“Alfred L. Waterhouse will be honored Friday night [SEPTEMBER 24, 1954] , as Biddeford High’s home field, long known as “Alumni Field”, becomes officially “Alfred L. Waterhouse Field.”  (Biddeford Daily Journal, September 21, 1954: p.1 c.1).  –Another story ran in the paper that Satuday (September 25, 1954: p.1 c.1) all about the re-dedication of the playing field.

So now you know–the day that ALUMNI FIELD officially became WATERHOUSE FIELD was Friday, September 24, 1954.

The Documenting Maine Jewry collaboration <www.MaineJews.org> is a wonderful group that continues to do an amazing amount of work piecing together Maine’s rich Jewish history. They have even put together home pages for some of the larger communities, including Biddeford-Saco-Old Orchard Beach. Check it out!

First of all, we found out we’d received a $1200.00 grant from the state of Maine’s New Century Community Program “Historical Records Collections Grants for Cataloging Software and Training”. We’ll be using this money to purchase specialized software for cataloging archival, history, artifact and media collections. I am especially excited to have the resources to begin to professionally catalog our image collections.

Then, today, I found out we’d been awarded a $1500.00 Institute for Museum and Library Services/Bank of America Foundation “American Heritage Preservation Program” grant. This grant is going to pay for the conservation of an 1848 map of the downtown and mill areas of Biddeford and Saco, and is the oldest map our library owns. It will also pay for remote environmental monitoring equipment, which will help us better care for our collections.

What is so neat about this map is that it is our library’s oldest view of the downtown area and the footprint of the mills and downtown buildings. The library is going to pay out of its own pocket to have a digital copy created as well as a surrogate use copy to hang up for the public to enjoy. It will take some time for the work to be done, but we will all look forward to it.

Thank you state of Maine, Institute for Museum and Library Services, and Bank of America Foundation!!!!

On New Year’s Eve, yet another Biddeford landmark closed its doors forever. In 2009 it was St. Mary’s Church (where I myself was married), and in 2010 we bid adieu to St. André’s Church on Bacon Street. Scholar and journalist (and Biddeford native) Jane Martin has produced a personal and poignant look at the church and how it touched her family and generation in particular. It aired on the CBC’s C’est La Vie program last week, and you can listen to it yourself here. (Scroll down to “Last Mass in Biddeford”).

Biddeford is moving in a positive direction in many ways, but let us never forget where we came from nor forget those institutions that created and sustained this community for so many years. A memorial video is being produced by the congregation, and will eventually be available to the public here at the library. The St. Mary’s video already is.

Downstairs in the Adult Room stacks area is the most obvious, with the Renovation and the installation of condensed shelving for the Special Collections storage. This, of course, is fabulous and everyone is starting to get the hang of things in their new locations. I know I appreciate not having to run around out back or in the big reading room when I’m working on a project or a local history query.

My pride and joy, however, is the attic. Oh glorious day, the attic. When I first came here, it was stuffed and stuffed again with stuff. Stuff caked with dust, stuff piled in teetering towers on top of empty boxes stacked on stuff. It was an episode of “Hoarders: Buried alive”– only the hoarder was 100 years worth or “I reeeealy don’t want to throw this out, but we can’t use it anymore, so let’s put it in the attic”–and I was the tough, unshockable professional organizer called in to set things right.

–Attic chaos, March 2007–

It has been a long, sweaty, dusty road. It has been working after hours so I could crash, bang, and be a slob. It has been an education in the value of a collection policy. I am mastering the art of logistics to find homes for the stuff that is awesome but not a good fit for us (either collection-wise or we can’t properly care for it). It has been a lot of support from administration so I could do what needed to be done. And no way could I have gotten as far as I have without the willing muscle and sweat of some hale and hearty staff & volunteers, God bless ‘em.

–Attic harmony, January 2011–

I’m not done yet. But you know in the big scheme of things four years is not such a long time, considering everything else I’m trying to do while picking away at this project. I’m giving myself a pat on the back, and looking forward to the day when I can truly revel in a job carried out to completion. In the meantime, I’m pretty happy with “you’ve come a long way, baby.”

We have a neat collection of almanacs which have finally made it upstairs thanks to the new shelving.  Our earliest almanac is from 1766 and was calculated for the meridian of Boston. It contains “Ephemeris; Aspects;  Spring tides; Judgments of the Weather; Feasts and Fasts of the Church; Courts in Massachusetts bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode-Island; Sun and moon’s rising and setting; Moons place; Time of High water;  Public roads; with the best Stages or Houses to put up at: Eelipses; with a Representation of the solar eclipse on the 5th August, &c. &c. &c. by Nathaniel Ames.” It is a neat little pamphlet, eight pages total and all the available space is used. Each month is chock full of information, and includes a small poem at the top of the page. There are little notes written in the margins and a flowing, elegant script.

I was curious to see how these developed over time, so I picked out the 1813 almanac to compare the contents–especially knowing the British conflict was a current event. Curiously enough the 1813 book is the Clergyman’s Almanack. It contains much of the astronomical and weather information, as well as a wealth of religious information, tables for stages, postage, currency conversion, missionary and bible societies and finally listings of college vacations.

What fascinating little snapshots of the day to day in New England! For a full listing of the collection check out the Catablog.

The notes around the margin of this almanac indicate that the owner planted barley, flaxseed and peas in May.

You’d think that would be pretty good coverage for the Francos…no way, hombre! We got an email last week from Dr. Pinette with a link to this fantastic radio program (aired September 7, 2010) produced by Biddeford native Jane Martin–now a Fulbright Scholar at McGill University in Montreal, QC. It’s a wonderful look into Martin’s own journey as a Franco as she learns her family history by talking and interviewing her parents and other family members.

Her story is one which many of us can identify. As the last of la survivance generations are starting to leave us, with their fierce Franco-ness, the children and grandchildren may not realize until it is too late the stories and culture which we are losing. The other side is that so many of the younger generations may only have one grandparent of French-Canadian origin and perhaps have never had that experience of coming from a “really French” family.

Luckily, with folks like Pinette, Beaupre, Hendricksen, and Martin we continue to experience and learn about the rich French-Canadian culture – past and present – of Biddeford in particular and in Maine as a whole. I am 1/4 Franco and love experiencing and learning about this rich, vibrant heritage that I never knew I had until about 10 years ago. My generation may not totally understand la survivance, but I think we can all agree nous n’oublierons jamais.

“The Legend of Francis Fortune”

The photo here is a detail view of log piles along the Saco River from a postcard. I’ve circled the guy standing up top so you can get a sense of the enormity of the piles. Dangerous work that was, no doubt about it.

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