WHAT'S NEW AT THE LIBRARY
AND RESOURCE CENTER?

Claudia Shutter and Claudette Newhall, both retired master’s level librarians, have volunteered to lead the efforts to return the Society’s historical library and genealogical resource center to the first floor of the Barn addition where it was originally intended to be. Many of you will remember the October 2018 Grand Reopening of the Gilbert L Bean Barn and Mary Bean Cunningham Historical Resource Center. Without the efforts of Claudia and Claudette and a team of volunteers supporting them, this would not have been possible. 

Over the course of the last several years, Director Gail Saccone has been painstakingly reviewing the contents of each of the Library's acid-free boxes that contain documents from Braintree town departments, clubs, societies, churches, schools and papers of noteworthy residents and sorting and organizing the contents to optimize their usefulness to researchers.  

With the addition of one new map/large document file cabinet to add to the three already onsite, Mary Frazier, Ruth Powell, and our librarians have been involved in an ongoing process of reviewing the Society’s large historical maps and documents. Efforts have focused on sorting what is and is not in adequate condition to retain for our collection, while at the same time unrolling, encapsulating, sorting and filing these valuable items. The large collection of rolled maps and documents awaiting flattening have been organized and stored in climate-controlled locations on the ground level and lower level of the archives. With our flat storage capacity expanded by 33%, the map cabinets have been reorganized into new categories while the development of an inventory list continues to move forward. An assessor’s map on the wall on in the library guides researchers to old Town assessor’s records listing the history of properties in Braintree. 

Braintree Post 86 American Legion “Braintree Remembers” World War I Memorial Archive

The American Legion was organized in March of 1919 by the veterans of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Paris, France.  Braintree Post 86 received its preliminary Charter on July 1, 1919 and is one of the oldest American Legion Posts in the United States.In February 2017, as part of the Centennial Observance of US entry into armed combat in World War I, what has come to be called the “Braintree Remembers” Project was started by long time Braintree Historical Society member, and Post 86 Historian, Patrick J. Leonard, Jr., who is the Coordinator of the program. 

One part of this project is an Archive of Braintree people, and people with significant Braintree connections who served in the armed forces during World War I, or supported the war effort in some way.  Post 86 provided funding for the purchase of three new four drawer file cabinets, and the initial orders of filing materials. At present there are over 1,200 individual files in the Archive at the Barn/Museum, including men, women, children and a variety of organizations including churches and schools, fraternal and social groups, and youth groups.  Files can include photos, military records, newspaper clippings, and other memorabilia.

BHS Board Member Mrs. Adrienne Whitehouse has done extensive research on Ancestry.com, and other sources, and her work has added greatly to family information included in the Archive.

 If you have an ancestor who served in WWI, and who was a Braintree resident or had a connection to Braintree before, during or after the war, your ancestor may be in the Archive!  You may learn some “new” family history about your family’s connection to the “War to End All Wars”!

Volunteer Kari Mofford currently working on organizing, assessing and cataloging the Society’s large collection of glass negatives from Braintree photographers whose old negatives include a wide range of area subjects, including streets, buildings, people and local areas of significance. Once this cataloging and filing process is complete, those negatives that will tolerate the process will be developed into new photos to add to the Society’s large collection of old Braintree-centered photographs. 

As the deep reorganization and cataloging of the Resource Center’s genealogical information and files continues, the librarians are excited about the news that Braintree’s Town Records from 1640 through 2006 have now been digitized through a service administered by the Boston Public Library. These records now reside in the Internet Archive. 

Are you Interested in finding out something about Braintree? Visit the library to see what the Braintree-centered historical library and genealogical resource center have to offer. Better yet, volunteer and help the librarians to continue the reorganization process and to assist researchers.