The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collecting area: Maine

Acadia Friends Meeting

Acadia Friends Meeting Records

1978-2007
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 A233

The Acadia Friends Meeting in Northeast Harbor, Maine, began as an independent worship group in 1975 under the care of Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting. It was accorded status as a monthly meeting in 1978.

This small collection consists of an imperfect run of meeting minutes and newsletters for the Acadia Monthly Meeting.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Northeast Harbor (Maine)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Massachusetts

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Newsletters
Belfast Area Friends Meeting

Belfast Area Friends Meeting Records

1990-1994
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 B454

The Belfast (Maine) Area Friends Meeting began as an independent worship group under the care of Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting in 1982. Two years after being set off as a monthly meeting in 1988, it changed its name slightly to the current Belfast Area Friends Meeting.

The Belfast Area Friends Meetings is sparsely documented, with only three state of the society reports from the early 1990s and an address listing of members.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Belfast (Me.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
Berwick Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends)

Berwick Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends) Records

1802-1975
10 vols., 1 box 1.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 B479

The fortunes of the Berwick (Maine) Monthly Meeting reflect the rise and decline of Quakerism in southern Maine more generally. Worship began in North Berwick in about 1750 and the Berwick Monthly Meeting was formally set off from its parent, Dover, in 1802. Following the Wilburite split, however, the meeting gradually declined. Regular meetings were suspended in 1919 and the meeting was formally laid down in 1952.

The surviving records of the Friends Monthly Meeting in North Berwick, Maine, contain the minutes of men’s, women’s, and joint meetings from throughout 1802, when it was set off from Dover Monthly Meeting, until it was laid down in 1952. The collection also contains records of births, deaths, and marriages under auspices of the meeting from the first worship in North Berwick in 1750 into the mid-nineteenth century.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Berwick (Me.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Vital records (Document genre)
Berwick Monthly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite : 1845-1881)

Berwick Monthly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite) Records

1845-1881
2 vols. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 W553 B479

The Friends’ Monthly Meeting at Berwick, Maine, divided during the Wilburite split of 1845, with the smaller Wilburite Meeting organized under the Wilburite Dover Quarterly Meeting (1845-1851) and then under the combined Salem and Dover Quarterly. Berwick was laid down on April 28, 1881, with its last recorded meeting on May 26, 1881. Its members joined Dartmouth Monthly Meeting (Wilburite).

Surviving records of this short-lived Wilburite Friends meeting include one volume each of minutes from the Men’s and Women’s meetings.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Berwick (Me.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--MaineWilburites

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of FriendsSouth Kingstown Monthly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite: 1845-1945)

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Blackington, Alton H.

Alton H. Blackington Photograph Collection

1898-1943
15 boxes 4 linear feet
Call no.: PH 061
Depiction of Fortune teller, ca.1930
Fortune teller, ca.1930

A native of Rockland, Maine, Alton H. “Blackie” Blackington (1893-1963) was a writer, photojournalist, and radio personality associated with New England “lore and legend.” After returning from naval service in the First World War, Blackington joined the staff of the Boston Herald, covering a range of current events, but becoming well known for his human interest features on New England people and customs. He was successful enough by the mid-1920s to establish his own photo service, and although his work remained centered on New England and was based in Boston, he photographed and handled images from across the country. Capitalizing on the trove of New England stories he accumulated as a photojournalist, Blackington became a popular lecturer and from 1933-1953, a radio and later television host on the NBC network, Yankee Yarns, which yielded the books Yankee Yarns (1954) and More Yankee Yarns (1956).

This collection of glass plate negatives was purchased by Robb Sagendorf of Yankee Publishing around the time of Blackington’s death. Reflecting Blackington’s photojournalistic interests, the collection covers a terrain stretching from news of public officials and civic events to local personalities, but the heart of the collection is the dozens of images of typically eccentric New England characters and human interest stories. Most of the images were taken by Blackington on 4×5″ dry plate negatives, however many of the later images are made on flexible acetate stock and the collection includes several images by other (unidentified) photographers distributed by the Blackington News Service.

Gift of Yankee Publishing, Mar. 2012

Subjects

Coolidge, Calvin, 1872-1933--PhotographsEarhart, Amelia, 1897-1937--PhotographsMaine--Social life and customs--PhotographsMassachusetts--Social life and customs--PhotographsNew England--Social life and customs--PhotographsNew Hampshire--Social life and customs--PhotographsRoosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945--PhotographsSacco-Vanzetti Trial, Dedham, Mass., 1921--Photographs

Types of material

Photographs
Brunswick Friends Meeting

Brunswick Friends Meeting Records

1990-1994
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 B786

The Brunswick Friend Meeting was established in 1983 after a year of unaffiliated worship under Falmouth Quarterly Meeting.

The records for the Brunswick Friends Meeting consist solely of State of the Society reports for the years 1990-1994.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Quakers--MaineSociety of Friends--MaineTopsham (Me.)--Religious life and customs

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
Chandler, John S., 1836-1916

John Chandler Account Book

1853-1914
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 287 bd

A mariner and whaleman originally from Provincetown, Massachusetts, John S. Chandler (1836-1916) relocated to Bucksport, Maine, in the 1870s to provide care for his aging in-laws.

Chandler’s account book and diary includes records of crewmembers on various voyages, accounts for labor, supplies, and merchandise, pasted-in bills for taxes, clothes, coal, boots, and other commodities, and a journal of Chandler’s farming activities, consisting of notes on labor performed, items and livestock sold, weather accounts, new purchases, and notation of personal visits and trips.

Subjects

Bucksport (Me.)--Economic conditionsBucksport (Me.)--Social life and customsFarmers--Maine--BucksportMerchant mariners--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryProvincetown (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryShip captains--Massachusetts

Types of material

Account books
Cobscook Monthly Meeting of Friends

Cobscook Monthly Meeting Records

1978-2006
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 C637

Cobscook Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends began in 1978, growing from the independent Whiting Meeting for Worship. Located in the town of Whiting in the easternmost stretch of the state of Maine, it is a member of the Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting.

The records of Cobscook Monthly Meeting include a nearly comprehensive set of meeting minutes, with only a few brief gaps in the early years.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Quakers--MaineSociety of Friends--MaineWhiting (Me.)--Religious life and customs

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Newsletters
Durham Friends Meeting

Durham Friends Meeting Records

1967-2017
7 vols., 2 boxes 2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 D874
Depiction of Durham Friends Meetinghouse
Durham Friends Meetinghouse

Durham Friends Meeting was set off as a monthly meeting under Salem Quarter in 1790, and was transferred to Falmouth Quarter in 1794. Leeds Monthly was set off from Durham in 1813, and Durham over saw a preparative meeting in the adjoining town of Lewiston until it, too, was set off in 1980.

The records of Durham Monthly Meeting consist of minutes of the meeting for business since 1987 and newsletters from 1967 to the present. Older records for the meeting are held at the Maine Historical Society

Gift of NEYM and Durham Friends Meeting

Subjects

Durham (Me.)--Religious life and customsNew England Yearly Meeting of FriendsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Newsletters
Farmington Monthly Meeting of Friends

Farmington Monthly Meeting Records

1984-2012
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 F376

After eight years as a Quaker worship group, Farmington Monthly Meeting was set off from Pondtown in 1991, becoming one of the newest members of Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting. Worship at Farmington is unprogammed.

Particularly for the early years, minutes for the Farmington Monthly Meeting were recorded (or preserved) somewhat irregularly, though continuously from 1984 to 2012. The collection also contains a set of state of the society reports. information on membership, and memorials.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Farmington (Me.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)