Boothbay Region Historical Society
Volume 19, Issue 1
Spring 2006
ANNUAL MEETING
Our annual meeting is
scheduled for
A brief business meeting
will precede the talk and will include remarks from officers and the election
of new trustees and officers.
There will be refreshments
and socializing following the talk. All members of the society and the public
are welcome to attend. Please remember not to park in the bank's lot across
the road. You may park in designated spaces along the road, and Tom Carbone
has generously offered to let us use his lot next door, just past the museum.
COLIN WOODARD RETURNS TO SPEAK ON THE
Colin Woodard, who spoke
last year to a full house, will be returning this July 12th at
Nearly decade before the
pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, European settlers were eking out a living on
the
Colin details this early
struggle and continues through our coastal history up to the present time,
addressing the difficulties of conserving our culture and environmental
heritage in the face of uncontrolled growth and development.
Award-winning journalist
Colin Woodard writes forThe Christian Science Monitor and The Chronicle of
Higher Education. A native of
and the Struggle for
a Forgotten Frontier,
a cultural history of
coastal
BILL
Bill Leavenworth will share
his research on the environmental history of the New England coastal ecosystem
with a focus on the banks fishing history in a slide show at the museum on
August 9 at 7 p.m. Refreshments will follow.
Bill holds a Ph.D. from the
Bill will compare today's
fishing conditions with those of the past, while explaining many of the
different methods used to bring in the catch from hand-lining, to dory fishing
and tub trawls. He will talk about the
A captivating speaker, Bill
is a man of many experiences. He is currently a researcher for the
Not only does Bill find time
to hold down so many different jobs, he also writes. Bill has published three
articles and three short stories in Down East and an
article for Cruising World. He is currently working on a paper on the
tradition, competition, and technology on the Scotian Shelf from 1852-1860 and
has even published some poetry.
VOLUNTEER RECEPTION
All museum volunteers are
invited to join us at
be serving refreshments.
Please come and join us!
BARBARA JOINS MAM BOARD
Barbara Rumsey was elected
to a two-year term on the board of Maine Archives and Museums, a state-wide
organization dedicated to promoting
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
As spring begins to settle
in over the region and I see things all around me beginning to grow, I am
reminded how the historical society is also undergoing its own period of
growth and change. For nearly two decades Director Barbara Rumsey has served
the society, its members and the community. As the collection at the museum
has grown, as visitors have increased, as support has multiplied, Barbara has
taken on each new task.
A few years ago, aware of
the increasing burden upon Barbara, the Board of Trustees decided to add a
small administrative assistant position to the organization. Pat Waldman
skillfully and cheerfully filled that role. The museum and the society have
continued to thrive
and within just a few years
we outgrew our need for a part-time administrative assistant.
This winter, at the request
of Barbara, the Board undertook a significant step for our small organization.
After considerable discussion we decided to replace our administrative
assistant position with an administrator and alter the role that Barbara has
filled for so many years. Jane McKinney Kaler was hired in March to serve as
our first administrator. She has already helped to unburden many of the
administrative tasks which Barbara had accumulated over time. Barbara,
remaining as our director, is now focusing her time and energy on the
collection.
Among other tasks, Jane is
responsible for membership and programming, in addition to keeping the
building open and running smoothly. Before coming to the society Jane served
as the first education coordinator at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.
There she put into place a marvelous array of programming for children and
families as well as adults. She also worked extensively with volunteers. Once
she gets up to speed on the society and its possibilities I have every
expectation Jane will develop intriguing new programming and outreach for us.
If you haven’t met her, please stop by the museum any Wednesday, Thursday,
or Friday between
Cathy Sherrill
GWI KEEPS US ONLINE
Great Works internet (GWI)
has a great service of subsidizing websites and email for non-profits. Thanks
to GWI for providing us with an email address, brhs@gwi.net and
hosting our website, www.boothbayhistorical.org. Thanks also to Bruce Wood of
MEMBERSHIP MATTERS
We now have 632 members. We
would like to thank all of our members for their continued support through
membership dues which provide a large portion of our operating funds. We are
always curious to know why you have joined, whether it be an interest in a
property you own, a family connection to the area, or maybe you are a
descendant of an old Boothbay family. So, please let us know!
NEW MEMBERS
Holly Anderson Hart: East Boothbay, Maine
David & Diane Freed: Southport, Maine
Marie Bosarge: Boothbay, Maine
Gertrude Tibbetts: Boothbay Harbor, Maine
Richard Plunkett: Boothbay, Maine
Scott & Diane Joyal: Taunton, Massachusetts
Gayle Farris: Boston, Massachusetts
Robert Wallace, Jr.: Milton, Massachusetts
Jack & Shirley McAllister:
MEMORIAL SERVICE
As you may know, we have
lost a long-time member,invaluable supporter, and dear friend with the death
of Marcia Wilson. Her family has requested that we let our members know about
her memorial service, which will be held on
FOUNDING MEMBERS
We have also lost a founding
member, Charles Sterling. Mr. Sterling and his wife, summer residents of
VOLUNTEERS IN ACTION
Our Wednesday and Saturday
volunteers continue to their work at the museum. Ken Hanson has been adding
our accessions to the database. Sally Bullard is working away at compiling all
of our duplicate Registers. She has now got most of them listed and neatly
filed away. Bill Wilson continues in his creative handyman role. He is
currently working with Barbara on refurbishing room 6. Faith Myers has been
working diligently accessioning items and writing thank you notes. Robert Rice
has been doing collection work in more than one way. Not only has he been
cataloging photographs, but he has also been expanding the storage space in
the reference room and faithfully "collecting" the museum trash!
