Brown, Robert E. (Robert Erskine)

During the mid-1970s, Robert Brown worked as a fifth grade teacher at the West Street School, Southbridge, Mass., while pursuing a graduate degree in anthropology at UMass Amherst under Joel Halpern. Part of Brown's research involved conducting oral histories with Southbridge families identified as "ethnic," including Albanian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, Puerto Rican, and Vietnamese, as well as the only African American family in town at the time. Brown published his work in local newspapers and ultimately in the book, The New New Englanders (Worcester, Mass.: Commonwealth Press, 1980).

From the guide to the Robert E. Brown Southbridge (Mass. ) Collection MS 029., 1973-1977, (Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries)