Their stories are both part of the Gouldsboro Historical Society’s “Archive Without Walls” digital collection that launched today. You’re invited in for a first look at the ground floor. Admission charge? — $0.00!
GHS’s digital collection is part the Digital Archive offered by The History Trust, a consortium of more than a dozen local non-profits (last summer, GHS became #13) that collaborate to safeguard historical collections of coastal Maine’s Acadia region. The goal is to catalogue and share this material, making it a one-stop-searching spot for perusing historical items from throughout the entire region. To date, there are more than 45,000 items in the catalogue, easily searchable using keywords.
GHS’s collection grows daily. Just type “Gouldsboro” into the Digital Archive search box to see what we have so far. Or enter the name of a place, person, event, or other keyword and see what turns up…
The salt water farmer?
That’s Lutee M. Guptill, and her 5-year diary is part of our digital collection. Lutee was born in Gouldsboro in 1873 and died after the end of WWII at the age of 76. She and her older brother Marcus, both single, lived on their family’s farm in West Bay their entire lives. Her daily journal covers January 1939 to October 1943. In her terse 2–10 word diary entries, she poignantly depicts mourning, dealing with a winter death, loss and loneliness, and loved ones going off to fight a war, balanced by new babies, family dinners, joining the Seaside Grange, and the weather: all while continuing the milking, churning, cooking, washing, ironing, and mending of farm life. Enter “Lutee Guptill” in the Digital Archive search box to find her diary.
The country doctor?
Dr. Nathaniel Pendleton served the residents of Gouldsboro from the mid-1830s until his death in 1877. He too chronicled his daily activities as a doctor, businessman, ship owner, Justice of the Peace, and postmaster in a “pocket diary.” The volumes from 1852 to 1874 have been preserved and protected by six generations of his descendants. These were graciously loaned to GHS to be scanned and shared online. Just enter “Pendleton Diary set” in Digital Archive, then select the item with his photo. That will open the collection of his diaries, plus photos and a short bio.
