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.
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.
Molly Brown/Northeastern University Library
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.
Bob Terrell at the MBTA Silver Line opening protest, July 2002. Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) records.
Throughout his life, Bob Terrell played an active role in advancing environmental, housing, and transportation justice in the City of Boston, and advocated for his neighborhood of Roxbury. He was involved in multiple organizations and held several municipal government positions, as well. So when his papers were donated to the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections upon his passing in 2025, they provided a unique look into the city’s history.
The most prevalent organizations represented in Terrell’s papers are the Roxbury Neighborhood Council (RNC), Greater Roxbury Neighborhood Authority (GRNA), and Washington Street Corridor Coalition (WSCC). The RNC and GRNA sought to increase community control of their neighborhoods through the development of housing, education, and economic opportunities. Meanwhile, the WSCC focused on advocating for adequate public transportation, needed after the loss of the El (the Boston Elevated Railway), which had traveled down Washington Street.
Other records in the collection document the MBTA Rider Oversight Committee, Black Political Task Force, On the Move, and the Massachusetts Community and Banking Council, among other organizations. Terrell often held leadership positions within these organizations such as board member, committee member, director, and executive director.
Records documenting community concerns about Washington Street and adequate transportation, 1990s. Bob Terrell papers.
The attention Terrell paid to local and world news related to environmental, housing, and transportation issues is evident in the number of reports, studies, newsletters, and other records that he accumulated over time. As I went through these items, I wondered to what extent global developments and initiatives informed the work he was doing in Boston. I often became engrossed with the interconnectedness of local and larger world matters, especially when news from Boston grew to become world news.
Additional materials in the collection helped me appreciate even more how committee and active Terrell was in his advocacy. Initially, this realization occurred as I went through his educational materials. Terrell received his BA in Government and Sociology from Bowdoin College in 1974. Later in life, he returned to school and received his Master’s in Public Policy from Tufts University in 2012. Terrell kept his notebooks, readings, and other resources from both undergraduate and graduate school. To me, this conveys that Terrell valued the information he learned from his professors and carried it throughout his life, which then impacted the advocacy work he did in his community.
One of the calendars used throughout Bob Terrell’s life. Bob Terrell papers.
Occasionally, I would also stumble upon his personal calendars. These, too, helped me understand how busy and active he was. In addition to attending conferences relevant to his work, there were organizational meetings to attend. Sometimes the entry in his calendar would even have a location for the event or meeting, which shows how much effort it takes to be so involved, but this was his life’s work and he was committed. It was more surprising to see a free day in his calendar than not. I found the calendars quite inspiring, in seeing how much one person can do. If a person were to only commit to one cause or organization they could still create an impact. This makes me feel a little less intimidated to get involved myself.
If you are interested in local Boston advocacy work, especially in relation to transportation, environmental, and housing justice, Bob Terrell’s papers are a must-see.
Contact the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections by emailing us at archives@northeastern.edu to find out more about Bob Terrell’s papers.
Former Processing Assistant Aries Peralta (he/him) graduated from Simmons University with an MS in Library and Information Science with a concentration in archives management. He received his BA in art history from the University of Connecticut.
In 2026, there are two opportunities to receive funding to use the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections (NUASC) records to aid research and storytelling.
TheNew England Regional Fellowship Consortium (NERFC) fellowships provides support for research projects that span across several New England repositories. NERFC is a collaboration of 30 cultural institutions and repositories across New England, including NUASC. The consortium’s fellowship program is designed to promote research across a variety of institutions and metropolitan areas in New England. NERFC grants two dozen awards every year and fellows receive a stipend of $5,000 with the requirement that they conduct their research in at least three of the participating institutions for periods of two weeks each. Applications are due Sunday, February 1, 2026, and can be submitted through NERFC’s homepage on the Massachusetts Historical Society website. Note that there are new adjustments to the NERFC submission process, including contacting an archivist directly to learn more about their collections prior to submitting an application.
The Boston Public Library (BPL) is offering a new fellowship in collaboration with NUASC this year. The “Telling Boston Stories Fellowship” is a four-week program intended to support research projects that focus on the people and communities of Boston that are often left out of the historical narrative. This fellowship can support many types of projects both academic and artistic. Fellows will receive a $4,500 stipend and will be expected to spend four weeks working with collections, primarily at the BPL and Northeastern University, though trips at other Boston cultural heritage institutions or research centers may be included. The weeks do not have to be consecutive. Applications are due Monday, March 23, 2026. To apply, visit the BPL’s fellowship page for more information.
For any questions about this fellowships, using our collections, or what other types of collaborations and research projects are possible, email Molly Brown at mo.brown@northeastern.edu.
The installations will be on display until September 1.
“Home Less Home” creates the shape of a house with many red and black ropes hung from the ceiling. Suspended within the ropes are records of immigration, such as passports and immigration papers. ICA Boston’s iteration of the installation also draws specifically on Boston history, featuring archival records from institutions across the city that speak to the theme of home and the actions around home: finding a home, leaving home, protecting home, and creating a new home.
Northeastern’s archives brought a unique organizational activism component to the exhibit through our Special Collections’ focus on neighborhood social justice movements. Reference staff worked with ICA Boston curators to find records addressing housing activism and advocacy in Boston’s neighborhoods. The exhibit features records from the following collections:
Aries Peralta works in the Archives and Special Collections. Photo courtesy of Molly Brown
The initial planning of the Big Dig, officially named the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, began in 1982 and actual construction occurred from 1991-2006. The donated records contained articles by both Palmer and Murphy, as well as a third reporter, Charles Sennott.
I find this collection interesting because it is not just a compilation of articles published in the Boston Globe; it consists of the research and reference materials amassed for use in reporting on the issues surrounding the Big Dig. The records reveal the vast context and information a journalist would need to know in order to write cohesive articles, including contracts, technical reports, financial statements, photographs, maps, articles from other news sources, and more.
Below are some selected items to highlight the extent of the collection.
Big Dig Contract Map
The contracts in progress map is a snapshot of the various contracts happening at one time in downtown Boston and serves as a great visualization of the contracts’ physical locations. It also helps associate the technical contract number with the more publicly known name of any given section of the project, such as the Ted Williams Tunnel identified as contract number C07A1.
The Big Dig Blame Game
As Massachusetts Governor from 1997-2001, Paul Cellucci was the subject of countless voiced opinions about his tenure and leadership during the Big Dig project. This image of Cellucci as a snake accompanied an article published in a 2000 issue of Boston Magazine that suggested cost overruns were caused by a collective failure of key players, including Cellucci, for not properly managing the project.
A Fifth-Grader’s Opinion on the Big Dig
Often stuck in traffic with their parents or simply by living in nearby neighborhoods, local students were also affected by the Big Dig project. The Student Newsline section in the Boston Globe presented an opportunity for students to send in their own opinions about the project. Many students offered their own ideas to quickly finish and reduce the costs of the project.
2006 Ceiling Collapse
Reporting on the construction of the Big Dig included documenting tragedies. In 2006, a ceiling panel fell on a car in the Fort Point Channel Tunnel, killing a passenger and injuring the driver. Their family and the public wanted answers as to how the incident could have occurred. As a result, the Boston Globe undertook an in-depth investigation to report and provide answers. These photographs may have been taken to document the other ceiling panels in the rest of the tunnel after the accident occurred.
To learn more about accessing the Boston Globe Big Dig records, email the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections at archives@northeastern.edu.
Aries Peralta (he/him) recently graduated from Simmons University with an MS in Library and Information Science with a concentration in archives management. He received his BA in history from the University of Connecticut.
