Yay Internet Archive + Open Library!

So I’ve been interested for some time in getting our City Directories which have passed into the public domain online for you all, and may have found the way to do it. So the Internet Archive, which many people think of in terms of accessing websites, also has a function where people and organizations can upload materials–such as City Directories!–to their site. They host and worry about the technical details, and we just have to scan the stuff, do what we can with metadata, and get the word out. Sounds simple enough, right?

So I got permission to do a pilot, using a directory which I had already scanned in entirety to test the process and workflow. And guess what? The City Directory for 1913 is now available online, 24/7, to browse or download!

It is a single PDF, but if people don’t like it in that format we can break it up and have it available in pieces as well. The sky is the limit here. Take it for a test drive, let me know what you think, and if it all works out then hey-ho we are in business. I’ve bookmarked the page so you can easily access it until the crawlers and indexers start to pick it up. ENJOY!

Biddeford-Saco City Directory, 1913

That old map magic

Well, the conservation work on the 1848 map of the Lands of the Saco Water Power Company (a.k.a. all of downtown Biddeford and Saco), financed by an IMLS American Heritage Preservation grant, was completed last fall; the facsimile copy was framed by the fabulous folks at Saco Frame Center and now hangs for public view in the Henrietta Carroll Room here at the library.

Map as it hangs in the Carroll Room, McArthur Library.

The original map, put back together and encapsulated, is snug in the locked flat file, safe and sound for (we hope) another 164 years. Already we have had the opportunity to share the map scan with patrons who are doing research on the mills, the water works, and downtown. How awesome is that? But now we can share it with the world. Check it out!

Rum did it!

I was looking up some late 19th century obituaries in the local papers and came away with a clearer sense of the amount of temperance propaganda that appeared in the media at that time. The first article that caught my attention was about an unfortunate fire that occurred in the General Qunby(sp?) Hook & Ladder House on Main Street where a young man, passed out drunk on a couch, died. The second piece, which appeared in the next week’s paper, was less tragic but still pretty grim. Here it is in full:

“-Mr. Patterson of Lewiston, who has had charge of the brick work on the York corporation, completes his work this week.  Mr. P. in conversation with a well-known Saco gentleman a few days ago, said that many of his workmen would have attended to their business more satisfactorily if Biddeford rum hadn’t frequently got the better of them. He made the statement that he often withheld the wages of the men for the reason that payday meant to them a day of disgraceful inebriation, made so by liquor obtained in Biddeford.” (Union & Journal, December 3, 1880.)

Which makes me curious–was Saco dry at this time? I hadn’t heard about that but I wonder if it was so. Also, apparently a “turkey raffle” was slang for going out to have some drinks, and it comes up often in the little quips about crime and public disturbances that appeared in the papers of the time. Lots of interesting questions to think about with this!

Biddeford High-Waterhouse Field Trivia!

Here is a fun tidbit I came across this afternoon while transcribing our History Index Cards (which will be in spreadsheet/database form in the near future for EVERYONE’S convenience!)

“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.

Documenting Maine Jewry – Biddeford-Saco HomePage

Documenting Maine Jewry – Biddeford-Saco HomePage.

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!

Grants make the history go ’round

March is turning out to be a heckuva month for the Special Collections here at McArthur.

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!!!!

The passing of St. André’s Church, Biddeford

 
The soaring ceilings of the newly built St. Andre Church, circa 1910.

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.