Massachusetts Real Estate Atlases Now Online

The State Library recently completed the scanning of forty-five real estate atlases covering communities throughout Massachusetts. These atlases are now available online through the library’s institutional repository and its Flickr site. This is part of a grant-funded project to digitize the approximately 200 real estate atlases in the State Library’s collection. The items that are now available include a statewide atlas and municipal volumes that cover cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth, from Attleboro to Pittsfield.

The image on the top detailing the area where the Mystic River and Chelsea Creek flow into Boston Harbor is from the 1892 Atlas of Massachusetts published by Geo. H. Walker & Co.

These atlases are a useful tool for genealogists, architectural consultants, and those researching the history of their homes, as they provide information about property boundaries, plot size, ownership and building shapes and materials. The image below, taken from the City atlas of Lowell, Massachusetts (published by G. M. Hopkins in 1879) illustrates properties, including mills and other industry along the Concord River in Lowell.

Some of the atlases also include drawings of prominent homes, schools and other important buildings. An example of this is the residence of Wm. Whiting found in the 1884 Atlas of Holyoke City, Massachusetts published by Geo. H. Walker & Co.

The Massachusetts real estate atlas digitization project, to be completed by the summer of 2013, has been developed with federal funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

Holyoke Materials Now on Flickr

In the fall of 2009 the State Library displayed an exhibit called "Holyoke, Queen of Industrial Cities." This exhibit, a joint project by the State Library of Massachusetts and the Holyoke Public Library, is now available to view online as a set of images on the State Library’s Flickr site.

The exhibit highlighted the items in both libraries' collections that document the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Included in the exhibit were books, maps, and photographs of Holyoke, which was one of the first planned industrial towns in the country. Most of the photographs in the exhibit were from the Holyoke Public Library’s Milan P. Warner Collection. Warner, a Holyoke photographer in the 1880s and 1890s, captured beautiful black and white images of the town during its first industrial boom.

Please visit the State Library Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm, to view the library’s current exhibit, “Congressional Redistricting through the Years.”

-The Marketing Committee

Holyoke: Queen of Industrial Cities

The library's newest exhibit, Holyoke: Queen of Industrial Cities, will open on September 14 and run through January 15, 2010.

This exhibit highlights State Library collections regarding Holyoke, Massachusetts, and tells the story of the Industrial Revolution's impact on the town. Books, maps, and photographs of one of the country's first planned industrial towns will be included in the display. This exhibit was produced in collaboration with the Holyoke Public Library, and photographs from their Milan P. Warner collection will be on display. Warner, a Holyoke photographer in the 1880s and 1890s, captured beautiful black and white images of the town during its first industrial boom.

The exhibit will be on display through January at the State Library of Massachusetts, Room 341 of the Massachusetts State House.

- Lacy Crews Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian

The City of Holyoke circa 1876

Recently a patron requested The City of Holyoke: Its Water Power and Its Industries for use in the Special Collections reading room. Upon pulling the item it became clear that this pamphlet was in need of preservation work. Printed around 1876, this oversize pamphlet volume includes pictures of buildings and sites where water power was in use, such as paper mills.

Pages measure 17 inches by 22 inches and the cover is the same weight of paper as the rest of the pages. This item was folded in quarters and stored in an acid free envelope. As the printed paper aged it became acidic and the folds provided a weak point at which the paper cracked. Today the paper is very brittle at all folds, and small sections along the folds and edges have cracked off. The plan for this item is to flatten it, snip the thread keeping the center sections of the pamphlet together, repair each sheet with Japanese tissue, and assess the resulting item's strength. If needed single sheets will be encapsulated to provide further support.

Click on the image above to view the contact sheet of the pamphlet pages before repair. Stay tuned to the blog over the next several weeks to view progress on this pamphlet.

- Lacy Crews, Preservation Librarian