Miriam Usher Chrisman Papers
General International Standard for Archival Description
Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Creation of Miriam Usher Chrisman Papers
Time of Creation of Miriam Usher Chrisman Papers
Chrisman, Miriam Usher.
Biographical History for: Miriam Usher Chrisman Papers
Miriam Chrisman (passport photo), 1964 A noted scholar of the social impact of the German Reformation, Miriam Usher Chrisman was born in Ithaca, New York, on May 20, 1920. With degrees from Smith College, American University, and Yale, she served for over thirty years on the faculty of the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, becoming a well-loved professor and treasured mentor to a generation of students. From birth, Chrisman seemed destined for a career in academia. Chrisman's roots in the intellectual elite of Massachusetts ran deep -- an ancestor Hezekiah Usher, imported the press and type with which John Eliot's Indian Bible was printed -- and her father, Abbott Payson Usher, was a distinguished economic historian at Cornell and later Harvard. Graduating magna cum laude with an A.B. from Smith College (1941) shortly before the onset of the Second World War, Chrisman's plans for an academic career were delayed. After marrying Don Chrisman, a medical student at Harvard, on November 29, 1943, Miriam took a series of jobs with the federal government in Washington, D.C., while Don served on active duty with the Navy aboard the Gleaves-class destroyer, U.S.S. Baldwin in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. At the end of the war, the Chrismans returned home to Massachusetts and settled in Northampton, where Donald began a practice in orthopedics at Cooley Dickinson Hospital while Miriam resumed her studies. After earning graduate degrees in education (Smith College, 1948) and economics (American University), she studied history at Yale (MA,1959, and PhD, 1962), completing her dissertation, "Church and city in Strasbourg, 1480-1548: A study of the stages of the Reformation," in 1962, just prior to joining the History Department at UMass Amherst. During her long career, Chrisman became a leading authority on the social history of the German Reformation, the city of Strasbourg forming the intellectual locus of much of her work. The first of her seven books, Strasbourg and the Reform (1967), was quickly recognized as a landmark in its field, balancing an understanding of both high and low culture with an appreciation for the impact of the Reformation on the lives of the non-elite. In later works such as Lay Culture, Learned Culture: Books and Social Change in Strasbourg, 1480-1599 (1982) and Conflicting Visions of Reform: German Lay Propaganda Pamphlets, 1519-30 (1996), Chrisman explored the impact of print culture in German cities during the early Reformation, again with an eye on social movements and the common people. An avid world traveler, her several research trips to Strasbourg influenced her life in other ways: her experiences there and in other locations abroad led her husband, Donald, to embark on a second career in archaeology upon his retirement from medicine. Widely recognized for her scholarship, Chrisman was awarded the Prix d'honneur by the Societe des Amis de Vieux Strasbourg, the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale University, and received an honorary doctor of humane letters from Valparaiso University. She was twice awarded the UMass Chancellor's Medal, first as a Distinguished Faculty Lecturer in 1985 and again in 2000 for her support of the Du Bois Library. In her honor, the Society for Reformation Research established the Miriam U. Chrisman Travel Fellowship, which provides grants of $1500 every other year to support advanced graduate students in conducting research abroad. Chrisman formally retired in 1985, but continued to teach for almost a decade more. Donald Chrisman died in 2002, with Miriam following on November 17, 2008. They are survived by two sons, Nicholas Ramsey Chrisman and David Abbott Chrisman.
Acquired from Chrisman, 1999.
The Chrisman collection details the life of an affluent, well-educated, New England woman, Miriam Usher Chrisman. Beginning in the late 1930s while Chrisman was in her late teens, the collection contains extensive personal and (to a lesser degree) professional correspondence throughout her life. Of particular note are a dense series of courtship letters written during the Second World War mixing a budding romance with information from the front lines in Europe. A series of meticulous continuous account books, beginning in 1944 and stretching through the 1990s, outline the daily aspects of wartime life, along with the complexities facing a new bride in arranging the domestic sphere of her new life. Chrisman was unusually well-traveled, as illustrated in a copious series of notes, itineraries, and receipts from both professional and personal trips. The three major research trips to Strasbourg are particularly well documented, augmented by extensive personal correspondence during that trip with her two sons. In its most recent years, the collection focuses on Chrisman's personal life, with ample correspondence demonstrating a rich, cherished relationship with her grandchildren. Overall, Chrisman comes across as a highly organized, detail-oriented person who spent significant time planning and organizing her life.
