February is Black History Month. Here are a few items from the Library’s Portland Room, the place to delve into the city’s many-faceted history. Out collections include books, maps, periodicals, manuscripts, and photographic archives.
African-American history- in the city of Portland and the state of Maine- dates back to the early years of this city’s settlement. The Portland Freedom Trail accentuates the city’s role in the anti-slavery Underground Railroad (see below). One of the markers is just a few steps east of the Library on Monument Square, along Congress Street.
Above: A new book, which includes a chronicle of the Civil Rights Movement, as it manifested here in Maine.
Above: An item from our Archive, recently donated by the Portland NAACP.
In the above image, the family of a World War II veteran is posing for a Portland Press Herald photographer, in 1949: Mr. and Mrs. James L. Perry, with daughter Lanetta
Another newspaper image. This one was taken in 1937. At left, Emery Dodge, Jr;
at right, Beverley Dodge.
Above: This group photo was printed in the Press Herald in 1957.
Note the sheet music to a very famous song!
The above archival item advertised a sermon given by the Pastor of the Abyssinian Church of Portland,
in 1853. The Reverend Green had survived and escaped slavery.
The photo below shows the Green Memorial A.M.E. Church, on Munjoy Hill.
This church building was built in 1914, and is still prominently at the corner of Sheridan Street and Monument Street. (The photo was taken in 1961.)
The Portland Room is much more than a destination to research this region’s history, personal genealogies, rare books and archives, maps, or Portland newspapers. This unique set of resources is increasingly a destination for students and classroom groups of all ages to discover and be inspired.
Recently, we’ve been able to help the students and instructors from the Local Sprouts Cooperative, who made several visits to the Portland Room to study local history. The crew produced a story about the Ingraham House, and incorporated their findings- and one of their Portland Room adventures with maps, Capt. William Moulton Ingraham, and The Great Fire of 1866 into their latest Portland TV Show (video below), which is a set of short (often hilarious) films. The section called “Carriage House,” begins at the 22:50 mark. We all had a great time, and our Local Sprouts neighbors will surely be back to the Library for more !
[vimeo 16595865]
Preservation of library materials extends the availability of our books, documents, and maps. Conservation work is part of daily life in the Portland Room, where the Library’s special collections and archives are based. In the past 4 years, we have restored an average of 100 items per year- right in the Portland Room- library materials which could not be handled before, due to their physical condition. Now these items are accessible to you, our patrons! As well, we are often called upon to answer questions about book and paper conservation- so bring your questions, too.
Among our projects has been a restoration of the art and artisanry books which had been in the old Portland Public Library (the Baxter Building). These books are in the Portland Room, and nearly all repaired!
Here (below) is a glimpse of how a book is rebound and recased, using archival materials and practices:
a book which has separated from its case, due to embrittlement, will require a rebinding of signatures (the pages) and a new case (the cover)
a careful process of realigning signatures and rebinding them, followed by creating new endpapers, and applying cotton mesh and headband ribbons
the new case under construction, with conservation-grade bookcloth to match the original- and a new spine-backing (at the center)
the old case is at left; the new case gets a “dry fit,” to make perfectly sure it meets the requirements of the newly-rebound textblock
now to the press, with wooden rods placed in the exterior hinges of the new case
et voilà! the restored book in its new case, with the original gold-tooled titling and spine labels grafted onto the book as the finishing touches.
