New Collections Available

We have recently processed four small collections from our holdings and are currently working on updating their accompanying finding aids. Scroll down for sample images and descriptions from these collections. They include:  the Hurley Family Photograph Collection, the Benedict Daniels Photograph Collection, the Harry Bagan Photograph Collection, and the Alfred E. Vellucci Snapshot Collection.

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Hurley Family Photograph Collection

This collection consists of copy prints and original photographs donated by Virginia Hurley in 1994. Virginia lived at 5 Ellsworth Park in Cambridge and she was an active participant in city politics. As the secretary of the Gold Star Wives of America Inc., she helped protect widows from increased property taxes after the deaths of their husbands. For a period, she worked for the City of Boston as a secretary for Judge David Nelson and then for the Elder Affairs office. She later passed away in 2011.

The photographs in this collection are of the Hurley family’s ancestry, including the Moran, Graves, Welsh and Ward families. The images comprise of group and individual portraits of family members ranging from the late 1880s to the 1920s.

 

While some of the people in the photographs are unidentified, we do know that the Morans were an East Cambridge family of glass workers who were employed by the New England Glassworks company until 1888. Interestingly, on the other side of the Hurley ancestry, David Gregory Welch was known as Peter McGurr during the Civil War.

Additionally, there is an outlying photograph of Marshal Ferdinand Foch at the Cambridge Parade after WWI. He was a French general and he served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the war.

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Benedict Daniels Photograph Collection

This collection contains scrapbook pages donated by Helen Benedict Daniels in 1980. Helen was a member of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor (Y.P.S.C.E.) and a volunteer for the Red Cross. After she received her degree in natural history from Radcliffe College, she married and moved to Orange, New Jersey. The scrapbook was created by her sister Miriam Benedict, who was a nurse in Cambridge during the 1920s.

Miriam probably worked for the East Cambridge Health Center, which directed attention towards programs that taught young mothers how to care for their newborn children. The unidentified people in the photographs were probably affiliated with the center.

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Harry Bagan Photograph Collection

This collection includes three photographs with Harry Bagan, a Cambridge police officer. The collection was donated by Maria Sousa in October 1995; little information has been found on Sousa.

Harry Bagan was married to Helen Bagan, who is showcased in one of the photographs. They were known to be close to the Roosevelt family. He was also a prominent member of the Fat Men’s Club in Cambridge. The Fat Men’s Club was a widespread trend that began around 1910 which celebrated physical girth and required a weight qualification of over 190 pounds.

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Alfred E. Vellucci Snapshot Collection

Included in this collection are mounted photographs conveying a “day in the life” of Cambridge Mayor Vellucci. He became a Cambridge School Committee member in 1951 and by 1955 he began his 34-year position on the City Council. This snapshot collection comes from 1976 and it displays Vellucci’s daily activities, such as conducting desk work, holding meetings, drinking coffee, and attending city council meetings. Vellucci later retired from public office in 1991. The collection was donated by Juliet Turner from the City Hall’s Finance Department in 2011.

Images forthcoming.

 

The finding aids for these collections will soon be made available online. Please check back soon to access them. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to process collections and make them available for research!

Most of these photograph collections were donated in the 1980s but we are always accepting personal donations and family memorabilia related to Cambridge, Mass. We encourage you to contact the Cambridge Historical Commission if you have items you wish to offer. Please contact egonzalez@cambridgema.gov with any inquiries about the process.

To view the above collections, please make a research appointment at histcomm@cambridgema.gov. Our research hours are: Monday: 4:00-7:00 pm | Tuesday: 2:00-4:00 pm | Wednesday – Thursday: 10-12 and 2-4 pm.