GazetteOTHIssueDigital

Collections and Records: In Need of a New Home
Back in 1976, when every nook and cranny of Old
Town House was explored by North Yarmouth
Historical Society volunteers, boxes and papers
were found in the building’s attic and in the unoccupied
Selectmen’s office. They were “… trash and clutter
at first glance,” as Joyce Gilbert wrote in 1995.
“Fortunately, someone in North Yarmouth did a poor
job of housekeeping and shoved bunches of papers into
[storage]. The papers … were removed by caring hands
during renovation. Dusty, dog–eared, flat, rolled, fastened
with rusty pins and clips—and altogether marvelous.”
Tattered, worn, and aged, but
still “marvelous.”
This material joined the
collection of town records
that, back in the late 1960s,
had been emptied out of
Old Town House’s safes
and transferred to the new
municipal building’s record
storage room.
The entire collection was—
and is—astonishing. “There are some 300 handwritten
books, most in very fragile condition, as well as many
printed Province and state law books,” reads a 1980
report to the Town. “There are two dozen metal boxes
tightly packed with very old papers, covering a variety
of subjects from schools to military affairs. Another twenty
archival boxes contain partially sorted miscellaneous
papers. There are many old maps and surveyors’ plans.”
Although much of the material was remarkably wellpreserved
(due to good quality paper), documents were
water-damaged, covered with mildew and mold, and
fouled by vermin. The collections were taken to the Maine
State Archives to be fumigated. The town’s old record
books were also microfilmed there.
In 1980, clear-headed NYHS members proposed a
modern facility for protection and storage. With $22,500
from the town, NYHS built a workroom and an enlarged,
fireproof vault as an addition to the municipal building,
now North Yarmouth’s Fire Rescue headquarters and
current location for NYHS’s workroom and archives.
Volunteers worked hard to arrange for cleaning and
fumigation but, after a visit by a consultant from the
Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover,
Massachusetts, it became clear that a professional
archivist’s services were needed to envision, plan, and
organize this huge preservation project. In 1999, NYHS
was awarded a grant from the Maine Historical Records
Advisory Board and archivist Elizabeth Maule was hired
to direct the separation of pre- and post 1849 documents
(the year North Yarmouth and Yarmouth split). In 2000, a
grant from the Maine Cultural Resources Information Center
was awarded to NYHS to fully process the records. The
Town of North Yarmouth funded the purchase of acid free
storage boxes and folders.
Under the direction of Ms. Maule and historian Ursula Baier,
volunteers pored through a cache of bills, correspondence,
tax lists, road records, and other documentation. A finding
aid was created. A timeline of early North Yarmouth history
was written. Treasures were discovered: Militia records,
early road, school, cemetery, and tax records, surveys,
deeds, records about the care of the poor, voter lists, maps,
a book of cattle and sheep markings, and more.
Several years later, a
post-1849 collection
of papers and records
were organized by
another volunteer team
under the direction of
historian Holly Hurd.
Thousands of records,
papers, ephemera, and
artifacts are now packed
into the NYHS vault
at North Yarmouth’s
Fire Rescue Station.
This historical record
has been successfully
saved, but without a
display space, these
items are rarely seen
and difficult to access
for research. The plan to
re-house these items in a
secure, below-groundlevel
area of Old Town
House is a long-awaited
solution for preserving
North Yarmouth’s
340+ history.
The NYHS vault: Archives overload.
16 The GAZETTE