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Archives and Special Collections

Ready to Research: Miren Uriarte Research Files

The Miren Uriarte research files are now fully processed and ready for research at the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

A woman with glasses and dark hair pulled back looks at the camera. Behind her is a poster of a music concert in Spanish.
Miren Uriarte, 1979 November 20. Photograph by Wendy Maeda, courtesy of the Boston Globe Library Collection, M214. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

Miren Uriarte is a sociologist and Professor Emerita of Human Services and Latino Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and her files contain papers documenting the work and research that went into her 1987 doctoral dissertation, “Organizing for Survival: The Emergence of the Puerto Rican Community.” Uriarte gathered internal documents from a variety of Latino community organizations, including La Alianza Hispana, Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), and the Hispanic Office of Planning and Evaluation (HOPE). She also collected related reports and publications and conducted oral history interviews with community leaders such as Frieda Garcia, founding director of La Alianza Hispana and later executive director of United South End Settlements; Jovita Fontanez, the first Hispanic woman to head the Boston Election Commission; Hubie Jones, a lifelong advocate for education rights for disabled and non-English-speaking children; Mel King, a community organizer in Boston’s South End; Peter Calcaterra, a project manager for the MBTA who was involved in the Southwest Corridor project and HOPE; and Alex Rodriguez, former executive director of Roxbury’s Cooper Community Center and chairman of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. As a comprehensive whole, these resources address housing, social services, employment, mental health, bilingual education, and the development of the Boston Latino community.

The collection also includes a separate oral history project conducted by Uriarte’s husband, Mauricio Gastón, a professor at UMass Boston’s College of Public and Community Service from 1980 until his death in 1986. His work examined similar issues of civil rights, economic and social justice, and housing justice. Uriarte kept the transcripts, audiocassettes, and supplemental material from Gastón’s project, and it is now preserved alongside her analogous work in this collection.

The finding aid provides more contextual information on Uriarte and the collection, including full series arrangement and container inventories. Please email archives@northeastern.edu with any questions, reference requests, or to schedule a visit.

Aleks Renerts (he/him) has a dual MA degree in history and library and information science, with a concentration in archives management, from Simmons University. He received his BA in history from McGill University.

Preserving the Legacy of Elma Lewis: A Digital Preservation Update

This post is co-authored by Project Archivist Joy Zanghi and Head of Digital Production Services Sarah Sweeney.

The archival collections documenting the life and work on Elma Lewis — educator, arts advocate, and cultural leader — represent an extraordinary record of Boston’s cultural history. In May 2025, the library received nearly $460,000 from Boston’s Community Preservation Act (CPA) to improve access to these collections. Just over a year into the project, we’re celebrating a major milestone and kicking off two new areas of work.

Milestone: Digitalization Complete!

Black and white image of a Black man sitting on the far left. In the center is a large black canvas with lighter and gradient arcs and squares
Bill Hutson photographed by Carol Hobbs in 1977, shown with his work “The Black Painting.”

The project’s first phase was to digitize materials from all four Elma Lewis collections held in the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections. The digitization work spanned audio, video, photographs, and textual materials across four archival collections:

We’re thrilled to announce that the digitization phase of the project is now complete. Vendor digitization of approximately 120,000 pages of text documents and photographs, 51 videos, and four audio recordings began in October 2025 and finished in March.

What’s Available Now in the Digital Repository

With digitization complete, we are now adding the files to the Digital Repository Service (DRS). All audio and video files, which originate from more delicate formats like film reels and were once in accessible to a reading room visitor, are now accessible. Text documents require additional post-digitization processing before they can be deposited, but they are being uploaded as that work is completed. Photographs have been deposited with minimal metadata and enhancements are forthcoming.

While most photographs and documents are available to everyone, not all of the other file types are publicly accessible. Some documents containing sensitive personal information and audio and video files with copyright restrictions are only accessible to the Northeastern community.

Screenshot of a video. A person is speaking with their hand up and the words "A STORY FOR ALL SEASONS" is is in the center.
Still from A Story for All Seasons, one of the digitized films from the collection that is available to the public.

