Eileen McCarthy Rakouskas Collection

2003-2005
1 box (0.5 linear foot)
Call no.: MS 1045
rotating decorative images from SCUA collections

Eileen McCarthy Rakouskas is a personal historian and the founder of Mosaic Memoirs, a service that assists people in recording, editing, and producing oral histories, memoirs, and other family stories. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Holyoke Community College, she has been particularly interested in recording "ordinary lives" and lives connected with social justice struggles.



On May 17, 2004, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional to prohibit same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. On the first day of legalized same-sex marriage, Rakouskas conducted interviews with couples waiting in line to apply for marriage licenses, city clerks, and others. Her collection also includes an assortment of other materials documenting the first day of full marriage equality.

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Background on Eileen McCarthy Rakouskas

Eileen McCarthy Rakouskas is a personal historian and the founder of Mosaic Memoirs, a service that assists people in recording, editing, and producing oral histories, memoirs, and other family stories. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Holyoke Community College, she has been particularly interested in recording "ordinary lives" and lives connected with social justice struggles.

Scope of collection

On May 17, 2004, the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts ruled in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional to prohibit same-sex marriage. Active in promoting marriage equality, Rakouskas conducted interviews and collected other materials documenting the first day of legal same sex marriage in the Commonwealth. The cheering heard often in the background during the interviews occurred when couples exited city hall with their licenses.

Inventory

Interviews
2004 May 17
2004 May 17
00:11:43
2004 May 17
00:00:28
McCoy, Joe and Stan McCoy
2004 May 17
00:07:50

The Nortonsmiths were one of six couples who sued the state of Massachusetts for the right to marry.

2004 May 17
00:01:52
2004 May 17
00:14:28
Series 2. Documents
2003-2005
Correspondence
2003-2004

Re: support for marriage equality; distribution of project.

Marriage equality: background
2003-2005

Materials on the struggle for marriage in Massachusetts. Includes some ephemera relating to marriage equality, including Northamton Pride vistor and resource guide, equal marriage stickers.

News clippings
2004 Feb.-Sept.
Project management
ca.2004

Administrative information

Access

The collection is open for research.

Provenance

Gift of Eileen McCarthy Rakouskas, June 2018 (2018-100).

Digitized content

With one exception, the interviews have been digitized and may be heard online through SCUA's digital repository, Credo.

Processing Information

Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, April 2019.

Language:

English

Copyright and Use (More information )

Cite as: Eileen McCarthy Rakouskas Collection (MS 1045). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Search terms

Subjects

  • Same-sex marriage--Massachusetts

Genres and formats

  • Audiocassettes
  • Compact discs
  • Sound recordings

Link to similar SCUA collections