On Friday, May 2, and Saturday, May 3, University of Massachusetts Boston Archives will be hosting the Mass Memories Roadshow. The event will take place in the Campus Center Atrium where there will be a variety of activities for people who see UMass Boston as part of their personal identity to catalog their experiences.
This identity can stem from being an alumnus, a current student, past or current faculty, as well as past or current staff. The idea behind hosting the Mass Memories Roadshow at UMass Boston is to celebrate the people who have become the fabric of the campus community and network and to recognize the diverse and immense population who has been impacted by the university.
The road show is an event-based public history project that digitizes and catalogs personal photos and memories shared by the people of Massachusetts. The goal of the project is to visit as many possible cities around the Commonwealth and catalog the experiences and memories of the people that identify those locations as part of them.
The event normally takes place for a couple of hours and the road show incorporates scanning stations to catalog old photographs and local history stations where residents learn about the history of their location. There is also a video station to record a brief anecdote about people’s experiences in their city, and a photo keepsake station that allows the attendees to take a photo with their memorabilia and have it printed out for them as a souvenir of sorts. This entire event is overseen by Carolyn Goldstein, the Public History and Community Archives Program Manager at UMass Boston.
According to Goldstein, “by hosting the various road shows, we provide an opportunity for people who have valuable historic photographs and important stories to tell about them, share them with each other in a public forum, and to preserve them for future educators and future research.”
Goldstein also stated, “this specific road show that will be taking place at UMass Boston will be nothing short of a spectacular event. This event will be two days long, and it will give people who have come to see UMass Boston as home or as a funnel to their own success, a way to pay tribute and recall their past memories and experiences that made UMass Boston what it is to them.”
She added, “UMass Boston will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and by having its community reflect on their own time here, we are all able to see how UMass Boston has impacted the lives of so, so many.”
The most recent Mass Memories Road Show on March 8 was hosted in Wayland, Mass. The Mass Memories Road Show team partnered with the Wayland 375th Anniversary Committee to achieve a turnout of over 150 people attending the event. Over 300 photographs and memories were cataloged about the history that makes up the Wayland community.
The University Archives has cataloged many memories of alumni and former campus community members, and this information can be found on openarchives.umb.edu.
One history that has been recounted is a memory of an alumna’s time on campus. Susan Winbourne recounted that, “to be at that school, at that time, in that city was a formative experience that can never be repeated. I had experiences that changed me forever and friendships that lasted a lifetime. Events of the times bonded us in a very unique way. I met my husband of forty years [at UMass Boston]!”
The road show on campus in the beginning of May will serve as a chance for students and past community members of the university to share their experiences and cement them in the university’s history and fabric. UMass Boston community members are encouraged to attend and bring photographs and verbal stories with them as well as engage themselves with the event and volunteer if they would like to.
If students are interested they are encouraged to reach out to the University Archives Department and arrange their involvement.