The State Library’s First Zoom Webinar—A Success!

On August 26th, from 2:00pm-3:00pm, the State Library’s Reference Department held its first ever Zoom webinar meeting to talk about collections available online through the Library that can help with legislative, regulatory, and government research.  Many government, law, and higher education libraries are still working remotely or are not yet providing onsite services to their patrons, so we thought it was important for this target audience to learn more about what resources are available through the State Library’s online repository, DSpace, as well as on our website.  

As it was our first online webinar hosted solely by Reference Department staff, we were unsure what the audience turnout would be.  We were surprised and excited to have a turnout that greatly exceeded our expectations!  (About 57 audience members!!!)  Thank you to everyone who joined us—we hope you found the webinar informative.  For those who were unable to join us, you’re in luck!  Both a recording of the webinar and the presentation slides are now available online:

Webinar recording (YouTube)
Presentation slides (downloads as a PDF)

The State Library also continues to provide remote services to patrons, so please feel free to reach out to us via chat, email (Reference.Department@mass.gov), or our online form.  We’re happy to answer any questions, help you find and navigate resources, and provide research assistance.

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

The Courageous Men of the 104th Infantry Regiment

Detail of Richard Andrew’s  “Decoration of the Colors of the 104th United States Infantry,”
painted in the State House in 1927.

If you’ve ever visited the Massachusetts State House, you’ll know the halls are filled with wonderful works of art.  Portraits, plaques, murals, and sculptures throughout the building all pay homage to notable people and events in Massachusetts history.

A large mural on the third floor features a group of WWI era soldiers standing with two flags.   The men are from the 104th infantry regiment of the 26th “Yankee” Division, and in this painted scene they become the first American military unit to have its colors (flag) decorated by a foreign government.

French corps commander General Fenelon Passaga awarded the decoration for the unit’s exceptional bravery during the Battle of Apremont on April 20, 1918.  “I am proud to decorate the flag of a regiment which has shown such fortitude and courage,” he said.  “I am proud to decorate the flag of a nation which has come to aid in the fight for liberty.”
 

Almost 10 years after the decoration ceremony, a reenactment was held at Camp Devens in  Ayer, Massachusetts. 
This photograph of the scene served as inspiration for the mural.



Julian T. Martin of Company L,
104th Infantry Regiment.

The State Library of Massachusetts is proud to own a collection of over 8,000 portraits of World War I soldiers from the Yankee Division, including many men from the 104th infantry.  Part of the collection was recently uploaded to our digital repository, and anyone can browse the online collection for soldiers with last names from O to Z.  Click here to see the DSpace collection of World War I photographs, or visit the State Library’s Special Collections department to request to see photographs in person.   The Library also has many materials on the history of the Yankee Division, including select regimental histories, newsletters, newspaper clippings, calendars of record, and more.

The mural of the 104th Infantry Regiment is located on the third floor between the Senate Leader and Senate Clerk’s offices, opposite the entrance to the House of Representatives.  The State Library is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday.
 




Bianca Hezekiah
Reference Department

World War One Soldier Portraits Now in Dspace

A portion of our World War I photograph collection has finally made its way online! Digitization of over 8,000 soldier portraits begun in 2007 and was finally completed last summer. After careful review of files and metadata, 1,800 images were recently uploaded to the State Library’s digital repository.

Now patrons are able to browse photographs of members of the 26th “Yankee” Division who were based at Camp Devens (now Fort Devens) in Ayer, Massachusetts. Many soldiers have more than one image in their record because of material written on the reverse side of their portrait. Valuable information like hometown, address, promotion, and even names of family members may appear here, so make sure to click “show full item record” to check for more files and a transcription of the text.

Click here to browse photographs of soldiers with names beginning with S – Z, and stay tuned for more notices about future uploads!

