In 2022, the Boothbay Region Historical Society embarked on an ambitious project to digitize the entire contents of its collections – documents, photographs, and, yes, even objects. The goals of the project are to protect the collections by reducing handling and related wear, to preserve important information should the originals be lost or damaged, and to make the collections accessible to the largest possible audience.

This November, the project reached an important milestone by completing the digitization of the Society’s History Files. These are, as their name suggests, a large collection of files containing both primary and secondary materials covering every aspect of the history of the Boothbay region. They are organized into 200 subject matter folders and contain, all told, nearly 5,000 documents. A list of the subjects covered by the History files (“History Files (list)”), together with a document-by-document index to their contents (“History Files (document-level index)”), may be found on the Society’s website at https://boothbayhistorical.org/research-at-the-brhs/.

In fact, on the Society’s website there is a separate index for every one of its 17 different collections, along with an 1,100-page master index that combines the contents of all 17 indexes. These indexes, which catalogue virtually every item in the Society’s archives and museum, are keyword-searchable.

The Society also holds a collection of approximately 15,000 photographs, many from the Nineteenth Century. Nearly 70% of this collection has now been scanned as high-resolution digital images.

Scanning of the photograph collection will continue, while the document scanners will turn to their next project – scanning the Society’s Family History files. These consist of 45 linear feet of documents and 3x5 note cards covering over 700 surnames of families from our area. Not only are these files an invaluable research tool for anyone doing genealogical research, but they are far easier to consult digitally (particularly the note cards) than in the physical files. The master index of the Family History Files is available at https://boothbayhistorical.org/research-at-the-brhs/.

The Society hopes that eventually, in addition to these indexes, some or all of its digitized collections can be made available on the Society’s website. At present, however, they must be consulted at the Society.

None of this could have happened without our wonderful volunteers. This past summer and fall, the digitization project advanced rapidly thanks to the numerous scanning volunteers who filled all of our available slots. Many of these, however, were seasonal visitors who have now returned home, and we have unfilled slots. The slots are 10 a.m. to noon and noon to 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Typically, a volunteer signs up for a specific slot and works at that same time each week. If you are interested in filling one of these slots to help continue our important work, please contact Merritt Blakeslee at brhs@gwi.net.