Final+Scope+Notes

Miriam Usher Chrisman Papers Completed December 2010 Russell Annis, Yolanda Clarke, and Catherine Sebastian

__Background Note__ Born on May 20, 1920 in Ithaca, New York, Miriam Usher Chrisman was a well-loved professor and a treasured mentor to numerous students during her long tenure at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Beginning in 1962, Chrisman taught in the Department of History, continuing to teach past her retirement in 1985 for another decade. Raised in a family that prized academic achievement and a sense of the past, Chrisman seemed destined for a career in history. The daughter of Abbott Payson Usher, a distinguished economic historian at Cornell and later Harvard, her roots in the intellectual elite of Massachusetts ran deep: her ancestor Hezekiah Usher, an English emigrant to Boston in the 1630s, imported the press and type with which John Eliot’s Indian Bible was printed and was a founder of the Old South Church in Boston. This strong Protestant heritage was no doubt an influence in her field of research, the German Reformation. From early on she showed academic promise. Graduating magna cum laude with an A.B. from Smith College in 1941, Masters degrees in education from Smith College (1948), and economics from American University, before earning her MA (1959) and PhD (1962) in history from Yale. One of the times that Chrisman lived outside Massachusetts for an extended period came during the Second World War. After marrying Donald Chrisman, a medical student at Harvard, on November 29, 1943, Chrisman worked as an intern and research assistant in various agencies in Washington, D.C. while her husband served on active duty with the Navy aboard the Gleaves-class destroyer, U.S.S. Baldwin in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. After the war the Chrismans settled in Northampton, Massachusetts, where Donald began an orthopedic practice at Cooley Dickinson Hospital while Miriam returned to graduate school and eventually received a faculty position at UMass Amherst. The author of seven books and a meticulous record keeper, Chrisman became a leading authority on the social history of the German Reformation, conducting most of her research in and near Strasbourg. Her first book, //Strasbourg and the Reform// (1967), is recognized as a landmark in its field, balancing both high and low culture and 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), she 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, Chrisman's several research trips to Strasbourg influenced her life in other ways: her experiences there and in other locations abroad led her husband, Donald, to begin a second career in archaeology upon his retirement from orthopedic medicine. Chrisman was widely recognized for her scholarship. Awarded the Prix d’honneur by the Societe des Amis de Vieux Strasbourg, she received an honorary doctor of humane letters from Valparaiso University and the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale University. She also 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. 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. __Bibliography__ Miriam Usher Chrisman.* //Strasbourg and the Reform: A Study in the Process of Change//. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967. Miriam Usher Chrisman* (editor, with Otto Grundler). //Social Groups and Religious Ideas in the Sixteenth Century//. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, 1978. Miriam Usher Chrisman.* //Bibliography of Strasbourg Imprints, 1480-1599//. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982. Miriam Usher Chrisman.* //Lay Culture, Learned Culture: Books and Social Change in Strasbourg, 1480-1599//. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982. Miriam 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). Miriam Usher Chrisman* (honoree). //The Process of Change in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of Miriam Usher Chrisman//, edited by Phillip N. Bebb and Sherrin Marshall. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1988. Miriam Usher Chrisman.* //Conflicting Visions of Reform: German Lay Propaganda Pamphlets, 1519-1530//. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1996. __Overall Scope and Content Note__ This collection details the life of an affluent, well-educated, New England woman, Miriam Usher Chrisman. Beginning in the late 1930s when Chrisman was in her late teens, the collection contains extensive correspondence extending through her entire life. Of particular note are a dense series of courtship letters written during the Second World War, providing information on the development of her romance and extensive information from the front lines of the war in Europe. A series of 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, and also illustrate the progression of the Chrismans’ life together. Chrisman was extremely well-traveled, which the collection illustrates in copious notes, itineraries, and receipts from both professional and personal trips. Her three professional trips to Strasbourg to conduct research are particularly well documented, augmented by extensive personal correspondence 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, she was an extremely organized and meticulous individual, who spent significant time planning and organizing her life collection, which is reflected in the current arrangement. __Scope and Content Notes__ Series 1: Correspondence: This series contains extensive correspondence between Chrisman and people close to her throughout her lifetime. Beginning with a letter from Donald Chrisman’s mother in 1878, this series spans Miriam Chrisman’s entire life, ending with several letters from her niece to Chrisman in 2008. The bulk of the correspondence begins in Chrisman's college years at Smith, roughly 1937 to 1941, detailing her daily experiences as a female college student. As she was involved in the American Friends Service Committee, these letters also discuss her role in that organization and their activities in Northampton, Massachusetts. Of particular note in this series are the courtship, engagement, and newlywed letters between Miriam and her husband, Donald Chrisman. Not only do these letters display this couple’s feelings towards each other, but they also offer a glimpse into courtship and marriage conventions in World War Two-era America, even to the detail of how they planned to arrange the furniture in their new home. Of even greater significance are their letters to each other after the wedding, when Donald was deployed on the destroyer, U.S.S. Baldwin, off the European coast. This extensive correspondence hints at the feelings felt by thousands of wartime couples, and offers a perspective on censorship issues of the day, as many of Donald’s letters were modified by the United States government to ensure they met inspection codes. Also of note in this time is Donald’s long and unusually detailed letter regarding his experiences on D-Day, outlined hour-by-hour, and his reflections on his 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 her correspondence home during her three research trips to Strasbourg, France. After each of these trips she published an academic book on the German Reformation. Finally, this series contains some of Don’s correspondence between himself and his parents in his earlier years, including his acceptance into Harvard Medical School. Series 2: Travel Series two contains detailed notes of various museums from around the Mediterranean from 1952 and a detailed descriptive journal of the British Museum. The next part of the collection consists of meticulous notes, extensive contact information, passports and numerous receipts of items from various trips around the globe from 1971 to 2001. Chrisman was very well traveled, including a round the world trip in 1972, an early visit to the newly opened Peoples Republic of China in 1982, Russia in 1985, and the Spice Route in 1985. The series also contains a wonderfully detailed diary of a summer-long trip to France. Series 3: Family Series three is a somewhat scattered collection of family memorabilia from the Chrismans’ lives. There are several folders of postcards and Christmas cards, mostly undated, along with a small number of professional/community honors included, 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 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.