Historic Northampton


Reference Shelf

Bibliography

General Histories

Buckley, Kerry W. ed. A Place Called Paradise: Culture and Community in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1654-2004. University of Massachusetts Press. Amherst, 2004.  The definitive anthology of recent scholarship on the history of Northampton and its regional setting.  Extensive documentation. 536 pages. Illustrations. index.

Holland, Josiah Gilbert. History of Western Massachusetts. 2 vols. Springfield, 1855. A comprehensive history of the four western counties up to 1855, including much on Northampton. Good accounts of agriculture, railroads, educational institutions and newspapers. Of value for description of Northampton area at time of writing. No references, no index. (FL,UM,SC)

Johnson,Clifton. Historic Hampshire in the Connecticut Valley. Springfield, 1932. Chapter II is a historical sketch of Northampton and its people.(FL,UM,SC,HN)

Koleszar, Janice K., ed. Florence, Massachusetts: History, 1895-1985. Hatfield, MA, 1986. An update of Sheffeld's History of Florence. Some notes, bibliography. (FL,SC,HN)

Parsons, James M. Images of America: Northampton. Dover, N.H., 1996. A pictorial history.

Pontius, Susan. The History of Women in Northampton from 1660-1980. Haydenville, Mass., 1980. As background for the Hestia Art Collective mural, the artist produced a short sketch of Northampton women in history. Footnotes and bibliography. (HN)

Sheffeld, Charles A., ed. The History of Florence Massachusetts. Including a Complete Account of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. Florence, MA, 1895. The authoritative history of Florence, its industries, leaders, and of the Association, drawn from the Judd Manuscript, Gazette files, town records, documents of the Association, and recollections of individuals. Regrettably lacks direct attributions, bibliography and index. (FL,SC,HN)

Trumbull, James R. History of Northampton, Massachusetts, From Its Settlement in 1654. 2 vols. Northampton, 1898, 1902. Trumbull, a retired local editor, compiled this history using the Judd Manuscripts, in which he had half interest. Volume 2 was posthumously assembled by his nieces. The period 1722-1819 is covered in detail. Some footnotes, indexed. (FL,SC,MH,HN)

Van Voris, Jacqueline. The Look of Paradise: A Pictorial History of Northampton, Massachusetts, 1654-1954. Canaan, N.H., 1984. An overview in text and pictures of Northampton's history.(FL,UM,SC,HN)

Anthologies and Essays

Aaron, Daniel, and Harold Faulkner, eds. The Northampton Book: Chapters from 300 Years in the Life of a New England Town, 1654-1954. Northampton, 1954. A collection of 46 articles widely used as a source book. Indexed, but without notes or bibliography.(UM,SC,FL,HN)

Betty Allen Chapter, D.A.R. Early Northampton. Northampton, 1914. Fifteen essays on various aspects of Northampton history.(FL,SC,UM)

Hampshire Co., Mass., Tercentenary Editorial Committe, comp. The Hampshire History: Celebrating 300 Years of Hampshire County, Massachusetts. Northampton, 1964. A series of 21 town histories which appeared serially in the Hampshire Gazette. The chapter on Northampton appears on pp.158-186, but this volume is of principal interest for its histories of neighboring towns. Some notes and bibliographies. Indexed.(FL,UM,HN)

Manning, Alice H. Meadow City Milestones: A Collection of Historical Sketches. Northampton, 1987. Thirty-six vignettes of Northampton history originally written for the Daily Hampshire Gazette.(FL,HN)

O'Connell, James C., ed. The Pioneer Valley Reader. Stockbridge, Mass., 1995. A collection of poetry and prose from three centuries of writing on the Connecticut River Valley.

Emrick, Robert P. Leeds: A Village Within The City of Northampton, Massachusetts. Compiled by James M. Parsons. Northampton, 1999. Leeds resident Emrick's 1941 history, transcribed and indexed by local historian James Parsons.

Lockwood, Allison. Finding Paradise: Northampton, Massachusetts, 1654-1861. Northampton, 2004Essays on local history, published by Daily Hampshire Gazette. Paperback, Illustrations, bibliography, index.

Churches

Dwyer, Margaret C. Centennial History of St. Mary of the Assumption Church, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1866-1966. South Hackensack, N.J., 1966. The history of Roman Catholicism in Northampton begins in 1834 with the celebration of the first mass and culminates in the building of St. Mary's, 1885-1889. Appendix lists early pastors, curates and parishioners.(FL,HN)

First Parish, Northampton: Meeting Houses and Ministers from 1653 to 1878. Northampton, 1878. Good historical and architectural detail. Contains biographical sketches of the ministers.(SC,FL)

Lawton, Edward M., Jr. The Sesquicentennial History of the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, 1825-1975. Northampton, 1975. Well-researched study backed by notes and bibliography. Of particular interest is the account of the Free Congregational Society of Florence and its famed Cosmian Hall.(FL,UM,HN)

Wilbur, Ruth E. and C. Keith Wilbur. Bid Us God Speed: The History of the Edwards Church of Northampton, Massachusetts, 1833-1983. Canaan, N.H., 1983. Summarizes chronologically the ministries of the nineteen pastors over a 150-year span. Index. (FL,SC,HN)

Solomon Stoddard

Coffman, Ralph J. Solomon Stoddard. Boston, 1978. Stoddard's fame as a revivalist spread through New England. Notes, selected bibliography, index. Appendices include the Stoddard family tree, lists of the Northampton oligarchy 1661-1726, and a useful biographical glossary.(UM)

Gura, Philip F. "Preparing the Way for Stoddard: Eleazer Mather's 'Serious Exhortation' to Northampton." New England Quarterly 57(1984):240-249. Increase Mather's haughty brother was the first minister of Northampton. At his early death in 1669, he left a badly splintered community. Part of the problem lay in his overly severe criticism of what he preceived as the elders' moral failure and his refusal to allow a more liberal admission policy. Footnotes.(UM)

Stuart, Robert L."'Mr.Stoddard's Way': Church and Sacraments in Northampton." American Quarterly 24(1972):243-253. Despite what has been commonly believed, there was little difference between the views of Stoddard and his grandson on the issue of communion to all, whether predestined or not. Footnotes.(UM)

Walsh, James P. "Solomon Stoddard's Open Communion: A Reexamination." New England Quarterly 43(1970):97-114. Attempts to explain Stoddardism (open communion to almost every one)as part of Stoddard's Presbyterianism and zeal to slow the declension of New England religion. Cites earlier Stoddard literature. Footnotes.(FL,UM)

Jonathan Edwards

Marsden, George M. Jonathan Edwards, A Life Yale University Press, 2003. 615 pages. Comprehensive bibliography. index.  The current standard in Edwards scholarship.

Abelove, Henry. "Jonathan Edwards's Letter of Invitation to George Whitefield." William and Mary Quarterly 3d ser. 29(1972):487-489. Edwards wrote 12 Feb. 1739/40 inviting Whitefield to preach at Northampton, hoping he would stop the decline of piety in Edwards's congregation. (UM)

Conforti, Joseph. Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition and American Culture. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1995.  Edwards' influence on the second Great Awakening and on the Colonial Revival in America.

