The records of the Western Massachusetts locals and district councils of the UBCJA documents the rise of unionization among carpenters in the Connecticut River Valley since the 1880s. This collection represents a merger of separate accessions for the District Councils in Springfield (MS 110), the Pioneer Valley (MS 231), and Holyoke (MS 108), along with post-merger records for Local 108. In general, each has been maintained as a distinct series.
Oral history with the Gagnon family, part of the Franco-American community in Springfield since 1953. Topics include their participation in Franco-American activities at St. Joseph’s Church, their interest in Franco-American studies, and what nationality means to them, as people with roots in America, Canada, and France.
Collection includes statutes and by-laws, minutes, administrative records, correspondence, financial records and receipts, scholarship records, publications, records of programs and events, and artifacts and ephemera.
Interview includes discussions of: connection between Lewiston and Quebec in the 1930s-1940s; Robert Wiseman; bootlegging; “Wiseman Gang” of Paul Couture, Al Lessard, Jere Clifford, Robert Caron, Roland Tanguay, and Louis Jalbert; Lewiston political cliques; Muskie as a legislator; Ernest Malenfant; legislative issues of the 1950s; Frank Coffin; Le Messager; Richard Sampson; running for Senate President; determining Lewiston political line-ups; television; Ed Muskie story: convention 1960; lobbying for Kennedy at the 1960 convention; run-ins between Louis Jalbert and Bill Jacques; urban renewal; difference between Lewiston and the St. John Valley; airport politics; Kennedy visit to Lewiston; Clay-Liston fight in Lewiston; Ed Muskie’s impact on Maine; and Androscoggin County jail reconstruction.
