Cultivating a Past: Essays on the History of Hadley, Massachusetts

Notes on Contributors

contributors Martin Antonetti is the curator of rare books in the Mortimer Rare Book Room at Smith College, and he also teaches courses in the history of the book and in contemporary artist’s books for Smith’s Art Department. He has written and lectured on many aspects of these fields, including fine printing, the evolution of letterforms , bookbinding, and book collecting. Before coming to Smith College he was librarian of the Grolier Club in New York City, the country’s premiere organization for bibliophiles. He is also on the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Rare Book School and is currently vice president for publications of the American Printing History Association. He received his library degree from Columbia University, where he specialized in bibliography and special collections librarianship. Lynne Z. Bassett is an award-winning independent scholar and museum consultant , specializing in New England’s historic costume and textiles. She is a former curator of textiles and fine arts at Old Sturbridge Village and curator of collections at Historic Northampton. Her interest in the early clothing of the Connecticut River Valley extends from her experience as a researcher for the Wadsworth Atheneum’s 1985 exhibition The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635–1820. Ethan Carr was an assistant professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst when he undertook the research presented in his chapter. He is now a professor at the University of Virginia, where he teaches courses in landscape history, landscape architectural theory, and historic preservation , as well as design studios. Carr earned both his BA and MA in History of Art and Archaeology at Columbia University, and his MLA at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has also worked extensively with the National Park Service as a historical landscape architect. He is the author of Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture and the National Park Service, which received an American Society of Landscape Architecture award for research. While a resident of the Pioneer 359 Valley, Carr also put his scholarly expertise to work on behalf of the Town of Hadley, collaborating on a University of Massachusetts Public Service Endowment Grant to study the town common and Great Meadow, research that culminated in a report that helped residents draw attention to the historical significance of that landscape, which was subsequently listed among the Commonwealth’s most endangered places. Elizabeth S. Chilton received her PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1996; she was an assistant and then associate professor at Harvard University from 1996 to 2001 and is currently an associate professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research specialties include North American Indians, the archaeology of eastern North America , hunter-gatherers, the origins of agriculture, archaeological ceramics, geoarchaeology , and cultural resource management. Christopher Donta received his PhD from Bryn Mawr College in 1993 and is Senior Project Archaeologist at UMass Archaeological Services and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has conducted over 190 archaeological projects in New England, as well as archaeological research in the Southwest and Alaska, ranging from PaleoIndian sites to the historic period. James A. Freeman is a professor in the English Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A graduate of Amherst College and the University of Minnesota (PhD, 1968) his areas of specialty include British literature of the early nineteenth century, the Bible, and an array of subjects in popular culture, including American radio, Joan of Arc, and the material culture of gravestones in the United States, Europe, and Asia. His publications include “The Protestant Cemetery in Florence and Anglo-American Attitudes toward Italy” (Markers: Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies, 1993), “Milton’s Roman Connection: Giovanni Salzilli” (Milton Studies, 1984), and “The Roof Was Fretted Gold” (Comparative Literature, 1975). Peter Hardin was raised in Indiana and New York City. At Hampshire College, he discovered a passion for researching history that would last through a career in journalism. He ultimately became Washington correspondent for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where some of his favorite projects involved original historical 360 Notes on Contributors research. Hardin lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, with his wife, Karen MacPherson , and their two children Siobhan M. Hart is a graduate of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research focuses on New England...