The collection is open for research.
In addition to the papers of several of Chrisman's colleagues in the History Department at UMass Amherst, SCUA holds the papers of Children's Aid and Family Service (MS 008) , of which Chrisman was President in the mid-1950s.
Chrisman's major published works (all housed in the Du Bois Library) include: Miriam Usher Chrisman. Strasbourg and the Reform: A Study in the Process of Change. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967. Call no.: BR848.S7 C45Miriam Usher Chrisman (editor, with Otto Grundler). Social Groups and Religious Ideas in the Sixteenth Century. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, 1978. Call no.: CB367.C66 Miriam Usher Chrisman. Bibliography of Strasbourg Imprints, 1480-1599. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982. Call no.: Z2184.S83 C47Miriam Usher Chrisman. Lay Culture, Learned Culture: Books and Social Change in Strasbourg, 1480-1599. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982. Call no.: DC801.S77 C47Miriam U. Chrisman, "Printing and the Evolution of Lay Culture in Strasbourg, 1480-1599," The German People and the Reformation, Edited by R. Po-Chia Hsia (Cornell University Press, 1988).Phillip N. Bebb and Sherrin Marshall, eds. The Process of Change in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of Miriam Usher Chrisman. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1988. (Festschrift for Chrisman). Call no.: D231.P74 1988Miriam Usher Chrisman. Conflicting Visions of Reform: German Lay Propaganda Pamphlets, 1519-1530. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1996. Call no.: BR355.P36 C47 1996
Processed by Rusty Annis, Yolanda Clarke, and Catherine Sebastian, December 2010.
Courtship.
lcsh
Historians--Massachusetts.
World War, 1939-1945.
World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--France--Normandy.
usmu
Chrisman, Donald.
Smith College--Students.
University of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of History.
University of Massachusetts Amherst--Faculty.
aat
series
Series 1. Correspondence
Creation of Series 1. Correspondence
Time of Creation of Series 1. Correspondence
Series 1 contains extensive correspondence between Chrisman and the people she held close throughout her lifetime. Beginning with a letter from Donald Chrisman's mother in 1878, this series spans Miriam Chrisman's entire life, beginning during Chrisman's college years at Smith (roughly 1937 to 1941) and ending with several letters from a niece in 2008. The earliest letters detail Chrisman's daily experiences in college and her involvement with the American Friends Service Committee in Northampton. Of particular note are the courtship, engagement, and newlywed letters between Miriam and her husband, Donald Chrisman. Not only do these letters reveal the couple's feelings for one another, they offer a glimpse into the conventions of courtship and marriage in World War Two-era America, even to the details of how they planned to arrange the furniture in their new home. Their letters after the wedding are equally interesting, written while Donald was deployed on the destroyer, U.S.S. Baldwin, off the European coast. This extensive correspondence hints at the feelings of thousands of wartime couples, and offers a perspective on censorship issues of the day -- many of Donald's letters were modified by the United States government to ensure they revealed nothing sensitive -- all while providing insight into the experiences of husband in the theatre of conflict and wife on the home front. Of special note is a Donald's long and unusually detailed letter written by Donald regarding his experiences on D-Day, outlined hour-by-hour, and a letter reflecting on Donald's experiences at Yalta. After the war, the focus of Chrisman's correspondence returns to her educational pursuits, from discussing her fears at writing her first thesis to letters to her publisher for her second book. There is extensive correspondence with her two sons, Abbott and Nick, from their childhood days at boarding school and camp to their collegiate years and early adulthood. Also of note is Chrisman's correspondence home during three research trips to Strasbourg: rather remarkably, each trip resulted in a new book on the German Reformation. Finally, this series contains some correspondence between Don and his parents in his earlier years, including his acceptance into Harvard Medical School.
Series 2. Travel
Creation of Series 2. Travel
Time of Creation of Series 2. Travel
A rambling record of Chrisman's world travels, series two begins with detailed notes of museum trips around the Mediterranean in 1952, and continues for almost five decades, including a round-the-world trip in 1972, an early visit to the newly opened Peoples Republic of China in 1982, travel to Russia in 1985, and the Spice Route in 1985. The series also contains a wonderfully detailed diary of a summer-long trip to France. The series is arranged chronologically.
