We have a new site for our special collections! For the most complete and up-to-date catalog of our materials, please visit https://archives.forbeslibrary.org/.
The Hampshire Room for Special Collections contains thousands of images documenting local history, including images of farms, factories, shops, schools, and local residents both well known and anonymous. The Northampton image collection comprises prints, glass and film negatives, lantern slides, etchings and stereographs. Other collections include the Elbridge Kingsley, Robert Emrick and Walter Corbin Collections, and the Daily Hampshire Gazette negatives from 1954-2004.
These Images From the Archives allow you to search a portion of the library's special collections which have been digitized. If you have any questions about this collection, please contact us.
Featured Item
City Hall on Notification Day
City Hall of Northampton on Notification Day.
Featured Collection
Calvin Coolidge and his notification of his Vice-Presidential nomination
Notification Day, July 27, 1920
June 8-12, 1920 the Republican National Convention was held in Chicago and nominated Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding for President and Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge for Vice-President. The convention format at the time only included the 940 delegates and the candidates were not there to campaign, give speeches or accept the nomination at the convention. A committee of delegates would then do a hometown notification to the candidates. On July 27, 1920, a delegation led by Governor Edwin Morrow of Kentucky arrived at 21 Massasoit Street and notified Calvin Coolidge he was the Republican nominee for Vice President. The notification day event committee led by Smith College President Emeritus L. Clark Seylee organized band concerts, luncheons for the official delegates, a parade through downtown Northampton to the Coolidge home and then to Smith College’s Allen Field for formal ceremonies where Morrow delivered the speech on nomination and Coolidge delivered his speech of acceptance. The 1920 census population for Northampton was 21,951 and local newspapers estimated there were 15,000 people in town and due to the heat about 7000 spectators stayed in the open field for the ceremony. Harding and Coolidge were elected on November 2, 1920 and inaugurated on March 4, 1921.
Special thank you to Smith College Praxis Summer Internship Funding for a remote internship and Smith College archives for research assistance.
Exhibit created by Forbes Library Archivist Julie Bartlett Nelson and Eavan McNeil, Smith College class of 2022
June 8-12, 1920 the Republican National Convention was held in Chicago and nominated Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding for President and Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge for Vice-President. The convention format at the time only included the 940 delegates and the candidates were not there to campaign, give speeches or accept the nomination at the convention. A committee of delegates would then do a hometown notification to the candidates. On July 27, 1920, a delegation led by Governor Edwin Morrow of Kentucky arrived at 21 Massasoit Street and notified Calvin Coolidge he was the Republican nominee for Vice President. The notification day event committee led by Smith College President Emeritus L. Clark Seylee organized band concerts, luncheons for the official delegates, a parade through downtown Northampton to the Coolidge home and then to Smith College’s Allen Field for formal ceremonies where Morrow delivered the speech on nomination and Coolidge delivered his speech of acceptance. The 1920 census population for Northampton was 21,951 and local newspapers estimated there were 15,000 people in town and due to the heat about 7000 spectators stayed in the open field for the ceremony. Harding and Coolidge were elected on November 2, 1920 and inaugurated on March 4, 1921.
Special thank you to Smith College Praxis Summer Internship Funding for a remote internship and Smith College archives for research assistance.
Exhibit created by Forbes Library Archivist Julie Bartlett Nelson and Eavan McNeil, Smith College class of 2022
More Featured Collections
Featured Exhibit
150 Years of Northampton Photography
150 Years of Northampton Photography documents the evolution of the photographic process, a place and a people.