Earl Huntington Barber papers

The papers of Earl Huntington Barber date from 1909 to 1969. The bulk of these materials date to the 1920s and 1930s and were created and collected by Barber during his professional career as a public utility engineer in Boston, Massachusetts.

The collection materials document the various directions taken by the Department of Public Utilities D.P.U.) in response to a variety of economic and social trends in the field, as well as in response to the necessities of two world wars. Such trends can be observed in the emphasis placed on price regulation, the types of new plant construction offered, the rapid increase in use of electrical household appliances, the extension and betterment of facilities and finally the criticism and controversies surrounding the rate-setting function of D.P.U.

The collection materials include articles, speeches, typescripts, notes, correspondence, pamphlets, clippings, drafts, drawings, notices, photographs, negatives, index cards, balance sheets, graphs, agreements, reports, invoices, maps, blueprints, memoranda, diaries, price lists, and a very detailed job description of clerical work, data analysis, and office management duties of assistant Mary Hagerty in 1926. These papers document the development of public utility regulation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including the organizations that preceded the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and the creation of the D.P.U. itself.

Of particular note in this collection are the descriptions of civil service and consulting jobs investigated by Barber during from the 1920s through the 1960s. These document the increasing demand for electricity, gas and water between the two world wars, the addition of transmission and distribution lines and increased generating capacities in cities and towns across Massachusetts. Also, the Rural Electrification Association material provides glimpses of the lives of employees of this Depression era federal agency. Barber's 1922 to 1929 memoranda to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities on appeals of denial of utility services, indicating considerable self-advocacy by women property owners. They include a 1922 statement by property owner Mrs. Mary McNeil of Roxbury, Massachusetts, pointing out the difficulties of caring for a child with infantile paralysis by lamp and candlelight when utility services were denied.