Dodds, Elisabeth D. Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. Philadelphia, 1971. Semi-fiction: a thinly documented biography of Sarah Pierrepont Edwards, using largely secondary sources. No notes or index.(FL, HN)

Edwards, Jonathan. A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton and the Neighboring Villages of New-Hampshire in New England.In a Letter to the Reverend Dr. Benjamin Colman of Boston. Written by the Reverend Mr. Edwards, Minister of Northampton, on Nov.6 1736. And published, with a Large Preface, by Dr. Watts and Dr. Guyse. Edinburgh, 1738. Edwards explains how he awakened the souls of parishioners who had slid backwards during the last years of Stoddard's ministry.(FL,SC)

Gura, Philip F. "Sowing for the Harvest:William Williams and the Great Awakening." Journal of Presbyterian History 56(1978):326-341. Rev. William Williams of Hatfield, although of an evangelical bent, sided with his nephew Jonathan Edwards in several theological controversies. Footnotes. (UM)

Ellison, Julie. "The Sociology of 'Holy Indifference': Sarah Edwards' Narrative." American Literature 56 (1984):479-495. Examines the second religious conversion of Jonathan Edwards's wife Sara in 1742. Finds discrepancies in Jonathan's and Sara's stories and concludes her conversion rose "out of a struggle to subdue her own ambition and the ambivalence, fear and envy aroused by her social situation." Footnotes.(UM)

Gillett, E.H. "Jonathan Edwards, and the Occasion and Result of His Dismission from Northampton." Historical Magazine 2nd ser.1(1867):333-338. On the second thoughts of Joseph Hawley and other elders in dismissing Jonathan Edwards. Date of this essay is an indicator of how long historians have been discussing this issue. Footnotes.(UM)

Grant, Leonard T. "A Preface to Jonathan Edwards' Financial Difficulties." Journal of Presbyterian History 45(1967): 27-32. Edwards's financial problems during the 1740s were precipitated by an extravagant life style and the needs of a growing family. Author discovered a loan note in Edwards's handwriting. Footnotes.(UM)

Johnson, Thomas H. "Jonathan Edwards and the 'Young Folk' Bible." New England Quarterly 5(1932):37-54. Provides documentation in the "immoral book" controversy of 1764, identifying the book as Aristotle's Legacy, not Fielding's Pamela as Trumbull suggested. Lists the 22 culprits, witnesses and one adult named by Edwards. Footnotes. (UM)

Main, Gloria. "The Good Shepherd and His Wandering Flock." Reviews in American History 9(1981):464-468. A critical review of Patricia Tracy's Jonathan Edwards.(UM)

Marsden, George M. Jonathan Edwards: A Life. New Haven, 2003.

Miller, Perry. Jonathan Edwards. New York, 1949. Miller interprets Edwards's intellectual and religious ideology, as well as the personalities and internal conflict of his Northampton congregation. Note on sources. Index.(FL,UM)

Sponseller, Edwin. Northampton and Jonathan Edwards. Faculty Monograph Series VI, No.1. Shippensburg, Pa., 1966. A clergyman's lecture, portraying Edwards in the traditional way.(FL)

Stein, Stephen. "'For Their Spiritual Good': The Northampton, Massachusetts Prayer Bids of the 1730s and 1740s." William and Mary Quarterly 3d ser.37(1980):261-285. Petitions for prayers, written by Northampton parisioners are preserved in Edwards's papers. They tell much of the attitudes toward death, illness and religious practice of individuals who may otherwise have left no written record of their existence. Footnotes.(UM)

Tracy, Patricia J. "Jonathan Edwards, Pastor: Minister and Congregation in the Eighteenth-Century Connecticut Valley." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1977. Close examination of Edwards's Northampton ministry, explains his relationship with his parisioners and how he battled them over money, discipline and admission. Footnotes and bibliography.(UM)

Tracy, Patricia J. Jonathan Edwards:Religion and Society in Eighteenth-Century Northampton. New York, 1980. Unfortunately for Edwards, his congregation measured him against his grandfather Stoddard. Based on her Ph.D. dissertation, the author examines why Edwards took a path his congregation refused to follow and examines the demography and attitudes of his flock. List of manuscript sources, footnotes, index.(UM,SC,FL)

Wallace, Ethel. "A Colonial Parson's Wife: Sarah Pierrepont Edwards, 1710-1758." Review and Expositor 47(1950):41-56. Abstract in Writings in American History. On her married life with Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Stockbridge and Princeton. (May not be available locally)

Westbrook, Robert. "Social Criticism and the Heavenly City of Jonathan Edwards." Soundings 59 (1976). Edwards tried to make his congregation a prototype for his social vision of a post-millenial "beautiful world." (UM)

Winslow, Ola E. Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758: A Biography. New York, 1941. A straightforward biography, with considerable detail on Edwards's ministry in Northampton. Notes, a good bibliography up to 1941 and an index. (FL,UM)

Native Americans

Salisbury, Neal. Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500-1643. New York, 1982.

Simmons, William S. Spirit of New England Tribes: Indian History and Folklore, 1620-1984. Hanover, N.H., 1986.

Wilbur, Keith C. Land of the Nonotucks: Their History and Pen Sketches. Northampton, 1987. A popular account of the Nonotuck Indian culture as encountered by Northampton's first whites.(FL,HN)

Early Colonial Period

Benes, Peter, ed. The Bay and the River, 1600-1900. The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife Annual Proceedings Vol. VI. Boston, 1982.

Demos, John P. Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England. New York, 1982.

Demos, John P. The Unredeemed Captive. New York, 1994. Story of the 1704 raid on Deerfield by the Canadian French and Indians, and particularly about six-year-old Eunice Williams, daughter of the Rev. John Williams, who chose to live with her captors.

Foster, Mary C. "Hampshire County, Massachusetts, 1729-1754: A Covenant Society in Transition." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1967. Examines the decline of the covenant society in Hampshire County. Factors of change included increasing worldiness and theological divisions. Footnotes and bibliography. (FL)

Goldstein, Amy G. "Another Look at the Society of Seventeenth-Century Northampton, Massachusetts: The Slander and Witchcraft Trials of Mary Parsons (1656-1679)." Honors thesis, Smith College, 1978. A well-researched study of the witchcraft trial and its significance in Northampton history. Footnotes and bibliography. (HN)

The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut River Valley, 1635-1820. Hartford, 1985.

Innes, Stephan C., et al. Early Settlement in the Connecticut Valley. Deerfield, Mass., 1984.

Lepore, Jill. The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity. New York, 1998.

Mank, Russell W., Jr. "Family Structure in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1654-1729." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Denver, 1975. The nuclear family was the foundation of the community. Over 100 families were identified during the first 75 years of its history. Demography and family structure are based on files of the city clerk and on wills and inventories. Footnotes and bibliography. (FL,UM)

Miller, Marla. "Gender, Artisanry, and Craft Tradition in Early New England: The View Through the Eye of the Needle." William & Mary Quarterly (October, 2003).