Series 3. Family
Creation of Series 3. Family
Time of Creation of Series 3. Family
Series three is a somewhat scattered collection of family memorabilia from the Chrismans' lives. Several folders of postcards and Christmas cards, mostly undated, join a small number of professional and community honors, such as an award for volunteer service from the University of Massachusetts Library and newspaper clippings of Don Chrisman's achievements. The series includes an autobiography written by Don in 1935 as well as an audio cassette of Don's father's memories of post-Civil War politics in Missouri. A large portion of the series consists of home publications and artwork made by her grandchildren. One of the most fascinating items in this series is a folder of Christmas Lists, with corresponding receipts, from 1991 through 2000.
Series 4. Account books
Creation of Series 4. Account books
Time of Creation of Series 4. Account books
Series four consists of a continuous set of household account books from 1944 through 1985 kept by Miriam Chrisman and her husband, Don. Beginning in 1944, these accounts detail annual household budgets, rent or mortgage payments, taxes including some years' W2 forms, food, clothing, entertainment, travel, and education expenses among others. In addition to tracking daily costs, Ms. Chrisman detailed the items needed to set up a household after their marriage in extensive, meticulous lists within many of the earlier account books. She also kept detailed size, item, and cost information for both her and her husband's clothing for many years. There is limited information as well on the costs associated with operating her husband's medical practice. As with nearly every aspect of this collection, Chrisman proves herself once again to be a highly organized, meticulous individual through the consistency and detail of these account books. As their professional lives advance, their movement into the upper middle class can be tracked by extensive line item details regarding luxury expenditures, charitable giving, and professional development costs.
file
Correspondence: Miriam Chrisman notes
Creation of Correspondence: Miriam Chrisman notes
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Miriam Chrisman notes
Correspondence: Travels in France and Spain
Creation of Correspondence: Travels in France and Spain
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Travels in France and Spain
Correspondence: Father to Miriam and Eunice
Creation of Correspondence: Father to Miriam and Eunice
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Father to Miriam and Eunice
Correspondence: Don Chrisman
Creation of Correspondence: Don Chrisman
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Don Chrisman
Correspondence: To Miriam
Creation of Correspondence: To Miriam
Time of Creation of Correspondence: To Miriam
Correspondence
Creation of Correspondence
Time of Creation of Correspondence
Correspondence: Miriam to her family; AFSE
Creation of Correspondence: Miriam to her family; AFSE
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Miriam to her family; AFSE
Correspondence: College: Miriam and Family
Creation of Correspondence: College: Miriam and Family
Time of Creation of Correspondence: College: Miriam and Family
Correspondence: College: Miriam and Family; Courtship
Creation of Correspondence: College: Miriam and Family; Courtship
Time of Creation of Correspondence: College: Miriam and Family; Courtship
Correspondence: Courtship
Creation of Correspondence: Courtship
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Courtship
Correspondence: Engagement
Correspondence: Charleston Naval Yard, Casablanca I [August-September 25], Casablanca II [October 15-November 24]
Correspondence: The Wedding
Correspondence: Lead up to D-day
Correspondence: D-day
Read a transcript of Donald's letter describing D-day
Correspondence: Yalta, Washington
Creation of Correspondence: Yalta, Washington
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Yalta, Washington
Correspondence: From Father; Miriam Chrisman's professional/academic advancements
Creation of Correspondence: From Father; Miriam Chrisman's professional/academic advancements
Time of Creation of Correspondence: From Father; Miriam Chrisman's professional/academic advancements
Correspondence: Abbott, Cottonwood Gulch, Pasquany, photos
Creation of Correspondence: Abbott, Cottonwood Gulch, Pasquany, photos
