Peaks Island Archives online!

The complete collection of Peaks Island Branch Library Archives is now freely accessible online on the Library’s Digital Commons page.

The collection comprises archival artifacts such as postcards, photographs, cemetery records, scrapbooks, periodicals, maps, reports, audiovisuals (including sound recordings and books by Ruth Sargent), and Peaks Island printed material spanning from the early 20th century- up to the present. More than 4,500 scans were made.

Above: An original photograph of Forest City Landing.
Below: Some examples of Peaks Island postcards.

The collection’s Maps are found at this link.

The collection’s array of Periodicals (newsletters and newspapers) are found at this link, including the complete run of the Island Times.

Processing (arrangement, description, archival rehousing), digital scanning, and web uploading was accomplished between October 2017 and January 2018, in the PPL’s Portland Room, by a production team consisting of Portland Room staff and Peaks Island volunteers. We are grateful for the supporting generosity of the Peaks Island Fund and the Casco Bay Islands Alliance in making this project possible.

Project photos:

Nancy, Monica, and Abraham- processing the Peaks Island collection, and building the electronic Finding Aid, in the Portland Room.

Cindy, Eric, and Sarah- digitizing the Peaks Island scrapbooks, using a special Zeutschel book scanner at the Main Library.

PPL archivist Abraham scanning, encoding, and uploading back issues of “Nor’ by East” to PPL’s Peaks Island Archives Digital Commons page.

The original archival material, now preserved and digitized, will return to the Peaks Island Branch Library, later this year. Happy Browsing!

All the archival materials are processed and rehoused in preservation enclosures, as well as digitized.

posted: Mar 26th 2018, by Abraham
tags: Adults | Teens | Discover Portland | Seniors | Portland History