Parsons, Gerald J., comp. The Parsons Family, Descendants of Cornet Joseph Parsons (1618-1683)...Through His Grandson Jonathan Parsons(1693-1782). Baltimore, 1984. Of most interest is the thoroughly researched and referenced study of the first three generations of the Parsons, placing them in context of Northampton history.(FL,UM,HN)

Romer, Robert H. Slavery in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts. Florence, Massachusetts: Levellers Press, 2009. Robert Romer presents a "snapshot" of slavery, choosing a moment - 1752 - and a place - the main street of Deerfield, Massachusetts - to present detailed information about the slaves who lived in that place at that time - and their owners. Some twenty-five slaves belonging to fifteen different owners lived on that mile-long street in 1752. In chapter five, Romer takes a quick look at slavery in thirteen other towns in the Connecticut Valley to demonstrate that slavery was pervasive throughout the area.

Rota, Tiziana. "Marriage and Family Life in Northampton, Massachusetts: A Demographic Study, 1690-1750." Master's thesis, Mount Holyoke College, 1975. The author "reconstitutes" the family structure of Northampton colonial folk and reached some conclusions as to the family's attitudes toward birthing, parenting, vocational training and marriage. Footnotes and bibliography, the latter useful for identifying primary sources. (MH)

Williams, Solomon. Historical Sketch of Northampton. From Its First Settlement, in a Sermon Delivered...April 13, 1815. Northampton, 1815. Focuses on the early settlers' conflict with Indians and the succession of Congregational ministers, including Williams himself. (FL,SC,HN)

Late Colonial and Early National Period

Brown, Francis. Joseph Hawley, Colonial Radical. New York, 1931. A scholarly treatment of Hawley by a historian and Northampton native. Footnotes, bibliography, and index. (UM,SC,FL,HN)

Brown, Francis. "The Law Career of Major Joseph Hawley." New England Quarterly 4(1931): 482-508. Describes the Northampton lawyer's career in the provincial bar from 1749 until the Revolution. Footnotes. (FL,UM)

Brown, Francis. "Shays's Rebellion." American Historical Review 36 (1931): 776-778. Reproduces a letter dated April 16, 1782, written by Joseph Hawley to Ephraim Wright, describing the recent mob action at Northampton. As Brown comments, Hawley vividly protrays the discontent leading to Shays's Rebellion. Footnotes. (FL,UM,SC)

Clune, Mary. "The Life, Work, and Letters of Joseph Hawley." Master's thesis, Smith College, 1917. Exhaustively researched study: includes 17 political letters of Hawley. Footnotes and bibliography. (SC)

Dwight, Timothy. Travels in New England and New York. 4 vols. Reprint edition, ed. Barbara Solomon. Cambridge, Mass., 1969. Original edition, London, 1823. Dwight, a son of Northampton, became a leader in New England society of the early national period. He describes how Northampton evolved from a frontier settlement to a literate society with a budding culture by 1810. Footnotes by the editor. (FL,UM,SC)

Gross, Robert A., ed. In Debt to Shays: The Bicentennial of an Agrarian Insurrection. Charlottesville, Va., 1991.

King, Titus. Narrative of Titus King of Northampton, Mass., 1755-1758. Hartford, 1938. There is nothing in the narrative related to Northampton except for King's reception upon his return from captivity.(FL,UM,HN)

Nobles, Gregory. Divisions Throughout the Whole: Politics and Society in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, 1740-1775. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. An outgrowth of the author's Ph.D. dissertation, this study analyzes changes in conditions and political power in Hampshire County in the years before the Revolution. Notes, bibliography, and index.(FL,UM,SC)

Nobles, Gregory. "Politics and Society in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, 1740-1775: The Rural West on the Eve of the Revolution." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1979. The period 1740-1776 was unstable in Hampshire County: ecclesiastical disorder, dramatic population increase, with resulting change in political leaders. Footnotes and bibliography.(FL,UM)

Pomeroy, Seth. The Journals and Papers of Seth Pomeroy, Sometime General in the Colonial Service. Ed. Louis E. DeForest. Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York, Publication no.38. New York, 1926. Pomeroy's journal and correspondence much of this military man and other Northamptonians involved with him in struggles with the French and British. Footnotes and index of names. (FL,UM,HN)

Pomeroy, Seth. The Journal of Seth Pomeroy of Northampton, Massachusetts, Kept in the Years 1745, 1755 and 1764. Facsimile copy, edited by Joseph Donahue. Northampton: The Forbes Library, 2002. A daily record of campaigns against the French and Indians at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia and Crown Point, New York. Includes a brief record of road construction in Northampton.

Richards, Leonard L. Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle. Philadelphia, 2002. Using public records and other primary sources, the author examines the rebellion's participants, causes and impact.

Silverman, Kenneth. Timothy Dwight. New York, 1969.

Szatmary, David. Shays' Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection. Amherst, Mass., 1980.

Webb, Anne Baxter. "On the Eve of Revolution: Northampton, Massachusetts, 1750-1775." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1976. Describes life just prior to the Revolution. Demography, social status and economic activity are analyzed

Social and Literary Culture

Bliss, Theodore. Theodore Bliss, Publisher and Bookseller: A Study of Character and Life in the Middle Period of the XIX Century. Ed. Arthur A. Bliss. Northampton, 1941. Memoir of Northampton native. His career as a bookseller was in Philadelphia but he spent his boyhood and apprenticeship in Northampton, on pp.3-41 he describes social life in town from 1822-1843.

Bridgman, S.E. "Northampton." New England Magazine new ser.21 (1899-1900): 581-604. Anecdotal and biographical sketch of Northampton's literati, teachers and benefactors.(FL,UM,HN)

Briggs, Caroline. Reminiscences and Letters of Caroline C. Briggs. Ed. George S. Merriam. Boston and New York, 1897. The author warmly narrates her nearly idyllic childhood in Northampton of the 1830s and 1840s, as a daughter of the town jailer, "Mr.Clapp", and writes of her "little band of Unitarians." (FL,SC)

Butcher, Philip. George W. Cable: The Northampton Years. New York, 1959. Focuses on this Southern writer's residence in Northampton in the 40 years after 1884, and particularly the Home Culture Club, a national organization he organized along with his associate Adelene Moffat. Clarifies the unpleasant controversy over his discharge of Miss Moffat in 1907.(FL,UM,SC,HN)

Clark, Solomon. Antiquities, Historicals and Graduates of Northampton. Northampton, 1882. Old Northampton homesteads, its college graduates and professionals. Biographical and genealogical data up to 1882. Index.(FL,UM,SC,HN)

Cobb, Elizabeth. "Intellectual History of Northampton in the 1840s." Honors thesis, Smith College, 1932. A critical analysis of Northamptonians' attitudes in the 1840s toward religion, education, experimental reforms, literature, health fads, art and music. Exceptional work for an undergraduate. Footnotes and bibliography. (FL,SC)

Ellis, Arthur B. ed. Memoirs of Rufus Ellis, Including Selections from his Journal and Letters. Boston, 1891. A minister in Northampton's Unitarian Society, Rev. Ellis's letters tell much of the town's society and culture in the middle of the nineteenth century. (FL)

Flower, Dean. Henry James in Northampton: Visions and Revisions. Northampton, 1971. On James's 1905 lecture at Smith College. Flower concludes that James's 1864 youthful residence in the town left a deep and lasting impression on him. (FL,SC)

