Spring 2026 is almost over, and summer break is finally here! That means it’s time to explore Massachusetts’ beautiful beaches, waterfronts, and harbor walks.
Featured here is the “Clifton Street Gang,” a group of young boys enjoying a summer day at Long Beach in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This beach was their favorite summer hangout, and the very place where they spent countless days together and learned how to swim.
We hope you enjoy this glimpse into summers past.
To see more historic images like this, click the link in our bio.
#UMassBoston #HealeyLibrary #Archives #UniversityArchives #SpecialCollections #UASC #Summer #Beach
With the temperature over 70 degrees today, it is certainly starting to feel a lot like summer! To celebrate this turn towards warmth, let's enjoy this image of a Provincetown, MA, sunset. Pictured on the left is Capt. Jack's Wharf. The long pier sticking out in the center is the Coast Guard Wharf.
To see more images like this, click the link in our bio and visit the Provincetown, Mass., Memories Road Show collection!
#UMassBoston #HealeyLibrary #Archives #UniversityArchives #SpecialCollections #UASC #Summer #Sunset #Provincetown
Please enjoy this 1944 picture of Sally and her cow! This image is from our Hingham, Mass., Memories Road Show collection. Mass. Memories Road Show is a statewide participatory event where individuals and families from Massachusetts bring in artifacts from their lives, which are compiled and organized by archivists and public historians from the Healey Library. This process has digitized more than 13,000 photographs and stories across the entire state!
To read more about the Mass. Memories Road Show, follow this link to our blog: https://blogs.umb.edu/massmemories/
#UMassBoston #HealeyLibrary #Archives #UniversityArchives #SpecialCollections #UASC #Cow #Massachusetts
Hi everyone! Please enjoy this image of the East Longmeadow Little League baseball squad preparing for their all-star game in 1960. Both coaches were heavily involved in the Danvers community and were known to have done a “tremendous amount of service” for the town and its many residents. You can tell this team was well coached!
To see more images that transport you into a different era, click the link in our bio and explore our many Mass Memories Road Show collections!
#UMassBoston #HealeyLibrary #Archives #UniversityArchives #SpecialCollections #UASC #Baseball #1960
Since it's certainly beginning to feel like summer today, enjoy this picture of Chubby the Beach Dog! Chubby was an avid beachgoer in his glory days. He frequented Cold Storage Beach from 1988 to 2001—some might even say he was the King of Storage Beach. Chubby was well-known and beloved by Truro's children and the beach workers. We love you, Chubby!
To see more images like this, click the link in our bio!
Location: Cold Storage Beach, North Truro
#UMassBoston #HealeyLibrary #Archives #UniversityArchives #SpecialCollections #UASC #Truro #Beach #Summer #Spring #Dog #Doggy
Please enjoy this contemplative photo of Laszlo de Nagy painting on a wharf in Provincetown, MA. This image was added to the Provincetown, Mass. Memories Road Show collection by Towanda de Nagy. Pictured here is her father. Towanda’s father was from Hungary. Just before this image was taken, he had gotten off the ‘’Dorothy Brandford’ ferry from Boston. From there, he met Towanda’s mother, Helen Boswell, who was also a painter. If intrigued, you can read more about this family in Towanda’s book, ‘Towanda: The First 61 Years.’
To see more images from our many Mass. Memories road show collections, click the link in our bio!
#UMassBoston #HealeyLibrary #Archives #UniversityArchives #SpecialCollections #UASC #Provincetown #Barnstable #Painting
Please enjoy this image of a Unitarian Church in Sharon, MA! Every spring, this church designates one service to celebrate diversity in the Sharon community. Their services typically focus on topics concerning human sexuality, same-sex marriage, and other related themes. This tradition is aimed at celebrating diversity in all forms, cultivating a church community that appreciates all members for who they are!
To see more images like this, click the link in our bio!
#UMassBoston #HealeyLibrary #Archives #UniversityArchives #SpecialCollections #UASC #Sharon #Diversity #Community
Spring is nearly here! And what better way to celebrate than with this lovely image of Wayland, Mass, beekeepers. Pictured here are a group of BEElieve beekeepers after their first hive opening in the Spring of 2012. In fact, this opening occurred at Kaat Vander Straeten's house, and it is at houses like this where—right in Vander Straeten's backyard—the public can be educated about the surprisingly friendly nature of bees!
