Do you recognize any of these faces?

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Woman, unknown year, Gardiner, Maine. October is American Archives Month, so it couldn’t be more exciting or appropriate that we finally completed renovations of our Community Archives Room and moved back in last week!  We’re still shuffling some things around, settling into the space, and waiting for some furnishings – so, stay tuned for more! In the meantime, some things never change.  As thorough as we try to be with documenting and recording information about historic items and photographs, mysteries will always exist. We have many unidentified portrait photographs in our collection and most offer very few clues as to …

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Autumn in the Library

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A Applesauce Season U Ugly Pumpkin T Twelve Haunted Rooms Of Halloween U Uninvited M Maine Ghosts & Legends N Nature And Science Of Autumn I It’s Halloween N Night Of The Pumpkinheads T Till Year’s Good End H Hello, Harvest Moon E Every Autumn Comes The Bear L Leaf By Leaf I I Know It’s Autumn B Boo And Baa Have Company R Run, Turkey, Run A Autumnblings R Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits Y Yankee Magazine’s Ultimate Guide To Autumn In New England All of the above titles are available through the Gardiner Public Library.  Click on the title …

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A Glimpse Into the Past

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Recently I had the opportunity to go play in the archives here at Gardiner Public Library.  And what a fabulous experience it was! One day while I was working in the library, I delivered some books to Dawn, our wonderful Archives Librarian. I happened to mention a well-known house in East Pittston that used to be in our family.  It’s on the Historical Register, and I had some questions about it. We got to talking, and Dawn suggested I come spend some time in the archives on my day off.  I set up a day and time with Dawn, who …

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Historic Photo Mystery – Solved in the Archives!

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Of all the wonderful reference questions we field in the Community Archives Room, some of the most engaging involve identifying photographs and their subjects, relative to Gardiner history.  Often people bring in photos of family members or local buildings and want to know just where or when or why a photo may have been taken.  We have wonderful historic maps and directories, as well as many already-identified photos that help with picking out clues to solve the mystery.  And, inevitably, every “solve” brings out new and enlightening details of our richly historic town. Recently, a  mystery came our way electronically. …

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Grandparents Day!

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In celebration of Grandparent’s Day – Sunday September 13th– here are a few items about grandparents, grandchildren and or families! G    Grandfather Gandhi R     River’s Call A    The Amateur Marriage : A Novel N    Nora’s Ark D    Danger Box P    Parental Guidance (DVD) A   Arthur And The Invisibles (DVD) R   The Raft E    Emma’s Secret N    North River : A Novel (Book on CD) T   The Tub Grandfather S   The Simple Joys Of GrandparentingD   Don’t Sing At The Table : LifeLessons From My Grandmothers A   All That’s Missing Y   Yetsa’s Sweater Ann Russell, Technology Librarian