walker’s own life, but what the entire LGBTQ+ scene was like in Boston in the late ’70s, ’80s, and early ’90s. You can also get a glimpse of LGBTQ+ Toronto, as Walker lived there before moving to Boston, a fact that highlights how one individual’s life can be a useful avenue into multiple histories.

If you are interested in LGBTQ+ history both in the general and local sense, I highly recommend giving the Nancy Walker papers a look. While you do, I would also recommend listening to Nancy Walker’s interview with the Making Gay History podcast to learn more about her fascinating life.

Contact the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections by emailing them at archives@northeastern.edu to find out more about how to view Nancy Walker’s papers.

2024 Reading Challenge Update: August Winner and What You Read This Month!

Happy fall semester! Can you believe classes are already starting?

Courtney Mazzei is the August Reading Challenge winner! Congrats to Courtney, who won a gift card to Moments Cooperative and Community Space in Oakland, Calif. Moments is a volunteer-led not-for-profit bookstore and community center that lifts the voices of authors and Oakland community members who identify as queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color.

And congratulations to everyone who read a book this month and told us about it. There are four months left in the 2024 Reading Challenge, so keep reading! Hint: for more chances to win, make sure you track your reading with the Massachusetts Center for the Book, too!

August’s theme was “a book with a title that begins with the same letter as your birthday month.”

What You Read This Month

Collage of Book Covers

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin
“Inspiring to say the least. Read the book and realized that while the fruits of labor may not show the effort, the process in fact changes the man, and brings out the better in him.” — Anshuman

Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo
Find it at F. W. Olin | Read the e-book
“Ninth House is certainly a wild ride through the darkest aspects of Dark Academia. In this contemporary dark fantasy, Bardugo juxtaposes biting criticism of the abuses perpetrated by the elite and privileged with a deep love for her alma mater, Yale University.” — Bianca

Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Read the e-book
“Disappointing after some of her other books. One of the themes is supposed to be about a young woman breaking the cycle of taking back unfaithful men, which she eventually does but it took ~10 hours of illustrating the men’s extremely sexist, entitled, neglectful behaviors to get there. She tried to do too much in too little time and space.” — Jodi

Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult, Maria Bamford
“It’s hard to believe a book that is honest about mental health issues could also be so funny, but Maria Bamford is a unique talent.” — Melissa

Maame, Jessica George
Find it at Snell | Listen to the audiobook
“Wonderfully written and deeply moving!” — Michal

And What to Read Next Month

September’s theme highlights authors local to Northeastern’s Boston campus: “A debut book by a Massachusetts author.” Here are some suggested reads!

Cover of Madness


Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum, Antonia Hylton
Listen to the audiobook
Award-winning journalist, Bostonian, and Harvard alum Antonia Hylton offers an intimate, heartbreaking history of Crownsville Hospital, a segregated asylum in Maryland that operated for nearly a century.

Cover of Everything I Never Told You


Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin | Listen to the audiobook | Read the e-book
Celeste Ng’s debut novel tells the story of the Lees, the only Chinese American family living in their rural Ohio town in the 1970s. When the body of daughter Lydia is found in a local lake, the family must confront the many secrets they’ve been keeping.

Cover of The Midcoast


The Midcoast, Adam White
Listen to the audiobook
Andrew has returned to his tiny hometown in Maine where two of his former high school classmates are now a wealthy local power couple. But when Andrew discovers incriminating photographs in the couple’s home, he’s suddenly forced to reconcile his memories of their teenage years with the mounting evidence of his friends’ misdeeds.

Cover of The Dante Club


The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin | Listen to the audiobook
The Dante Club is an exclusive literary cabal in 19th century Boston, and its members are collaborating on the first American translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Suddenly, a serial killer strikes the city, modeling his crimes after Dante’s Inferno. Now the Dante Club must find and stop the killer before he can strike again.

Cover of Caucasia


Caucasia, Danzy Senna
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin | Read the e-book
Mixed-race sisters Birdie and Cole are separated when their parents’ marriage ends. Light-skinned Birdie, often mistaken for white, remains with their white mother; dark-skinned Cole leaves with their Black father. But Birdie never stops missing her beloved sister, and embarks on a determined journey to recover the love and identity that was taken from her.

Need more reading recommendations? Check out our suggested e-books and audiobooks for September! If you’re in Boston, you can stop by the Snell Library lobby in person on September 17 and 18 for Reading Challenge stickers, bookmarks, and books to check out, and friendly librarians who love talking about books!

Boost Your Research This Summer

A student studies in a nook in Snell Library
BOSTON, MA. – Master student Zarina Dawlat, studies for an accounting exam in Snell Library on Aug. 19, 2024. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Are you excited for classes to begin this fall? Can’t wait to get started? We’ve got you covered! Beat the heat this summer inside at your computer. Set yourself up for fall academic success with information on:

If you’re an incoming student, you’ll need to wait for a Northeastern login to access library databases and the Digital Repository Service.

Additionally, you can view recorded talks on:

  • Introductory Computational Text
  • Python for Absolute Beginners
  • Getting Started with Archives and Special Collections

2024 Reading Challenge Update: July Winner and What You Read This Month!

Can you believe July is already over? There’s just one month left until fall classes begin!

The end of July means it’s time to announce the month’s Reading Challenge winner. Congratulations to Dina Meky, who won a digital gift card to Papercuts Bookshop! Papercuts is a women-owned independent bookstore located in Boston. Happy reading, Dina!