To see more images like this, click the link in our bio!
#UMassBoston #HealeyLibrary #Archives #UniversityArchives #SpecialCollections #UASC #Bee #Bees #Beekeeper #Wayland #WaylandMA
Hi everyone! Today is a great day because today you get to view some beautiful handcrafted mugs! I declare it a sure-fire method for defeating the Winter Blues.
The two mugs pictured here were crafted by the Dorchester Pottery Works, established in 1885 by master potter George Henderson. However, unlike their typical famous cobalt blue designs, these mugs have been carved into a chocolate brown base, very cool!
Image 1: Brown mug with pine cone design
Image 2: Brown mug with rooster graphic
To see more of these beautiful, handcrafted designs, click the link in our bio!
#UMassBoston #HealeyLibrary #Archives #UniversityArchives #SpecialCollections #UASC #Dorchester #Pottery
Stop by Friday for a galley reception 3:00pm-5:30pm in the Grossmann Gallery, 5th floor of the Healey Library. The artists will be present!
I am excited to share this new endeavor with the world! In 2024 I took a sabbatical to research how archives can better support artists. Part of this time I focused on how to integrate my background in fine art with my job as an archivist at UMB while spending my artist residency @air_byrdcliffe . I discovered that my schooling as an archivist as useful as it was, created limitations around thinking about the intersections of art and archives.
Out of this experience and with my UMB Archives colleagues support, I launched the Artist Unresidency Pilot Program at UMB Archives where artists are invited to explore the archival collections and respond by creating new artwork. I spent December and January curating the current exhibit, Material Dialogues. It’s been an impactful experience not only in my day job as an archivist but in my studio practice as an artist. It’s been an honor to work with a great group of artists and am grateful for this opportunity. The resulting artwork is beyond anything I could have expected. Each artist brought a unique perspective to the archival materials surfacing new stories and connections that might otherwise go unnoticed.
I hope folks get a chance to stop by! The exhibit is open during library hours.
@calebxcole@xtinahuntwood_art@nancy.anne.hart@bwilson_studios@noisyriverstudio
Shout out to @artpluseverywhere for funding!
Today, we’re highlighting some amazing images from our Elizabeth Bouvier collection! This collection contains myriad images, posters, and activist material with leftist themes dating from around 1960 to 1990. The collection touches on issues very much still important in our contemporary moment, such as women’s and labor rights, gender, nuclear war, and President Nixon’s impeachment. The image pictured here was produced by Haymarket People’s Fund and conveys many of the themes represented in the rest of the collection.
To see more from this collection or any others, click the link in our bio!
#UMassBoston #HealeyLibrary #Archives #UniversityArchives #SpecialCollections UASC ElizabethBouvier WomensRights LaborRights
Friday, February 20, 3:00-5:30 pm catch the artists at the reception for Material Dialogues: Artist Unresidency, 2025-2026 @umbarchives ! Snacks provided!
I am beyond excited about this exhibit and honored to have curated this show funded by a grant from @artpluseverywhere . Artists created new work in response to collections in the UMBArchives. Artist explored themes of cultivating care, lifting voices, and looking at how the past can shape the future. Artists working across a wide variety of mediums including paintings, collage, artist books, film, sculpture, and photography.
The artist explores archival collections such as the Carol McEldowney Papers, the Theresa-India Young papers, Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive, the UMass Boston permanent site selection records, the Boston School Bus Drivers Union, USW Local 8751 records, Elizabeth Bouvier collection of radical and leftist posters, and the Stephen Lewis poster collection.
@noisyriverstudio@calebxcole@xtinahuntwood_art@nancy.anne.hart@bwilson_studios
Stop by and say hi on Friday, Feb 20th at the Grossmann Gallery on the 5th floor of the Healey Library at UMass Boston 3-5:30. Snacks provided!
Take the redline to the JFK stop and hop on the UMB #1 Campus Shuttle to the Campus Center. Walk over to the Healey Library building (tallest on campus). Take the elevators to the 5th floor.