Flower, Dean. "The View from Prospect House: With Ten Photographs of Henry James by Katherine McClellan." Massachusetts Review 26(1985): 217-232. In 1864 Henry James came to take the waters in Northhampton. He found the place vulgar and provincial, although a good spot to write. Returning in 1905 for a lecture, he was only slightly more kindly.(UM)

Huntington, Charles. "Diary and Letters of Charles P. Huntington." Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings 57(1924): 244-277. Some papers of Judge Huntington of Northampton and Boston for period 1831-1834. Informal commentary on local politics. (UM)

Lesley. Susan I. Recollections of My Mother, Mrs. Anne Jean Lyman of Northampton. Being a Picture of Domestic and Social Life in New England in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. Boston, 1899. Reflects the genteel social life of an intellectual and liberal family in Northampton during the first part of the nineteenth century. A useful source. Index. (FL,SC,HN)

Miller, Anne. Recollections of James Russell Trumbull Historian of Northampton, Massachusetts. Smith College Studies in History, vol.7. Northampton, 1922. Selected letters and journal entries of Trumbull, sentimentally edited by his niece, who also outlines his newspaper career, indexing of the Judd Manuscripts and the writing of History of Northampton. Index. (FL,UM,SC,HN)

"Three Glimpses of a New England Village." Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 136(1884):646-656. Among other impressions, an anonymous English traveler was struck by the enterprising spirit of Northampton's "maiden ladies" in the 1880s. (UM)

Tyler, Henry M. The Beginnings of the Northampton Social and Literary Club. Northampton, 1925. Historical sketch of "The Club", founded in 1862, whose membership was drawn from the most prominent professional men of the town, including ex-President Coolidge. Includes membership list to date. (FL)

Wright, Catherine S. "An Intellectual History of Northampton, Massachusetts, in the 1870s." Honors thesis, Smith College, 1942. Studies the effects of industrialization upon social and intellectual life in the 1870s. The author's primary source was the Hampshire Gazette. Footnotes and bibliography. (FL)

Sylvester Judd

Hall, Arethusa, ed. Memorabilia: From the Journals of Sylvester Judd of Northampton, Mass., 1809-1860. Northampton, 1882. Journal excerpts selected by Judd's sister-in-law serve as an autobiography of the veteran compiler. (FL)

Hathaway, Richard D. Sylvester Judd's New England. University Park, Pa. and London, 1981. A scholarly look at Sylvester Judd, Jr., the Maine Unitarian minister born in Westhampton. Chapter V, "Northampton in the 1820s," provides an interesting profile of the elder Judd, the Judd family and their position in the Old Church-Unitarianism schism. Notes and bibliography. (FL,SC)

Judd, Sylvester. Selected Papers from the Sylvester Judd Manuscript. Edited by Gregory Nobles and Herbert Zarov. Northampton, 1976. Reproduces a small but significant fraction of the Judd Manuscript. Topics addressed include: town and country, law and order, religion, family life, customs and traditions, the cost of living, medicine, wealth and its distribution, war and revolution. Includes the editors's evaluation of Judd as a scholar. Editors's notes. (FL,SC,HN)

Nineteenth Cenutry Descriptions

Bridgman, Thomas, comp. Inscriptions on the Gravestones...with Brief Annals of Northampton. Northampton, 1850. In addition to the epitaphs in Northampton cemetaries, Bridgman added a chronology of events up to 1850, a list of the original land grants, and a copy of the deed from the Indians.

Gere, Henry S. Reminiscences of Old Northampton: Sketch of the Town as it Appeared from 1840 to 1850. Northampton, 1902. Description, meticulously detailed, as remembered by an editor many years later.(FL,UM,SC,HN)

Kneeland, Frederick N. Drives in Northampton and Vicinity With Maps. Northampton, 1888. A descriptive guide for excursionists. (FL,UM,SC,HN)

Kneeland, Frederick N. Northampton, the Meadow City. Northampton, 1894. Valuable for its excellent photography of Northampton in the Gay Nineties. (UM,SC,FL,HN)

Slavery and Abolition

Allen, William. An Address, Delivered at Northampton Mass., on the Evening of October 29, 1854. Northampton, 1855. Historical sketch. Appendix documents anti-slavery attitude of Edwards, a slaveholder. (FL,UM,HN)

Gilbert, Olive. Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a Bondswoman of Olden Time. Emancipated by the New York Legislature in the Early Part of the Present Century with a History of Her Labors and Correspondence Drawn from Her Book of Life. Chicago, 1970. Reprint of 1875 edition. Originally published by a white friend, this is an oddly organized semi-biography. Includes an account of Sojourner Truth's appearance at a Northampton camp meeting and of her reaction to the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. (FL,UM)  

Karcher, Carolyn L. The First Woman of the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Marie Child. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1994. A look at the life and world of author and social reformer Lydia Marie Child (1802-1880). Chapter 11 focuses on her and her husband's years in Northampton: their anti-slavery activities, failed sugar beet venture, and their impressions of the town.

Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol. New York, 1996.

Porter, Dorothy B. "Anti-slavery Movement in Northampton." Negro Historical Bulletin 24(1960): 33-34,41. A review of black history in Northampton from the time of its earliest black residents. Making the city an important abolitionist center were reformers like Sojourner Truth, Charles C. Burleigh, David Lee Child and Lydia Maria Child.(UM)

Sampson, Myra M. A History of the Watson Family, Eminent in Northampton, 1860-1948. Northampton, 1969. This family history begins in 1860 with the resettlement in Northampton of an Alabama slaveholder, Henry Watson, Jr. In conflict with the community, the family fled to Europe during the Civil War. Afterward, it became prominent in Northampton society.(FL,UM,SC,HN)

Washington, Margaret. Sojourner Truth's America. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009.

Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War Against Slavery. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. First published in 1969 by The Press of Case Western Reserve University. Born in Northampton, abolitionist and businessman Tappan(1788-1873)was a founder of the American Anti-Slavery Association and prominent in the Amistad case.

The Northampton Association of Education and Industry

Bestor, Arthur E., Jr. "Fourierism in Northampton: a Critical Note." New England Quarterly 13(1940): 110-122. On the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. Author presents evidence that the NAEI was not properly a Fourierist (Socialist) community. Footnotes. (UM)

Clark, Christopher. The Communitarian Moment: The Radical Challenge of the Northampton Association. Ithaca, N.Y., 1995.

Clark, Christopher and Kerry W. Buckley, eds. Letters from an American Utopia: The Stetson Family and the Northampton Association, 1843-47. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004. Brings together seventy-five recently rediscovered letters of the Stetson family, members of the Association from 1843 to 1847. The correspondence details the lives of "ordinary people struggling to uphold common ideals in challenging circumstances."

McBee, Alice E. From Utopia to Florence: The Story of a Transcendentalist Community in Northampton, Mass., 1830-1852. Smith College Studies in History, vol.32. Northampton, 1947. A highly detailed treatment of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, fully documented with footnotes and bibliography. The author suggests that once the dreamers left, the plain folk could not keep the dream alive. Recent scholars may disagree with author's interpretation of the association's ideology. (UM,SC,FL,HN)

Noyes, John H. History of American Socialism. Philadelphia, 1870. Reprinted, New York, 1961.

