The observatory, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.  from Anna Maria College Blumsack Travel Postcards
The observatory, Smith College, Northampton, Mass. from Anna Maria College Blumsack Travel Postcards

Have you kept your New Year’s resolution to digitize your historical treasures? These institutions did.  Anna Maria College’s The Travel Postcards of Charles Bumsack Collection includes this view of Smith College’s Observatory (left).  If you explore more, you’ll also find views of the Crab, Dumbbell and Horsehead Nebulae.  I kid you not.

If whimsy is not your cup of tea, the BPL has added some significant correspondence collections and Barre Historical Society has added maps. (See example below.)  Wilbraham Public Library chips in some photographs of the Glendale section of town while the Center for the History of Medicine (Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine) has added prints, sculptures, photos and more in its six collections.

Earlier this month Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so we have six more weeks of winter. Plenty of time to visit all these great collections.

Anna Maria College

Travel Postcards of Charles Blumsack – 120 items

Barre Historical Society

Barre Historical Society Map Collection – 11 items

 Map of the town of Barre, Worcester County, Mass. from Barre Historical Society Map Collection
Map of the town of Barre, Worcester County, Mass. from Barre Historical Society Map Collection

Boston Public Library

Alphonse Legros (1837-1911). Prints and Drawings – 1943 items added to existing collection John Brown: Correspondence relating to John Brown and the raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia – 227 items
Sophia Hawthorne correspondence with James and Annie Fields, 1851-1904 – 252 items

Center for the History of Medicine (Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine)

Harvested 6 collections – 3623 items

Wilbraham Public Library

Glendale Collection – 44 items

 Barre High School Spring '87 from the Barre Class Photos Collection
Barre High School Spring ’87 from the Barre Class Photos Collection

June is a traditional month for saying good bye to school friends and beginning on new and unknown paths. We are pleased to highlight this month’s addition of Class Photos from Barre High School provided by the Barre Historical Society, including the 130-year-old photo to the right. The Boston Public Library continues to add to established collections, which may see more use during the school year when old school friends meet again.

June is also Pride Month and the Digital Transgender Archive has uploaded seventy-seven (yes, 77!) new collections.  I can’t list them all, so follow the link and explore the various paths to a history that may be new and unknown to you.

Whatever path you choose, wherever you wind up,  may your journey begin with a visit to the Digital Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Barre Historical Society

Barre Class Photos – 64 items

Boston Public Library

 Transgender symbol pin  from the Digital Transgender Archive
Transgender symbol pin from the Digital Transgender Archive

Anti-Slavery Collection -2,178 items added to existing collection

Norman B. Leventhal Map Center Collection – 10 items added to existing collection

Shakespeare Collection – 101 items added to existing collection

Digital Transgender Archive 

Seventy-seven collections – 1,587 items harvested