And congratulations to everyone who read a book and told us about it this month. There are still five months left until the end of the 2024 challenge, so keep reading and keep sharing! For more chances to win, submit your reading to the Massachusetts Center for the Book, too!

What You Read This Month

Collage of book covers

Readers went worldwide in July with the theme of “a book written by an author born outside of the United States.” Here are some of the international reads you enjoyed this month!

The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo (born in Jerusalem, Israel)
Listen to the audiobook
“Bardugo brings life to the dark, rich atmosphere of 17th century Spain, weaving in magical melodies sweet as orange blossoms and dark as onyx. I’ve never encountered a historical fantasy quite like this one.” — Bianca

Weyward, Emilia Hart (born in Sydney, Australia)
Listen to the audiobook
“I love a book with a strong female lead and this book had 3! Although the plot was dark at times, I appreciated the underlying theme of women’s empowerment and really loved the depictions of animals and nature. In short, this book was magical!” — Kelly

We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story, Simu Liu (born in Harbin, China)
Find it at Snell
“As a foreign student and Asian, I found the book relatable and extremely funny. He was not afraid to talk openly about his family. It was a nice read for the summer!” — Shogan

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, Lex Croucher (born in Surrey, England)
Find it at Snell | Listen to the audiobook
“I think it had a lot of potential (I love a good medieval age type of book—no matter how inaccurate it is) but didn’t really deliver on the relationships between the two pairings […] All in all I can’t be too upset, as it definitely reads toward a YA audience. I think I would’ve loved this more in high school but I think the writing just didn’t deliver!” — Jaime

And What to Read Next Month

August’s challenge is an interesting one: “read a book with a title that begins with the first letter of your birthday month.” Here are some suggestions for each month on the calendar:

Cover of Annie Bot

APRIL & AUGUST

Annie Bot, Sierra Greer
Read the e-book
Annie loves cooking and cleaning for her boyfriend Doug, and always wants exactly the same things he wants. She’s the ideal girlfriend, and she’s also a robot. Doug wants Annie to be more human, so Annie does her best to learn. But if becoming human might mean losing Doug forever, Annie has to decide: what does she really want?

Cover of Drunkish

DECEMBER

Drunk-ish: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving Alcohol, Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
Listen to the audiobook
Stefanie Wilder-Taylor has always enjoyed alcohol…maybe a little too much. After a disastrous night, she decides that it doesn’t matter whether she’s a “real alcoholic”; she’s going to get sober if it kills her. Drunk-ish is Wilder-Taylor’s memoir of a life lived through cocktails, shots, and glasses of wine, as well as a candid, hilarious look at the pain and pleasure of saying goodbye to getting drunk-ish.

Cover of Fire Exit

FEBRUARY

Fire Exit, Morgan Talty
Listen to the audiobook
For twenty years, Charles has watched Roger and Mary raise their daughter Elizabeth on the Penobscot Reservation in Maine. But Elizabeth is actually his daughter, a secret that has kept Charles separate from his community. Now Elizabeth is missing and Charles is desperate to find her and to share her truth.

Cover of Jonathan Abernathy

JANUARY, JUNE, & JULY

Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind, Molly McGhee
Listen to the audiobook
Jonathan Abernathy is in debt and unemployed. Then he’s offered an unusual government job: entering people’s dreams and cleansing them of objectionable material. But every too-good-to-be-true opportunity has a cost, and soon Jonathan is struggling to tell dreams from reality and good from evil.

Cover of Margo's Got Money Troubles

MARCH & MAY

Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Rufi Thorpe
Read the e-book
Twenty years old and suddenly a single mother, Margo needs money. In a truly 2020s move, she decides her best option is OnlyFans—and thanks to the wisdom of her estranged ex-pro wrestler father, she’s great at it. But is viral success worth the price of admission?

Cover of Number Go Up

NOVEMBER

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall, Zeke Faux
Listen to the audiobook
Investigative reporter Zeke Faux was fascinated when cryptocurrency went mainstream in 2021, and he also wondered what he was missing. Why were intelligent people suddenly risking their life savings for a seemingly pointless investment based on internet memes? Why were celebrities suddenly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on bad digital art? Why were businesses and even countries suddenly willing to disregard basic economic principles in favor of what seemed like an obvious scam? Why were so many people willing to put all their faith in shady crypto bros and bad investors? Number Go Up is Faux’s investigation into the wild hype and grim reality of cryptocurrency, and it will take you places you never expected.

Cover of On Rotation

OCTOBER

On Rotation, Shirlene Obuobi
Listen to the audiobook
Angela is on track to become a successful doctor married to a successful professional man, thereby making her immigrant family’s dreams come true. Then: she flunks an important exam and her boyfriend breaks up with her, and suddenly her family and friends are nowhere to be found. Now Angie’s questioning the dream she was raised on, and wondering where her own dreams fit into the plan.

Cover of Swift River

SEPTEMBER

Swift River, Essie Chambers
Listen to the audiobook
Diamond Newberry is the only Black person in a white town. In the summer of 1987, Diamond’s mother is trying to have her missing father declared legally dead, hoping that the life insurance money will get them back on their feet. Then Diamond unexpectedly discovers a whole side of her father, and his family, that were lost to her before. Finally, she might have a place where she fits in, but how will that change the world she’s always known?

Need more reading recommendations? Check out our suggested e-books and audiobooks for August! If you’re in Boston, you can stop by the Snell Library lobby in person on August 13 and 14 for Reading Challenge stickers, bookmarks, and books to check out, and friendly librarians who love talking about books!