Stebbins, Giles. Upward Steps of Seventy Years. New York, 1890. A Hatfield youth spent a year at the NAEI, many years later he recalled his experiences with interesting details. (FL,SC)

War

Blight, David W., ed. When This Cruel War is Over: The Civil War Letters of Charles Harvey Brewster. Amherst, Ma., 1992.

Gilfillan, James and Herbert Riley. Northampton in the Spanish-American War. Easthampton, 1899. Describes exploits of Northampton's Company I and provides its roster. (UM,SC,FL,HN)

Industrial and Economic Development

"America's Most Famous Toothbrush." Industry 11 (1946, July):15-18. Historical sketch of hairbrush and toothbrush manufacturing in Florence. Industry is an organ of Massachusetts industrial concerns. (UM)

Bush, Gregory W. Lord of Attention: Gerald Stanley Lee and the Crowd Metaphor in Industrializing America. Amherst, 1991.

Camposeo, James M. "The History of the Canal System Between New Haven and Northampton (1822-1847)." Historical Journal of Western Massachusetts 6(1977, no.1):37-53. Outlines the building of the canal and its economic failure. Footnotes. (UM)

Clark, Christopher. The Roots of Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts, 1780-1860. Ithaca, N.Y., 1990.

Dean, Charles J. "The Mills of Mill River." Unpublished manuscript, 1935. Although representing much work, lacks any documentation. May provide research clues. (FL)

Freeman, Phyliss M. "Industrial and Labor Developments in the City of Northampton, Massachusetts, 1898-1930." Master's thesis, Smith College, 1931. A management-labor study, based on interviews with 60 union and company individuals. Conditions were found to be better than in larger centers, but only as long as industry was locally owned. Author had no access to union and company records. Footnotes and bibliography. (FL,SC)

A Full and Graphic Account of the the Terrible Mill River Disaster, Caused by the Breaking of the Reservoir in Hampshire County, Mass. May 16, 1874, With Full Details of the Loss of Life and Property at Williamsburg, Skinnerville, Haydenville and Leeds. Springfield, Mass., 1874. Authoritative and contemporary account, drawn from the Springfield Republican. (FL,UM, HN) In UM listing, author catalogued as Wood, George H., pub.

Good, Gretchen. "The History of Industries in Florence, Massachusetts." Seminar paper, Smith College, 1985. In addition to the familiar stories of the silk factories and the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, the author draws on interviews and newspaper files to portray Florence's smaller industries, suppliers, hotels, business blocks. Notes, bibliography and photographs. (HN)

Hannay, Agnes. A Chronicle of Industry on the Mill River. Smith College Studies in History, vol. 21. Northampton, 1935-1936. A study of industrial development, from a 1658 grist mill to the devastation of the Great Depression. Unlike major centers such as Lowell, Mill River industry was controlled by local businessmen who had no need for outside capital. Footnotes, bibliography and index. (FL,UM,SC,HN)

Maynard, C. Edgar. "How the Plastics Industry Got Started Here." Industry 19 (1954, June):11-12. Northampton's Pro-phy-lac-tic Brush Co. and the early beginnings of the plastics industry. (UM)

Mensel, Ernst H., comp. Northampton and the Northampton Institution for Savings, 1842-1942. Northampton, 1942. A memorial booklet with sketches of the institution's officers since 1842. (UM,SC,FL,HN)

Myles, Ann M. "Northampton in the Civil War Era." Master's thesis, Smith College, 1954. Author concludes that Northampton's industrial expansion during the Civil War was only incidentally influenced by the war. Footnotes and bibliography. (FL,SC)

O'Shea, Peter. "Famous Industries of Northampton." Western New England 3 (1913): 429-434. Describes the status of town's industrial concerns in 1913. Illustrated.(FL,UM)

Pabst, Margaret R. Agricultural Trends in the Connecticut Valley Region of Massachusetts, 1800-1900. Smith College Studies in History, vol.26. Northampton, 1940-1941. As Northampton is classified as an industrial town, compared to the lowland and hill agricultural towns, it is not specifically discussed. However the study has insights into how Northampton fit into regional development.(FL,UM,SC)

"Pro-phy-lac-tic Brush Company." Industry 5 (1939, Dec.): 7-10. A short historical review of the toothbrush made in Florence since the 1880s.(UM)

Savoie, Ronald. "The Silk Industry in Northampton." Historical Journal of Western Massachusetts 5 (1977, no.2): 21-32. Contrasts the history of the two silk companies, the popular locally-owned Coticelli and the "big business" outsider, the Belding Brothers. Footnotes. (UM)

Sharpe,Elizabeth M. In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874. Free Press, 2004.

Immigration, Family, and Social Histories

Camposeo, James M. "Anti-Catholic Prejudice in Early New England: The Daley-Halligan Murder Trial." Historical Journal of Western Massachusetts 6 (1978, no.2):5-17. Effects of religious bias in a Northampton trial of two Irish Catholic immigrants. Highlights efforts of Father John Cheverus. Footnotes. (UM)

Clark, Adrienne G."Who Murdered Marcus Lyon?" New-England Galaxy 19 (1977, No.2): 15-21. Journalistic account of the 1806 Daley-Halligan murder trial, without documentation. (UM)

Doherty, Robert. Society and Power: Five New England Towns, 1800-1860. Amherst, 1977. The author examines five New England towns representing three types: hilltown, market-administration, and seaport. Geographic mobility, wealth distribution, social status and political power are discussed. With tables and footnotes. (FL,UM)

Garner, Lynne C. "Trends and Correlates in Mortality: Northampton, Massachusetts from 1870 to 1900." Master's thesis, University of Massachusetts, 1982. A statistical study in social history. Somewhat surprisingly, the author found that the foreign-born had lower death rates than the native, but had no ready explanation. Footnotes and bibliography. (UM)

Katra, Joseph R., Jr. "A Survey of the Polish Population of Northampton, 1889-1953." Honors thesis, Amherst College, 1953. Polish immigrants came to Northampton as contracted farmhands and gradually became owners of farms. Closely examines their religious, social, political, occupational and educational life. Based on primary sources, including oral interview. Footnotes and bibiography. (FL)

Millett, William W. "The Irish and Mobility Patterns in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1846-1883." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa, 1980. Author uses newspaper files to examine the problems of Irish immigrants in Northampton, and uses manuscript census records to establish the position of Irish in occupational and residential patterns. Endnotes and bibliography. (FL)

Slaughter, Lynn. "The Impact of Immigration on the History of Northampton, Massachusetts." Honors thesis, Smith College, 1969. Using primary sources, the author examines how Northampton natives reacted to immigration, and how the immigrants and their children adjusted. Endnotes and bibliography. (SC,FL)

Sullivan, Robert. "The Murder Trial of Halligan and Daley - Northampton, Massachusetts, 1806." Massachusetts Law Quarterly 49 (1964): 211-224. The author, a Massachusetts Superior Court justice, argues that the trial's outcome was less influenced by popular anti-Catholic feelings than by the political ambitions of the prosecuting attorney and the bias of the presiding justices. No documentation. (UM)

Wilcox, Jerome E. "Tenacious Families, Mighty Forces: Household Structure in Hamden and Hampshire Counties, Massachusetts, During the Period of Industrialization." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, 1981. A sociologist's exhaustive demographic study of the two counties from 1850 to 1880. Presents demographic differences between ethnic groups. (UM)

