A Year in Review – Collections Now Available on ArchivesSpace

As the year draws to a close, it is nice to reflect on personal and professional accomplishments. The staff at the CHC has been working hard to make its archival collections more easily accessible for you this year. From home, we have been uploading our finding aids to ArchivesSpace to make your searching, finding, researching, and learning easier. You can search our ArchivesSpace here to find out what we hold in our collections. To give you an idea of what is available, here are short blurbs from all ten of the collections recently updated and newly available (listed from most recent uploads to oldest).

Currently, the Historical Commission is offering limited research assistance. Please see our main webpage for the most up-to-date information. If you would like to research any of our collections, please email us at chcarchives@cambridgema.gov.

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Gooch Family Photographs:

A collection of 49 glass plate negatives related to the Gooch family, the former residents of 11 Fayerweather Street in Cambridge. The family lived there from the 1850s to 1900, when the family moved to 35 Adams Avenue in Watertown. The Gooch family also owned a summer residence in Marblehead on Marblehead Neck. All three locations are shown in the collection, which you can see on our Flickr page.

Watson Funeral Home Collection:

A collection of photographs, certificates, blueprints, clippings, and ephemera related to the Watson Funeral Home, a 20th century Cambridge business. The funeral parlor was at 11 Magazine Street, a Greek Revival house near Central Square.

Alan McClennen Collection:

A collection of maps, correspondence, development studies, town reports, and traffic studies for the City of Cambridge with the bulk of the materials dating from the 1950s to the 1970s. Researchers interested in viewing the Alan McClennen Collection will be engaged by topics on community development in the city during the mid-twentieth century. McClennen served as the Planning Director for the City of Cambridge. During this period, he was also clerk of the Urban Renewal Coordinating Committee, a member of the Traffic Board, clerk of the School Building Advisory Committee, member of the Council on Aging, and secretary of the Cambridge Historical Commission. He assisted the Cambridge Housing Authority with site selections for elderly housing projects.

West Family Collection:

A collection spanning 1885 to 1926 that includes a ledger from the family’s clock business; blueprints and contracts for work done on the two West properties at 115 Pearl Street and 6 Cottage Street; school material for Alfred, George, and Gertrude West; and a photograph album. Alfred West emigrated from Bristol, England, in the early 1900s and settled in Cambridge. His five children maintained the two Cambridge properties, the former as a rental unit and the latter as their home, until 1987. Of particular interest are the essays composed by George, which describe the experiences of a schoolboy in the early 1900s.

Albert B. Wolfe Collection:

A collection of papers from Alfred B. Wolfe’s tenure as chair of the Cambridge Historic Districts Study Committee (1961-1962) and chair of the Cambridge Historical Commission (1962-1973). The records kept by Wolfe on the work of the Cambridge Historical Commission are the primary focus of this collection.

Sheila Cook Collection:

The papers within this collection represent several decades of Sheila Cook’s activism and civic involvement in Cambridge, composed primarily of her personal and organizational correspondence, as well as relevant newspaper clippings and government documents. Materials span the years 1830 to 2012 but focus primarily on the years between 1990 and 2002. The records offer an important glimpse into the development and preservation of historic and ecological aspects of the greater Cambridge area.

George “Tubber” White Collection:

This collection may be enjoyed by those of you with an interest in Cambridge’s sports history. It includes hockey, football, and baseball team photographs featuring Tubber White during his time at Rindge Technical School and Exeter Academy from 1912 to the 1920s. It also has eleven photo postcards featuring members of the North Cambridge semiprofessional baseball team. (White became a dentist.)

Cambridge Militia Records:

In this collection you can find nine record books detailing militia records for the City of Cambridge for the years 1846 to 1886. Each book contains lists of names and marginal notes recording those enrolled in the Cambridge Militia.

Cambridge City Engineer Records:

This collection consists of an assortment of books from the Cambridge Office of the City Engineer that cover a period from about 1860 to 1908. Contents include plot drawings, measurements, transcribed land deeds and abstracts, field notes, newspaper clippings, mathematical calculations, and copied legal documents.

Edwin Freeman Bowker Collection:

This collection is composed of five boxes and two flat files containing Edwin F. Bowker’s professional correspondence as a civil engineer and surveyor in Cambridge. Included are surveyor’s notes and records, draft sketches, manual calculations, notes on markers, drawings, plans, transcripts regarding property boundaries from deeds, and correspondence from mid-1886 through 1919.

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Other collections uploaded this year:

Here is a quick list of the other finding aids uploaded to our ArchivesSpace this year.

• Lewis Family Collection
• Cambridge Municipal Elections 1985 Collection
• Cambridge Sane / Freeze / Cambridge Peace Action Collection
• Clark Street Photographs
• Gladys G. Boyce Photograph Collection
• Carter’s Ink Company Collection
• Thomas Anniger Collection
• Alice Darling Secretarial Service Inc. Ephemera
• Batchelder Family Collection
• Louis Baker Collection
• Sawicz Family Collection
• McCarthy Family Collection
• Hurley Family Photographs
• Scully Family Collection
• Hovey Family Records
• Alfred E. Vellucci Snapshot Collection
• Benedict Daniels Photographs
• Coleman-Cutting Family Photograph Collection
• Godinho Family Photograph Collection
• Harry Bagan Photographs