Summer 2015 Blueprint Project

Exciting news!

Thanks to a generous donation from Seashore Trolley Museum member, James VB, the STM Library will be cataloging, preserving, and digitizing a collection of 500 blueprints from the Library's collections.  The project will support the hire of an archival technician, the purchase of archival supplies for storage, and the rental of a large format scanner.

Once the project is complete (anticipated completion, September 1, 2015), the collection images and data will be searchable in the Museum image galleries on Digital Maine.

Here are some pictures of us getting set up, with some samples of the materials.  There's treasure here!

Big pile of blueprints delivered

Sketches from the Boston Elevated Railway drawing office

Large format blueprint

A close-up of one of the sketches

Chris Libby, our cataloger and archivist

The Wason Manufacturing Company Collection

Exciting news!  We have identified the Wason Manufacturing Company Collection as a good candidate for a new grant project.  This collection consists of 3000 negatives and their prints, documenting the cars built by the railways around the country.  The collection dates from 1906 to 1938 and has sample photographs from every order completed during that time period.  What a great resource for restoration professionals and railway modellers!

Here are some photographs of our adventure, retrieving the collection from our storage facility in the Bootts Cotton Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts.

The Bootts Cotton Mill where we have a storage unit.

One of the negative albums.  The albums hold 100 3x5 negatives.  We have 30 albums.

The index to one of the negative albums, indicating the company, the kind of car, and the various shots (interior, side view, trucks, etc.), and sometimes the year and order number

The mounted prints that correspond with the negatives in file drawers.

A mounted builder's photograph.

Search the O.R. Cummings Negative Collection

The O.R. Cummings Negative Collection includes records for more than 900 negatives, primarily of Maine railways, but also for other cities in the U.S. and countries around the world.  Interested in learning more about what the collection contains?

Now you can browse it online!

Many thanks to Roger Somers for doing the data entry for the collection.

Re-housing O.R. Cummings' negative collection

It's been a year since O.R. Cummings passed away.  He is sorely missed - not only for his amazing knowledge of electric railways, but also for his wonderful company.

O.R. is still keeping the Library Committee busy though!  His negative collection has been digitized by Leo Sullivan and is now at the York County Community College Library for archival preservation.  We are shifting the negatives from old acidic envelopes to archival sleeves and boxes.  Roger Somers will do the data entry to capture all of the information that O.R. had recorded on the envelopes.  Many thanks to everyone who assisted, especially to Karen Dooks who facilitated the purchase of supplies.

The old and the new: progress!

A look back at October

The Seashore Trolley Museum Library has been quietly busy over the past few months.  In the fall, we took advantage of the cool, crisp weather to do some essential shifting before the snow fell.

 Here is Rand doing some pre-sorting of materials

 Rand and Lenny re-position some of the existing wooden shelving.

 Looking tidy!

 Lee and Russ start assembling some new shelving.

 Lenny pitches in.

 More shelving arrives from the old Library building.

Many additional feet of shelving!  This should keep Mike busy over the winter.

Mastering PastPerfect

Success!  Our first forays into PastPerfect have gone pretty well, including the Import from Excel.  What a relief not to have to type *everything* in again :)

Progress on the tourism booklet grant project

The primary sources: tourism booklets from the various electric railway companies in Maine

Good progress is being made on the "Preserving the Primary Sources of Maine’s Early Tourism" grant project.  This project is being generously supported by the Maine State Archives and the Maine Historical Records Advisory Board.  We've purchased supplies and have begun rehousing the booklets and pamphlets in their new archival enclosures. Once everything is safely preserved, we'll be entering the data into PastPerfect.

Enclosed in their archival sleeves.
We will probably add archival quality labels on the outside of each for quick identification

 

The project has been a great deal of fun because we get to have a real look at some of the amazing treasures that the museum is protecting.

All tidy in their boxes!