Wilcox, Jerry and Hilda H. Golden. "Prolific Immigrants and Dwindling Natives? Fertility Patterns in Western Massachusetts, 1850-1880." Journal of Family History 7 (1982): 265-288. Examines fertility differences in Hampden and Hampshire counties, based on censuses. By 1880 native fertility rates were remarkably low, especially in the top and middle classes. Footnotes. (UM)

Twentieth Century Descriptions

Atwood, William T. "Northampton, the Meadow City and Capital of Hampshire County." New England Magazine new ser. 43 (1910-1911):301-315. An affectionate description of the city and its institutions in 1910.(UM,HN)

Carpenter, Albert H., "Northampton, Past and Present." Western New England 1(1911): 297-318. The October 1911 issue describes the city's culture and industry. Many photographs document Northampton's streets and buildings as they appeared in 1911. Besides Carpenter's essay, there is an informative article on Northampton's industries.(FL,UM,HN)

Conrad, Candy. "A Study of the Comparative Occupational Mobility of Five Ethnic Groups in Northampton, 1920-1962." Seminar paper, Smith College, 1969. Using Northampton poll tax records for 1920 and 1962, the author looks for upward mobility in five ethnic groups - Polish, Jewish, French, Irish and Italian - finding some patterns, but does not provide an interpretation. List of primary sources. (FL)

Delevingne, Lionel. Northampton: Reflections on Paradise. Photographs by Lionel Delevinge: Interviews by Faye S. Frail. Northampton, 1988. Through photographs and interviews, diverse people are presented as they are at this stage in Northampton history.(FL,UM,MH)

Hemenway, Herbert D. "The People's Institute of Northampton, Mass." Western New England 2(1912): 210-214. Cultural offerings of the institute in the year 1912.(UM)

Horwitz, Helen L. and Kathy Peiss, eds. Love Across the Color Line: The Letters of Alice Hanley to Channing Lewis. Amherst, 1996.

Kidder, Tracy. Hometown New York, 1999.

Knab, Frederick. Northampton of Today, Depicted by Pen and Camera. Northampton, 1902. Photography and text portrays Northampton's people, institutions and industries as they looked at the turn of the century. (SC,FL,UM,HN)

League of Women Voters. This is Northampton. Northampton, 1962. Sketches the historical background and evolution of Northampton's city government, and describes its political organization as it was in 1962. (FL,SC,HN)

Lockwood, Allison. Children of Paradise: A Northampton Memoir. Northampton, 1986. The author's personal history of culture and growing up in Northampton between the wars. (FL,UM,SC,HN)

Lockwood, Allison. Touched with Fire: An American Community in World War II. Northampton, 1993.

Plummer, Edgar. Calvin Coolidge Memorial Bridge, Official Souvenir and Tribute Book. Northampton, 1939. A short history of the bridge is included.(FL,UM,HN)

Warner, Charles. Representative Families of Northampton. Northampton, 1917. Sketches of the most elite families of Northampton in the pre-World War I era. (UM,SC,FL,HN)

Werth, Barry. The Scarlet Professor: Newton Arvin, a Literary Life Shattered by Scandal. New York: Random House, 2001. A biography of professor and literary critic Newton Arvin, whose secret life as a homosexual was exposed in a 1960 police raid on his Northampton apartment.

1904 Celebration

Committee of Publication for the City of Northampton. The Meadow City's Quarter-Millenial Book: A Memorial of the Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement of the Town of Northampton, Massachusetts, June 5th, 6th and 7th, 1904. Springfield, 1904. Documents illustrating how the city celebrated its 250th anniversary. Of some value for its depiction of the local scene at the time of the celebration. (UM,SC,FL,HN)

Hazen, C.D. Old Northampton: An Address...June 7, 1904. Cambridge, Mass., 1904. In an address at Smith College, one of its history professors commemorated Northampton's 250th anniversary and paid respects to its historical figures. (FL,SC,HN)

Calvin Coolidge

Buckley, Kerry W. "A President for the Great Silent Majority": Bruce Barton's Construction of Calvin Coolidge." New England Quarterly 76(2003, no.4).

Fuess, Claude M. Calvin Coolidge, the Man From Vermont. Hamden, Conn., 1965. Reprint of 1939 edition. Reputed to be the best biography of Coolidge. Footnotes, bibliography, and index. (FL,UM)

Lockwood, Allison. A President in a Two-Family House: Calvin Coolidge of Northampton. Northampton, 1988. An account of Coolidge's years in Northampton as captured in anecdotes, recollections and news photography. (HN)

McCoy, Donald R. Calvin Coolidge, the Quiet President. New York, 1967. A biography of the president, including descriptions of his life in Northampton, followed by an essay on selected sources, endnotes and index. (FL,UM)

Pease, Clifford A., Jr. Calvin Coolidge and His Family: An Annotated Bibliography. Rutland, Vt., 1987. A useful bibliography up to 1987 with critical annotations.(FL,UM)

Perry, Phillip M. "With Calvin Coolidge in Northampton." New England Galaxy 18(1977, no.3): 37-43. How Coolidge spent his retirement in Northampton. Includes some memories of his secretary, Herman Beaty, and his chauffeur, John Bukoski, but without providing sources.(UM)

Ross, Isabel. Grace Coolidge and her Era: The Story of a President's Wife. New York, 1962. A biography of Grace Coolidge (1879-1957) with a strong accent on her Northampton experiences: early teaching at the Clarke School, marriage to Calvin Coolidge, and life after the presidential term. Endnotes and index. (FL,HN)

Well, Susan Lewis. Calvin Coolidge: At Home in Northampton. Florence, Massachusetts: Collective Copies, 2009. This work of local history describes the thirtieth president's seven homes in Northampton, Massachusetts, the people he roomed with, and the neighbors he encountered - set within the context of the small New England city where they lived.

White, William A. A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge. New York, 1938. Editor William Allen White's evaluation of Coolidge, numerous references to his life in Northampton. Footnotes and index. (FL,UM)

Educational Institutions and Development

Horowitz, Helen L. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s. New York, 1984.

Jones, Virginia W. "The Development of the Education of Girls in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1654-1850." Master's thesis, Smith College, 1926. Up to the 1830s there was slow progress in the public education of women, although private "dame schools" flourished. By 1837, however, progressives won out, with the establishment of the High School for Girls. Drawn from primary sources. Footnotes and bibliography. (SC,FL)

Meehan, Frederick D. "The Growth and Development of the Parochial School System in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1891-1949." Master's thesis, Smith College, 1949. Meehan introduces his history of Northampton's parochial schools with a sketch of successive waves of Roman Catholic immigration: Irish, French Canadians, Polish, and Italian. He identifies reasons for immigration, what occupations they took up, and the neighborhoods in which they first settled. Almost entirely based on original sources. Bibliography. (SC,FL)

Story, Ronald, ed. Five Colleges, Five Histories. Amherst, 1992.