NEW ACQUISITIONS
Barbara Scorcia -Records from Boothbay Region Performing Arts
Council
Bob Barter - Lead pencils with local logos; tape recorder
Dottie Patton - Certificate from Boothbay Harbor Post Office
signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower
Maureen & Otis Tibbetts - Regional Tourist Guide,1898
Bobby Reed - Postal papers from the 1930s and 1950s; postal
carrier leather bag
Jean Chenoweth - Children’s wooden toy blocks
Maria Poore - School certificates of Samuel Poore, 1932
Alden Reed - Plan of Isle of Springs, 1887
Ron Orchard - Goudy & Stevens Able J coffee mug, minesweeper photos, and information on the Orchard
family history
Chuck Race - Lines (plans) of Charles Hodgdon-designed 1930s
sloops and 1930s photos of 20' sloop, Clarence
Susan Leary - material on the Galloway and Brewer families
Tom Cornell - postcards of scenic region views
OUT OF OUR PAST
Barbara Rumsey’s articles that have appeared in
the Boothbay Register column, “Out of Our Past,” since the last
newsletter:
•
Cecil Pierce's Childhood Memories of
•
Cap'n John Stories, Parts XII & XIII
•
East Boothbay and Other Village Bounds
•
Rev. Murray's Boothbay Concerns, Parts I & II
Photographs that Barbara has printed with detailed captions:
•
Goudy & Stevens's J. Douglas being hauled up
•
Charles Chapman Store
•
Boyd's Hardware Store
•
Old Obed's Fish House
Did you Know?
Did you know that there was
once a saltworks in Boothbay? A saltworks collects and evaporates seawater to
obtain salt for cooking and preserving foods, such as meat and fish. At the
permanent resettlement of Boothbay in 1730, Robert Wylie was one of the
handful of settlers at
IMPESSIONS OF A NEWCOMER
I didn’t quite know what
to expect when I was hired as the new administrator for the historical
society. I had a pretty good idea of what my “duties” were to be, but no
real concept of what exactly went on inside this old house at
I am impressed at how the
community seems to view the society as a source of information. In the past
few weeks, we have had a woman come in for help straightening out old deeds,
another woman using our books and genealogy files to put together her family
history, several email requests from out-of-state with questions about a
connection to a local family, a man interested in the present day location of
an old photograph, and the Chapmans.
The Chapmans are using the
historical society to its fullest potential. Since December, John and Peggy
Chapman have been doing research for a book on the Boothbay Harbor Yacht
Club’s history. Every Wednesday they religiously spend much of the day
searching through 100 years of Registers and photographs and other sources compiling
information about the yacht club. I am amazed that we have so much information
to offer them.
Those who take advantage of
our services are always grateful and often show their appreciation by making a
donation, sharing their research with us, or working with our collections. We
have a steady stream of volunteers who donate their time to help us organize
our collections, making the information easier to find. As an outsider, my
initial impression of the society was a local museum and gathering place for
strictly history buffs. I have come to realize that we a have much broader
range, and can help everyone—from those with serious research projects to
those with casual questions. I hope to demonstrate this to others who may not
realize all that the museum has to offer.
In my month at the
historical society, Barbara has made the biggest impression on me. Her writing
gives the society a voice in the community. Barbara is the mastermind behind
the systems we use to organize our collections. She knows our regional history
like no one else,
and she has this gift of
being able to retain in her mind much of the information we hold in our files.
I am truly enjoying working with her and look forward to learning from her.
Jane Kaler
DATES TO REMEMBER
•
May
16,
•
July
12,
•
August
9,
•
September
26,
TAKE NOTE OF OUR NEW HOURS:
Wednesday—Saturday from
With our addition of Jane as
administrator, the museum will be open more hours on a consistent, year-round
schedule. Please feel free to stop by and visit. Barbara will be in on
Wednesday afternoons and all day on Saturdays.
Focus on Books
One of Boothbay's classic
histories is George Rice's Shipping Days of Old Boothbay. First published in 1938, Rice profiles the region's seagoing
heritage with sections on wartime exploits, short histories of shipbuilding
and steamer years, and a strong focus on the vessels. Rice tells true stories,
often based on diary entries of voyages on Boothbay brigs, barks, ships, and
schooners. The last section consists of 100 pages of summarized particulars of
200 years of captains in the greater area, including nearby towns. His
appendices include a vessel building list and Revolutionary service records.
It's basic in a Boothbay historical collection.
COME IN TO CHECK OUT OUR NEW RICE BROTHERS
DISPLAY!
Robert Rice has displayed
some artifacts, documents, photographs and several of his own built-to-scale
models, all relating to this historically significant shipyard that operated
in
Help your Society and increase our local support—give the membership form to interested friends and encourage them to join the Society.
INFORMATION email: brhs@gwi.net_________________________
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