Upcoming Work: Cataloging

The next phase of the project, item-level description, has just begun. Four part-time Digital Project Assistants are performing the cataloging work, which will continue through the end of the project. Text documents will be the focus of the cataloging work. Item-level metadata will improve access to the newly digitized materials by making the archival collections searchable in the DRS and beyond.

Upcoming Work: Community Engagement

An important aspect of this grant is engaging with members of the Boston community who knew Elma Lewis, including family, friends, artists, and alumni of the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, as well as members of the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists community. The project team has a lot to learn about the digitized items being catalogued, so gathering community members’ knowledge of people, events, dates, and context will help us create more accurate and meaningful descriptions of the collection. The grant includes funds for these community consultations, which we hope will both give back to the community and enrich the archival record.

Get Involved

This project is ultimately about ensuring that the legacy of Elma Lewis and the communities she built remains accessible for generations to come. Everyone is welcome to contact archives@northeastern.edu to arrange a visit to view the photographs and documents in person.

Also, if you have a connection to Elma Lewis, the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, or the National Center of Afro-American Artists — or if you have information, memories, or context that could help us better describe these collections — please reach out. Your knowledge is an invaluable part of telling this story.

Ready to Research: Nancy F. Walker Papers

Nancy Walker rests her head on a stone birdbath. Behind her is a house and car.
Nancy Walker, circa 1950s. Nancy F. Walker papers, M229. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

The papers of writer and gay rights advocate Nancy Fried Walker (1935-1996) have been fully processed and are ready for research at Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections. The collection documents Walker’s public and private writing, her relationships, her gay rights advocacy, and the gay liberation movement more broadly.

Walker grew up on Long Island and earned her undergraduate degree from Hofstra College. In the early 1970s, while living in Toronto, she was involved with the Community Homophile Association of Toronto (CHAT). Internal workings of the organization are documented through notes, meeting minutes, flyers and brochures, and more.

After moving to Boston in 1975, Walker wrote for Gay Community News (GCN) and served as its classifieds manager. Her “Odyssey of a Unicorn” column and short love poems to her partner resonated with many GCN readers around the country, including those who welcomed her politically moderate perspective in predominantly leftist gay rights spaces.

A yellow feedback form that reads: "I wanted more of Nancy Walker!! Burnt out on political activism + details just increase my guilt. The struggle gets depressing too often."
A GCN subscriber wanted more of Nancy Walker!! circa 1980s. Nancy F. Walker papers, M229. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

 

Additional materials in the collection include correspondence, college papers, and photographs, as well as queer and feminist ephemera, memorabilia and serials that document a diversity of queer points of view throughout her lifetime.

A collage of three items in the collection: A pamphlet titled "National March on Washington for Lesbian & Gay Rights"; a magazine cover reading "motive lesbian/feminist issue"; and a pamphlet with a Hebrew heading and a subhead reading "Information about Boston's Community of Lesbian and Gay Jews."
Examples of queer serials and ephemera in the collection, circa 1970s. Nancy F. Walker papers, M229. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

 

Walker’s frankness, warmth, humor, and thoughtfulness radiate throughout her papers, from her punchy letters to friends and personal life stories she shared in her columns to the practical advice she offered. She was unabashedly out of the closet, and wrote the following to one advice seeker in 1977:

“The one thing I would tell you by way of advice is that you must consider yourself a worthy individual and truly accept your lesbianism. Otherwise you will never be happy and no relationship will succeed.”

To learn more about the Nancy F. Walker papers, explore the finding aid, or email archives@northeastern.edu. For more information about the collection, read Samuel Edwards’ previous blog post Box by Box: Inventorying the Nancy Walker Papers.

Ready to Research: Beth A. Bower Papers

The papers of Beth A. Bower, an archaeologist who worked on the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, have been processed and are ready for research at the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections (NUASC).

The Central Artery/Tunnel Project, also known as the Big Dig, refers to the infrastructure project that moved the downtown Boston portion of I-93 underground. It also created a third tunnel under Boston Harbor. Construction took place from 1991-2006.