Smith College

Gordon, Sarah H. "Smith College Students: The First Ten Classes, 1879-1888." History of Education Quarterly 15 (1975,no.2): 147-168. Discusses the demography of the first years's classes and outlines the daily life of a student in the 1880s. (UM)

Hanscom, Elizabeth and Helen F. Greene. Sophia Smith and the Beginnings of Smith College. Northampton, 1926. Consists of a profile of Sophia Smith by Hanscom and the narrative of Dr. John M. Greene, the latter edited by Greene's daughter. As Greene, Sophia Smith's minister in Hatfield, had much to do with the founding of Smith College, his narrative constitutes an original source. (FL,UM)

Historical Handbook of Smith College. Northampton, 1932. History and photographs of some of Smith College's better known buildings. (UM,HN)

Lincoln, Eleanor T. and John A. Pinto. This, the House We Lived in: The Smith College Campus from 1871 to 1982. Northampton, 1983. History and architecture of Smith College's nearly 100 buildings, through text, photographs and maps. Index. (FL,UM,HN)

Lincoln, Eleanor T. Through the Grecourt Gates: Distinguished Visitors to Smith College, 1875-1975. Northampton, 1978. Smith College has been the magnet to attract many famous visitors to Northampton. Descriptions of the visits of those who came to lecture, give concerts and receive honorary degrees. (FL,UM,HN)

Mendenhall, Thomas C. Chance and Change in Smith College's First Century. Northampton, 1976. A commemorative address by the then president of Smith College. (FL,UM)

Rhees, Harriet C. Laurenus Clark Seelye, First President of Smith College. Boston and New York, 1929. His daughter portrays Seelye as "an old-fashioned gentleman", an administrator with strong covictions and a leader in almost every civic organization in Northampton. Index. (FL,UM,HN)

Seelye, Laurence C. The Early History of Smith College, 1871-1910. Boston and New York, 1923. The definitive history of the college up to 1910 by its first president. Includes a copy of Sophia Smith's will. Index. (FL,UM,HN)

Round Hill School

Bassett, John S. "The Round Hill School." American Antiquarian Society Proceedings new ser.27 (1917): 18-62. The early experiment in education by George Bancroft and Joseph Cogswell, 1823-1834, and why it failed. Footnotes. (FL,UM)

Blumenthal, Louise. "Round Hill and the Charity School: A Not So Distant Mirror." Ed.D., Boston University School of Education, 1982. From abstract, Dissertation Abstracts International 1983 43(8). Describes two contrasting institutions: Round Hill, a school for the sons of the nation's elite, and New York City's Charity School for the poor.

Cogswell, Joseph G. Life of Joseph Green Cogswell, As Sketched in His Letters. Ed. by Anna E. Ticknor. Cambridge, Mass., 1874. Cogswell's, school founder, years at the Round Hill School (1823-1834) are documented in his letters. Footnotes by editor. Index. (FL)

Ellis, George E. "Recollections of Round Hill School." Educational Review 1 (1891): 337-344. Significant original source material by a former student, consisting of commentary on school life and on the incompatibility of the congenial, popular Cogswell and the remote Bancroft. (UM)

Handlin, Lillian. George Bancroft: The Intellectual as Democrat. New York, 1984. Handlin portrays a more worldly young Bancroft than is usually presented. At Round Hill he was restless and quarrelsome both with his founding partner Cogswell, and his wife Sarah. Handlin focuses on his political life, beginning with his relationship to the Workingmen party of Northampton and his running for office in 1834. Notes and index. (FL)

Marr, Harriet W. "The Round Hill School for Boys, 1823-1833." Old-Time New England 49(1958): 49-55. Focuses on the curriculum. Notes. (UM)

Nye, Russel B. George Bancroft, Brahmin Rebel. New York, 1944. Bancroft, co-founder of the Round Hill School in 1823, was not a teacher at heart and eventually drifted toward scholarship, a move facilitated by his marriage into the wealthy Dwight family of Springfield. Bibliography and index. (FL)

Clarke School for the Deaf

Grosvenor, Lilian "Deaf Children Learn to Talk at Clarke School." National Geographic 107 (1955): 378-397. Illustrated article by the granddaughter of Alexander Graham Bell, who was personally involved with the school for 51 years. (FL)

Marvelli, Alan L. "An Historical Examination and Organizational Analysis of the Smith College - Clarke School for the Deaf Graduate Teacher Education Program." Ed.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, 1973. Detailed history of the school, and close examination from an educator's point of view. Footnotes and bibliography. (UM,SC)

Numbers, Mary E. My Words Fell on Deaf Ears: An Account of the First Hundred Years of the Clarke School for the Deaf, Narrated by a Teacher. Washington, D.C., 1974. Author came to Clarke School in 1918 and retired from there in 1963. Her book is a comprehensive history of the school up to 1974. With a useful bibliography of sources. (FL,UM,SC,HN)

Waite, Helen E. "100 Years of Silence." Volta Review 69 (1967): 118-125. A historical study, with brief sketches of three of its principals, Harriet Rogers, Caroline Yale and George Pratt. (FL,UM,SC)

Williams, Alice M. and John Blake, eds. Clarke School and Its Alumni, 1867-1947. Boston, 1947. Besides the alumni data compiled, this work includes a perceptive history of the school by John Blake, himself a graduate. (FL,UM)

Yale, Caroline A. Years of Building: Memoirs of a Pioneer in a Special Field of Education. New York, 1931. The author's memoir of her sixty years teaching. (FL,SC,HN)  

Buildings and Architecture

Committee on Historical Localities, comp. Historical Localities in Northampton. Northampton, 1904. Description of historic homes, buildings, etc., identified and located. (UM,SC,FL)

Cote, Richard C. "Isaac Damon's Northampton: An Essay in Townscape and Townplanning." Unpublished article, 1970. On Damon's early contribution to Northampton's architecture, 1811-1828. Endnotes and bibliography. (FL)

Cote, Richard C. "Rethinking the Early Greek Revival: The Success of Influences and the Failure of a Builder." Old-Time New England 64 (1974): 61-76. A Northampton carpenter-builder, Thomas Pratt, failed at his early (1826-1828) attempt at the Greek Revival portico house form. He was out of his element and without experience in the new style. Footnotes. (FL,UM,HN)

Cote, Richard C. "Thomas Pratt and the Greek Revival Architecture in Northampton, Mass.: A Study of New England Architecture, 1807-1832." A.B. thesis, Hampshire College, 1972. Pratt constructed homes while his contemporary, Isaac Damon, specialized in civic buildings. (HN)

Hayes, Marian. "Life and Architecture in the Connecticut Valley." Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1944. Northampton is well-represented in this dissertation. Covers 300 years of history and 300 miles of river. About 200 photographs. Structural and framing details. Footnotes and bibliography. (FL)

Hunt, Cynthia L. "William Fenno Pratt and the Development of Nineteenth-Century Northampton." Honors thesis, Smith College, 1977. 2 vols. Author concludes that Pratt had an astonishing impact on Northampton. He represented the transition between carpenter-builder and the trained professional. Includes 94 drawings and photographs. Footnotes and bibliography. (FL,SC,HN)

Kneeland, Harriet J. Some Old Northampton Homes. Northampton, 1909. Dates and details of old homes and who lived there.(FL,SC,HN)

MacDonald, William L. Northampton Massachusetts: Architecture and Buildings. Northampton, 1975. Demonstrates how Northampton's buildings reflect its changing styles, fads and culture. Illustrated by author. Reading list. (FL,UM,SC,HN)