Bianca Hezekiah
Reference Department

Five Feet High and Rising

On a rainy May 16, 1874, residents of Williamsburg and surrounding towns were struck by disaster. Early that morning the Mill River Dam, which harnessed over six hundred million gallons of water, gave way, wiping out four villages, destroying homes and factories, and taking 139 lives early that morning. The explosive wave of water ranged between 20 and 40 feet wide, and was the length of a football field. It only grew larger as it barreled down the river bed, ripping sediment and trees out of the ground as it gained momentum. Survivors of the flood described it as an enormous cloud of dirt and debris (including furniture, farm animals, and even people) speeding downstream.

There was a coroner’s inquest to discover who was at fault. It was apparent that the mill owners who commissioned the dam construction in 1865 had no formal engineering training. After consulting with engineers on the potential project, the mill owners felt the proposals ranging around $100,000 were beyond their $30,000 budget. They instead decided to consult with a railroad engineer to write up an inexpensive and flexible design, and found contractors to do the work for a mere $22,000. After construction was complete, there was much speculation among professional engineers as well as villagers living around the dam as to its safety. These accounts of concern are well documented in the interesting and engaging book, In The Shadow of the Dam: the Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874 by Elizabeth M. Sharpe.

In 1875 the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed an Act which would hold builders of dams accountable for the first time. Plans for building would now have to be approved by county commissioners before construction began, and inspections would continue to take place even after construction was complete, in order to assure the safety of the structures. You can view the State Library's copy of An Act To Provide For The Supervision Of The Construction And Maintenance Of Reservoirs And Dams online.

-April Pierce, Special Collections intern

Newspaper image taken from Hartford Daily Courant, May 18, 1874, Hartford CT (courtesy of Newsbank and the American Antiquarian Society, 2004).

Learn About the State Library's Scanning Projects

An ongoing initiative at the State Library is the digitization of historic Massachusetts state documents. Small collections tend to be digitized in-house using state-of-the-art scanners, while larger projects are sent to the Boston Public Library’s scanning center. So far, the State Library has digitized around 1000 items, and that number increases daily.

The in-house scanning projects include the Legislative Biographical File, which contains information about members of the Massachusetts General Court and its predecessors, Massachusetts constitutional officers, and members of Massachusetts constitutional conventions from the colonial period to date. Also being scanned at the State Library is a collection of photographs of World War I soldiers from New England and the Zimmer Newspaper Index, which is a card index to "current events" from 1878-1937 for use by Massachusetts legislators and the public. The Zimmer Index was created as a result of the “Act to Authorize the Preparation for the State Library of an Index of Current Events," passed by the Massachusetts legislature in 1892.

Larger scanning projects, such as the journals of the House and the Senate, are sent to the scanning center at the Boston Public Library’s Central Library in Copley Square. Some items from a grant-funded scanning project are also being sent to the BPL; this project involves a collection of nineteenth-century transportation materials, including photographs, maps, atlases, annual reports, and manuscripts.

Digitized items are preserved both in the Internet Archive and the State Library’s online institutional repository, known as DSpace. The Internet Archive also includes other Massachusetts-related documents, such as town and regional histories, which have been scanned by other institutions.

- State Library Staff

Discover Digital Collections with DSpace

As the legally designated depository library for Massachu-setts state publica-tions, the State Library has the most complete collection of Massa-chusetts government documents in existence. As more and more state documents are being published electronically rather than in print, the State Library has adapted its method of preserving these documents through the use of an online institutional repository, known as DSpace.

Typically, the documents in DSpace are no more than 10 years old and are downloaded from state agencies’ websites for permanent preservation in the library’s institutional repository. Some examples include the Office of Campaign and Political Finance Reports, MBTA bond issues, and Division of Insurance Annual Reports.

Some older state documents are also available in DSpace. For example, the Acts and Resolves are available online from 1692 to the present, many volumes of which are located in DSpace. Other older materials include the Manual for the General Court (1858-2005), the Massachusetts Election Statistics (1890-2004), and the Annual Reports of the Attorney General (1832-present).

Please visit our online institutional repository and explore the many state documents there that are freely available to the public.

- State Library Staff