Bower was an employee of Bechtel/Parsons Brinkerhoff, the project management company of the Big Dig. She held several different positions during her time on the project, including External Affairs Manager, but she is largely known for her archaeological work. The North End and Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor were both sites of archaeological excavations that Bower worked on for the Big Dig.

Five people in orange vests and hardhats look into a hole in the dirt
Spectacle Island Archaeological Excavations, circa 1992. Beth A. Bower papers, M228. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

Excavations in the North End revealed remnants of structures such as wharves, warehouses, and even a Colonial privy that yielded many artifacts. Items such as dish shards, fruit seeds, and animal bones provided information on the diet and lives of 17th century Bostonians.

Archaeological work on Spectacle Island focused on a shell midden, an archaeological term for a trash pile created by prolonged human occupation; in Spectacle Island’s case, a significant portion was made of mollusk shells. Radiocarbon dating of the site ranged from 535-1590 CE, placing the shell midden in the pre-European contact eras known as the Middle and Late Woodland periods. Besides shells, Spectacle Island artifacts included bone and stone tools, broken pottery, and animal bones.

On the left: Three baseball cards, showing a photo of Ted Williams swinging a bat, a photo of an elderly Ted Williams sitting in a golf cart, and a graphic of the Boston skyline and a gravel truck noting "Ted Williams Tunnel Limited Edition 3000 Sets Sponsored by Boston Sand and Gravel."On the right: three buttons that say "Opening Day December 15, 1995" with a graphic of Ted Williams; "#1 24 September, 1992) with an outline of construction work in front of the Boston skyline; and "September 27, 1993 South Boston Haul Road Central Artery/Tunnel Project 'A New Road Ahead'" with a graphic of a dump truck
Baseball cards and buttons celebrating the Ted Williams Tunnel and other Big Dig milestones, 1992-1996.
Beth A. Bower papers, M228. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

 

One of the highlights of Bower’s collection is the memorabilia related to the Big Dig, including hard hats, buttons, and mugs. Many of the objects focus on the Ted Williams Tunnel, which connects the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan Airport and was named for the famous Red Sox left fielder who played from 1939-1960 (with a break from 1942-46 to serve during World War II). Limited edition Ted Williams Tunnel baseball cards were given out to commemorate the opening of the tunnel, which they called “Opening Day” after the baseball season’s first game of the year.

This finding aid provides background information and a folder-level inventory of the collection’s eight boxes of archaeological, external affairs, and engineering files, as well as Bower’s notebooks and Big Dig paraphernalia. Overall, the collection documents Bower’s work on the Big Dig and the milestones the project reached while she was a part of it.

To learn more about the Beth A. Bower papers, email archives@northeastern.edu.

Processing Assistant Julia Lee (she/her) is in her last semester of the Simmons University Library and Information Science graduate program. She has been with NUASC for over two years and received her BA from Northeastern University with a combined major in English and Theatre.

Boston History on Display in Snell Library

The lower level of Snell Library now hosts a semi-permanent exhibit orienting visitors to the stories of Boston’s neighborhoods, activist organizations, and organizers available to them in the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

Wall exhibit in the Snell Library lower level labeled East Boston and Chinatown, with images and descriptions
Molly Brown/Northeastern University Library

Installed in March, the exhibit features highlights of historic events, notable leaders, and impactful organizations from the Mission Hill, Roxbury, South End, Chinatown, and East Boston neighborhoods who are represented in the special collections.

Visitors to the lower level are greeted with images of Boston leaders and luminaries such as Elma Lewis, Melnea Cass, Mel King, Mary Ellen Welch, and Carmen Pola, as well as organizations who are still working in Boston today, like Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, the Boston Living Center, Freedom House, and La Alianza Hispana.

Wall exhibit in the Snell Library lower level with several images and captions
Molly Brown/Northeastern University Library

 

Wall exhibit in the Snell Library lower level featuring images and captions
Molly Brown/Northeastern University Library

 

The first iteration of the exhibit was selected and written by Reference and Outreach Archivist Molly Brown and has room to highlight future new organizations and individuals who donate records to NUASC or are celebrating significant milestones. It was designed in collaboration with Christopher Raia from MGA Partners.