Menke, William F. "William Fenno Pratt: Changing with the Times in Northampton, Massachusetts." Seminar paper, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, ca. 1975. Author pieces together clues as to the professional life of the architect-builder Pratt, the son of carpenter-builder Thomas Pratt. Presents research findings on the planning and erection of Pratt's civic and institutional buildings. (HN)

Merrill, David O. "Isaac Damon and the Architecture of the Federal Period in New England." Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1965. An erudite and exhaustive study of the life and times of Isaac Damon, the famed architect-builder of the Connecticut Valley. Well-illustrated, with footnotes and bibliography.(FL,HN)

Northampton Historical Society. The Parsons House of the Northampton Historical Society, Being Two Conflicting Accounts... Northampton, 1972. Reproduces papers with conflicting theories as to the dating and early history of the Parsons House proposed by Anna C. Bliss and Chauncey L. Parsons. (FL,HN)

Forbes Library

Harrison, Joseph L. Forbes Library: The Half-Century, 1894-1944, With a Sketch of Charles Edward Forbes. Northampton, 1945. Historical sketches of the Clarke and Forbes libraries. Interesting interior photographs of the Forbes as it appeared in 1945. Text refers to the annual trustees' reports for historical documentation. (FL,SC,HN)

Wikander, Lawrence E. Disposed to Learn: The First Seventy-Five Years of the Forbes Library. Northampton, 1972. An account of the founding, tenures of its librarians and its special collections. Index. (FL,SC)

Arts and Music

Dietz, Paula. "Katherine Elizabeth McClellan: An Essay." Massachusetts Review 25 (1984): 405-420. On the work of a remarkable Northampton photographer at the turn of the century. Reproductions of some of her work include two of her studio at 44 State Street. (UM)

Dozema, Marianne. Changing Prospects: The View from Mount Holyoke. Ithaca, N.Y., 2002.

Eliot, Samuel A., Jr. "The Municipal Theatre in Northampton." Theatre Arts 3 (1919):248-254. Blames the townspeople for the demise of the Northampton Players. (FL,UM)

Hale, Philip. "Musical and Theatrical Life in a New England Village in the Sixties." Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings 56 (1923): 335-343. A former resident's witty commentary on Northampton in the 1860s: its democracy, churchgoing, preaching, medicine, theatrical shows and music.(FL,UM)

Harrigan, Rita. "The Northampton Academy of Music: The First Municipal Theatre in the United States." Master's thesis, Smith College, 1949. Reviews the history of the Academy from its opening in 1891 to its failure in 1919. Includes sketch of founder, Edward H.R.Lyman. Footnotes and bibliography. (SC)

Hoppin, Martha. Arcadian Vales: Views of the Connecticut River Valley. Springfield, 1981.

Osterhout, Paul. "Music in Northampton, Massachusetts to 1820." Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1978. Around 1800 Northampton was an important and unique music publishing center. Study based on the Judd Manuscripts, early newspapers and the published music itself. (FL)

Science and Medicine in Northampton

Carson, Gerald. "Graham: The Man Who Made the Cracker Famous." New-England Galaxy 10 (1969, no.4):3-8. No notes. (UM)

Earle, Pliny. Memoirs of Pliny Earle, M.D., with Extracts from His Diary and Letters (1830-1892) and Selections from His Professional Writings (1839-1891). Ed. F.B. Sanborn. Boston, 1898. Dr. Earle was the second superintendent at Northampton State Hospital(1864-1885)and was considered the wise old man among early American psychiatrists. He created controversy with his protests against the practice of making overly rosy claims for cures of insanity, and the extravagance of institutional buildings. Index. (HN)

McCarthy, Katherine E. "Psychiatry in the Nineteenth Century: The Early Years of Northampton State Hospital." Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1974. Digest of author's abstract in Dissertation Abstracts International, 1975 35 (8). The social functions and internal structure of the Northampton Lunatic Hospital are described from its opening in 1858 to 1885. Author found most patients were young, single Irish women (not dangerous men) and that high rates of "lunacy" among Irish immigrants were not due to excessive drinking, as popularly thought. (May not be available in area libraries, may be obtained in microfilm or xerox copy from University Microfilms.)

Nissenbaum, Stephen. Sex, Diet, and Debility in Jacksonian America: Sylvester Graham and Health Reform. Chicago, 1980. Professor Nissenbaum, without accepting Graham's health theories, presents him sympathetically, not as a quaint eccentric but as a pioneering reformer with many of the same concerns over diet and living habits as we have today. Includes Graham's cranky semi-retirement in Northampton, 1839-1851. Footnotes and bibliography. (FL,UM,SC)

Porter, Dorothy B. "David Ruggles, 1810-1849: Hydropathic Practitioner." Journal of the National Medical Association 49(1957): 67-72, 130-134. The nearly blind, black abolitionist chose Northampton as a site for the first building erected exclusively for hydropathy. A well-researched biographical sketch with a detailed description of Ruggles's water cure, which earned a testimonial by William Lloyd Garrison, among others. Endnotes. (FL)

Powell, Lyman P. The Emmanuel Movement in a New England Town. New York, 1909. The rector of Northampton's St. John's Episcopal Church writes of his 1908-1909 experiment in psychotherapy treatment of insomniacs, neurotics and alcoholics, conducted by a physician-minister team. Notes, reading list and index. (FL,SC)

Sokolow, Jayme A. Eros and Modernization: Sylvester Graham. Health Reform, and the Origins of Victorian Sexuality in America. Rutherford, N.J., 1983. Graham's retirement in Northampton is briefly discussed. Footnotes.(FL,UM)

Sports and Recreation in Northampton

Turner, Brian and John S. Bowman. The Hurrah Game: Baseball in Northampton, 1823-1953. Northampton: Historic Northampton, 2002. A comprehensive, detailed accounting of the history of Northampton baseball, from the city's working-class neighborhoods of Florence and Bay State to its natural rivals up and down river, Brattleboro, Greenfield, Holyoke and Springfield.

Reference

Northampton Business Directory. Title varies: Northampton Business Directory and General Advertiser, Historical Register and General Directory, Directory and General Advertiser, Northampton Easthampton Directory. Place of publication varies. Some years not published. 1860-1988. The directory is a valuable research tool, containing a list of residents with their occupations, historical and descriptive sketches of many businesses, industries, institutions and hotels. The advertising section is a resource in itself. (FL,UM,SC,HN) Note: none of the collections are complete. Forbes Library has the most complete set. Smith and Historic Northampton have the rare 1860-1861 edition.

Gilmore, Barbara. A Puritan Town and Its Imprints: Northampton, 1786-1845. Northampton, 1942. A bibliography of books, pamphlets, sermons, newspapers, etc., published in Northampton, arranged chronologically. (UM,FL,MH,HN)

Historical Records Survey, Works Progress Administration. Index to Local News in the Hampshire Gazette, 1786-1937. 3 vols. Mimeographed. Boston, 1939. Introduction by Charles J. Dean provides a historical sketch of the Gazette itself. Part I: Northampton. Part II: Hampshire and Franklin counties. Part III: Personal. An invaluable resource. (FL,UM)