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Abbott, Cottonwood Gulch, Pasquany, photos
Correspondence: Strasbourg
Correspondence: Choate
Creation of Correspondence: Choate
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Choate
Creation of Correspondence: Strasbourg
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Strasbourg
Correspondence: Grandchildren
Creation of Correspondence: Grandchildren
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Grandchildren
Correspondence: Abbott
Creation of Correspondence: Abbott
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Abbott
Correspondence: Arlene
Creation of Correspondence: Arlene
Time of Creation of Correspondence: Arlene
Travel: Turkey, Crete, Greece, Palermo, Naples, Paris
Creation of Travel: Turkey, Crete, Greece, Palermo, Naples, Paris
Time of Creation of Travel: Turkey, Crete, Greece, Palermo, Naples, Paris
Travel: Three Mile
Creation of Travel: Three Mile
Time of Creation of Travel: Three Mile
Travel: World tour preparations
Creation of Travel: World tour preparations
Time of Creation of Travel: World tour preparations
Travel: World tour, part 1
Creation of Travel: World tour, part 1
Time of Creation of Travel: World tour, part 1
Travel: World tour, part 2
Creation of Travel: World tour, part 2
Time of Creation of Travel: World tour, part 2
Travel: World tour, part 3
Creation of Travel: World tour, part 3
Time of Creation of Travel: World tour, part 3
Travel: China, part 1
Creation of Travel: China, part 1
Time of Creation of Travel: China, part 1
Travel: China, part 2
Creation of Travel: China, part 2
Time of Creation of Travel: China, part 2
Travel: Russia
Creation of Travel: Russia
Time of Creation of Travel: Russia
Travel: Indonesia
Creation of Travel: Indonesia
Time of Creation of Travel: Indonesia
Travel: Spice Route
Creation of Travel: Spice Route
Time of Creation of Travel: Spice Route
Travel: Spain
Creation of Travel: Spain
Time of Creation of Travel: Spain
Travel: Pacific Northwest
Creation of Travel: Pacific Northwest
Time of Creation of Travel: Pacific Northwest
Travel: Strasbourg
Creation of Travel: Strasbourg
Time of Creation of Travel: Strasbourg
Travel: Florence
Creation of Travel: Florence
Time of Creation of Travel: Florence
Travel: Southwest
Creation of Travel: Southwest
Time of Creation of Travel: Southwest
Travel: Saint Barths
Creation of Travel: Saint Barths
Time of Creation of Travel: Saint Barths
Travel: Tucson
Creation of Travel: Tucson
Time of Creation of Travel: Tucson
Travel Diary: Scotland, London, Brussels, Italy
Travel Diary: France
Travel: Notes on the British Museum
Travel: Passports
Creation of Travel: Passports
Time of Creation of Travel: Passports
Family: Alfred Mainzer Postcards
Creation of Family: Alfred Mainzer Postcards
Time of Creation of Family: Alfred Mainzer Postcards
Family: Christmas Lists
Creation of Family: Christmas Lists
Time of Creation of Family: Christmas Lists
Family: Christmas and other Cards
Family: The Chronicles of Simon De Montfort
Family: Don Chrisman in the News
Creation of Family: Don Chrisman in the News
Time of Creation of Family: Don Chrisman in the News
Family: Don Chrisman's Autobiography
Creation of Family: Don Chrisman's Autobiography
Time of Creation of Family: Don Chrisman's Autobiography
Family: Don Chrisman's Official Matters
Creation of Family: Don Chrisman's Official Matters
Time of Creation of Family: Don Chrisman's Official Matters
Family: Ellen Thompson Weiss: Memories of Growing up at Brushwood
Creation of Family: Ellen Thompson Weiss: Memories of Growing up at Brushwood
Time of Creation of Family: Ellen Thompson Weiss: Memories of Growing up at Brushwood
Family: Gocky Newsletter and Letters from Lindsey
Family: Gramps Chrisman Oral History [Listen]
Family: Grandchildren, Part 1
Family: Grandchildren, Part 2
Family: Library Award 2000
Family: Nick's School in France
Family: Notes on Archiving Papers
Family: Notes for Career Day
Family: Obituary of Miriam's Father
Creation of Family: Obituary of Miriam's Father
Time of Creation of Family: Obituary of Miriam's Father
Famly: The Peasant's Alphabet
Family: Photograph Cards
Family: St. John's Church Bulletin
Creation of Family: St. John's Church Bulletin
Time of Creation of Family: St. John's Church Bulletin
Accounts
Creation of Accounts
Time of Creation of Accounts
Office
Creation of Office
Time of Creation of Office
Account Books
Creation of Account Books
Time of Creation of Account Books