Series III: History department theses, undated and 1963-1976

The majority of the collection consisted of student papers written between 1950 and 1964 to fulfill requirements of course number E401 “Report Writing” taught by Augustus Silva, English Professor and Dean of Students, New Bedford Textile Institute (Series II). Subjects include textiles, engineering, and chemistry. Other groupings include early textile sciences projects by students of New Bedford Textile School, most notably Cotton Yarn Preparation Theses, Rayon Theses, and Mill Management (Series I), chemistry and business papers completed by students of Bradford Durfee College of Technology (Series III), and local history, local architectural history and educational curriculum papers written by students of Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute, Southeastern Massachusetts University and Swain School of Design (Series IV).

There is a complete handwritten list of papers, arranged numerically, in the control file. This list includes report number, student’s name, date, title, and school. The sequential numbering system, which appears to have been applied arbitrarily to the papers by former library staff members, has been partially retained to serve as a reference to this list. However, obvious discrete series of papers were removed from the overall sequence and organized into four separate series. All duplicate copies were discarded. Within the 1950 - 1963 series, at least three papers were retained from each year, except for years with less than three papers, and all other papers in this series were discarded. The papers retained in the 1950 - 1963 series are a good representation of the varied subject matter. Approximately 398 papers (including all duplicate copies) were weeded out of the 1950 - 1963 series. All student papers before 1950, after 1963, and from the Bradford Durfee Technical Institute were retained. All undated papers were saved and assigned to the category they best fit.