Community Archives Room Archives - Page 4 of 7

T.W. Dick Relics, Part 1

May 28, 2017April 17, 2016 by Dawn Thistle, Special Collections Librarian

T.W. Dick, the company and the facilities, was a part of Gardiner’s historic tapestry for over 100 years. As many of you know, the now vacant buildings are owned by the city and slated for removal for new projects. As the Community Archives Room at the Gardiner Public Library is the repository for Gardiner’s history and artifacts I was able to visit the site and gather a few representative items to ensure that some part of this history is preserved. The spaces were immense and patchworked with little details from many eras but, sadly, there was little tangible material left to preserve. I’ll share with you some images of what is left to see and a bit of what I could carry away.

The fabrication shop was immense — and appeared even more vast in its emptiness.
It was in here that they manufactured, among much else, tanks – from 1 – 50,000 gallons!

We found and saved this wonderful promotional prototype from the salesroom —
I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the 5 gallon range…

The metalworking/blacksmith shop must have been an impressive sight when it was bustling!

This would likely have been made in the blacksmith shop, though we have no idea what is was intended to commemorate. I found no patents from that date that seemed to offer any clues — but we welcome your insights!

The now abandoned salesroom, behind which were the offices.

This embosser was found clamped shut and stuck… but some masterful hands at Buildings & Grounds had it open in seconds — after giving it some drops of oil and the weekend to relax its shoulders!

Here’s the well-worn impression it still makes.

In the storage sheds we found some old nail barrels, which were likely made right down the street many moons ago and held bits of scrap metal across the ages.

A few of them cleaned up pretty nicely.

Sadly, this was the state of many of the old historic records of the company.

The visits were impressive and memorable and I am happy to had the opportunity to see the spaces and document even a tiny slice of this last chapter. I also salvaged a small selection of some of the business records spanning the 1930s-1950s. They still need cleaning and sorting, but when I’ve had a closer look and plucked out the gems (and I know there are some!) I’ll share them in Part 2.

I hope you’ll stay tuned as we all look back — and sail ahead!

This Made in the USA ship’s wheel thermometer hung in the office and lists T.W. Dick’s telephone number as 68.

– Dawn Thistle, Special Collections Librarian

A Most Welcome Surprise Package!

May 5, 2017March 13, 2016 by Dawn Thistle, Special Collections Librarian

A box arrived in the mail on Friday, out of the blue and addressed as shown:

“Historical Papers Dept.” is a wonderful way of describing our Community Archives Room, which is where the box was swiftly taken and immediately given a new and permanent home. As many of you know, the C.A.R. first opened in 1985, was renovated into a beautiful, climate controlled space last year, and was re-dedicated just last month. It is home to a collection of unique and engaging local history materials and artifacts covering the historic past of Gardiner and its surrounding towns, as well as family histories and papers of those who lived here “way back when.”

Such personal collections really help bring our history to life and Friday’s package did not disappoint. It contained dozens of letters, two diaries, and several receipts from a Gardiner family in the late 1880s into the early 1890s. What’s more, they were an addition of newly found items that will round out a family collection that was donated to us nearly ten years ago. It short, it was a most welcome surprise!

Of all the materials we keep in the archives, I most appreciate the opportunity to care for and preserve family papers. They are so personal and, by far, the best way I know to step back in time and see history and daily life through the eyes of those who lived it. Receipts, such as the one above (from a local shop in 1890), afford us a snapshot of home life — cooking and shopping habits — as well as business workings (prices, billing practices, inventory) over a century ago. The diaries, shown below, are an especially personal look at day-to-day — from descriptions of the weather to train rides and work life — and even marriage customs!

These two diary entries cover the mundane (work, haircut, finances) to the monumental (getting married!), as well as heading off on the Pullman for a rainy honeymoon in Passadumkeag.

