 |
Members
of the group pose in the State Library’s conference
room, one of them holding a
facsimile of Jacques Nicolas
Bellin’s 1760 map of Boston. |
On May 20, 2019, the State Library hosted a meeting of Government Publications Librarians of New England. The group meets twice a year and we discuss topics and host speakers relevant to federal government documents. We had a presentation from a staff member from Project Citizenship, a non-profit that seeks to increase the naturalization rate in Massachusetts and beyond by providing free, high-quality services to permanent resident to help them become U.S. citizens the different paths people have for becoming citizens. I gave them a tour of our spring exhibit on early advertisements in city directories. I also showed them the artwork and architecture of the third (Room 341) and fourth (Room 442) floors of the State Library.
The group also toured the State Library’s Special Collections Department, which is in a different part
of the State House (basement level, west wing); the department head showed us examples of the types of holdings that department handles. We saw a bird’s-eye view map of Arlington, Massachusetts, both before and after careful cleaning treatment by the Library’s former Preservation Librarian; a hand-colored 1760 map of Boston that shows a very different land mass than we know today; a volume of photographs of members of the state Senate from 1880, featuring men with significant facial hair; the Library’s earliest city directory (1789, Boston); a volume of the newspaper the
New England Chronicle from 1776 that includes the text of the Declaration of Independence; an 1862 issue of the short-lived
Russell’s Horse Railroad Guide for Boston and Vicinity; and a beautiful facsimile volume of William Bradford’s
Of Plimoth Plantation. (Note: the entire
Bradford manuscript is available in digital format in our digital repository, DSpace.) For more information about some of our resources please see our list of
city directories and a list of our
early newspapers including the New England Chronicle.
The group really appreciated their time spent at the State Library of Massachusetts.
Naomi Allen
Reference Librarian
