New Collections added to Digital Commonwealth in November

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108 Book Fair Exhibit 1940
108 Book Fair Exhibit 1940 from Boston Children’s Museum Lantern Slides

Let us give thanks for November’s new collections.  And additions to existing collections.  But I was most taken with two of our new collections: Boston Children’s Museum Lantern Slides and the Washington Historical Commission Collection.

Many of the lantern slides are hand-colored, giving unnaturally rosy cheeks to all captured in the image.   I never knew the Children’s Museum started in Jamaica Plain, but you can see in the image at left that it was still there in 1940.  Not that the museum was parochial – you’ll see Images of international exhibits on Egypt, China and Scandinavia for a few.

The Washington Historical Commission Collection is a wonderful collection of images, texts and ephemera.  The Reward of Merit (Below right) is something I’ve never seen.  Apparently, they were handed out by teachers to students.  Who wouldn’t settle down to their studies if they were given certificates like this?

 

 

Reward of Merit from the Washington Historical Commission Messenger Collection
Reward of Merit from the Washington Historical Commission Messenger Collection

Boston Children’s Museum
Boston Children’s Museum Lantern Slides – 350 items

Boston Public Library
Paintings and Fine Arts Collection at the Boston Public Library – 5 items added to existing collection

Harvard Law School Library
Sacco-Vanzetti Collections -153 items added to existing collection

The Medford Historical Society & Museum
The Medford Historical Society Civil War Collection – 320 items
The Medford Historical Society Civil War Photograph Collection – 95 items added to existing collection

Southeast Asian Digital Archive – 4 collections, 337 items re-harvested

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library – 80 items re-harvested

Washington Historical Commission
Washington Historical Commission Collection – 573 items

Snow

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Blizzard of 1978
Blizzard of 1978 from Newton Free Library
Main St. after the blizzard of 1888
Main St. after the blizzard of 1888 from Lee Library Historical Collection

Every year there is a first substantial snow of the year.  As I type this, snow has just started falling in Boston.  Over the course of the Thanksgiving weekend, the prediction has gone from “up to 12 inches” to 6-12″, to 4-6″ to “wintry mix”.  I have no idea how much snow we’ll get in the end.  It definitely will make a difference if you’re in the Berkshires, Greater Worcester or south of the Pike.

Two things I do know: media forecasters will talk as if this is a never-seen-before event in Massachusetts and drivers across the state will drive like they’ve never seen snow before.  Come on, people.  We have snow every year.  Some storms are historic, like the Blizzard of ’78 or the Blizzard of ’88.  This time, though, the timing is everything.  The Blizzard of ’78 occurred in February, in 1888 it was March.

This time it’s Thanksgiving weekend.  One of the busiest travel days of the year.  No matter how much snow we get, it couldn’t come at a worse time.  So be smart, slow down, be careful and be safe.

Old-fashioned snow blizzard, Boston. Coldest snow blizzard at its height on Tremont St.
Old-fashioned snow blizzard, Boston. Coldest snow blizzard at its height on Tremont St. from Boston Public Library’s Leslie Jones Collection

Preserving local landmarks

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John Kennedy portrait
Portrait of John F. Kennedy from Historic New England. One of the politicians honored at Doyle’s.

Every town has one.  The general store where everyone discusses local politics.  The church where the community has potluck dinners.  The community center where the schools and amateur theater troupe put on shows.  They’re gathering places that you can’t imagine losing because they’ve always been there.  Until they’re not.

Someone retires, a weather disaster occurs, an owner gets an offer too good to decline and that local institution is gone.  What can you do to preserve it?  In Boston, the latest example was the closing of Doyle’s Cafe.  Doyle’s was an institution in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, known for attracting politicians and generations of families.  And for the memorabilia on its walls.  When the decision was made to close, the owners held an auction of its contents.

As reported on the Irish Central website, Digital Commonwealth and the Boston Public Library are teaming up to digitize any item purchased at the auction.  So, if you are losing a local institution and you can’t add its contents to your collections, think about having them digitized.  Chances are you have an image, maybe a map, that includes the institution, why not have a digital image of the furnishings, the banners, the costumes?  Enrich the memories and your collections before they’re lost.