And then there are the letters… In this package they covered the courtship (leading up to the wedding above) and early years of marriage of a local couple. Reading and organizing them carries one through the stories of life — at times tragic, but often delightful. The young woman in this case lost her father when she was a child and her mother when she was a teen, leaving her to look after her younger sister and board with family and friends until her marriage in 1891. Among the correspondence were also letters between mother and daughter, as well as one earlier gem (below) that was sent to her mother in 1862. It includes brilliant fabric samples (and prices per yard) for a dress a friend was sewing; the samples are hand-sewn onto the letter itself. It’s a lovely letter and a wonderful reminder that those dresses in black and white Civil War era photographs were rarely ever black or white!

So, what will we do with these new-to-us treasures? They will be arranged and cataloged and join their compatriots in archival folders and boxes, housed in the Community Archives Room. They will be available for reference and research (whether informal or scholarly) and will help future generations to form a truly compelling and detailed picture of our local history through primary sources.

And in the near future some of them just might find their way into a curated display in our new exhibit case in the Reading Room…

Stay tuned!

– Dawn Thistle, Special Collections Librarian

A new year, a new calendar — or…

June 4, 2017January 2, 2016 by Dawn Thistle, Special Collections Librarian

If you never got around to using an old 1988 or have a favorite 1960 calendar, they are finally functional again!

How do I know this? One of my favorite perpetual calendars tells me so. Calendars can come in pretty handy when working with historic materials. For example, many newspapers published weekly editions and often referred only to the weekday an event occurred (so and so arrived Wednesday or such and such will be held on Monday) and today we must scurry to find a now ancient calendar to determine what date they were talking about. Of course, a quick Google search can help bring up a calendar for any year — but a handy perpetual calendar can provide the answer just as quickly.


This is one of my favorite perpetual calendars. It’s from an 1848 broadside and is owned by the Library of Congress. Click here for close-up views and more information.

Perpetual calendars may look intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of them they’re a breeze and can actually be a lot of fun (well, perhaps more fun to some folks than others, but I’m quite partial to them). Some perpetual calendars are quite basic, while others (like the one shown above) are a bit more complex. The gist of any perpetual calendar, however, is the simple fact that, because a year may only begin on one of seven weekdays, there are a finite number of configurations any year may have (14, total), but, due to leap years (like 2016), there are still more possibilities than cannot be quickly computed on the fly (although mathematicians, including Alice in Wonderland author, Lewis Carroll, have come up with some fantastic algorithms over the decades to do just that — but we won’t get into that today).

The calendar shown above offers an amazing amount of information on one sheet of paper. Printed in 1848, it includes the dates and days of the week for every year from 1775 to 2025, as well as, at a glance, all the leap years and all the years that share the same configuration within that 250 year time span. How amazing is that?!

But we’re all tired from the holidays and maybe some of us aren’t ready to embrace perpetual calendars as a new hobby for 2016. So, to elicit some calendar fascination for all, here are some interesting factoids about calendars that I find fascinating — and just might make for interesting conversation when you need it:

Did you know?

Most years begin and end on the same day of the week. If January 1 falls on a Friday, December 31 will, as well. (Leap years, including this year, are the exception. In 2016, 1/1 was a Friday and 12/31 will be a Saturday.)

We have been using the Gregorian Calendar in the U.S. only since September 14, 1752. The conversion from the Julian Calendar that year eliminated 11 days from our history, sort of — folks here in the Colonies went to bed on September 2, 1752, and woke the next morning on the 14th. Basically, September 3 – 13, 1752, never happened in U.S. history!

We were late adopters of the Gregorian Calendar. France and Spain made the change in 1582; Catholic states of the Holy Roman Empire did so in 1583, while Protestant states waited until 1700. Sweden, however, was a year later than British Colonies and Russia did not adopt our current calendar until 1918.

Whatever day of the week is 4/4, so shall be 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, and 12/12. The same is true for 2/2 when NOT a leap year.

That seems plenty to wrap one’s head around for now, but better get busy using your 2016 calendar immediately — it’s a unique year and won’t come in handy again until 2044! 2014s will work again 2025, and 2015s in 2016, so hang on to them accordingly.

That said, Happy New Year! May 2016 bring you all the best!!

— Dawn Thistle, Community Archives Room