Approximately every twenty years, western New England suffers from devastating ice storms, leaving heavy ice coating on trees and buildings and hazardous conditions. Major storms struck in 1921, 1942, 1961, 1983, 1998, and 2008, with the storm of December 29-30, 1942, disrupting power and closing roads throughout a broad swath of the northeast. In northern New York state, ice depths reached six inches.
The collection includes twenty six of an original thirty eight photographs depicting ice storm damage to power lines in the Pittsfield District (Windsor, Middlefield, Washington Mountain to Becket) resulting from the storm in December 1942. The collection also includes a cover letter pertaining to photos (not included) documenting a similar situation in Northampton, affecting the New England Power Service Co.
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Telephone wires, near Becket, Mass.
Approximately every twenty years, western New England suffers from devastating ice storms, leaving heavy ice coating on trees and buildings and hazardous conditions. Major storms struck in 1921, 1942, 1961, 1983, 1998, and 2008, with the storm of December 29-30, 1942, disrupting power and closing roads throughout a broad swath of the northeast. In northern New York state, ice depths reached six inches.
The collection includes twenty six of an original thirty eight photographs depicting damage to power lines in the Pittsfield District (Windsor, Middlefield, Washington Mountain to Becket) resulting from the ice storm of December 1942. The photographs appear to have been taken by the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company to analyze the damage to its poles and wires, and each image is stamped on the verso by Frank R. Camp, District Safety Instructor. The collection also includes a cover letter from the New England Power Service Co. conveying photographs (not present) documenting damage in Northampton.
The collection is open for research.
Acquired from Lawrence Holmes, Shade Tree Lab, in the Malcolm McKenzie Papers, 1991
Processed by Linda Seidman, 1991.
Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Cite as: New England Telephone and Telegraph Company Western Massachusetts Ice Storm Photographs Collection (MS 354). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
