Old town map discovered in drawer takes finders back to 1830s
Franklin, Mass. (AP) — Sometimes, it takes a map to locate historical treasures — the proverbial “x” marks the spot on a faded document, in ink turned brown.
But at the Franklin library, it is a map that is actually the treasure: An age-stained, 26by-20 3/8-inch document that provides a view of the town’s layout when Andrew Jackson was in the White House — and Princess Victoria was still five years shy of ascending the throne of Great Britain.
Recently, a custom-framed reproduction of the map was put up for display in the hallway by the circulation desk on the first floor of the library, so it could be shared with the public. The original, restored through the efforts of the Friends of the Franklin Library, is carefully stored in the library’s new climate-controlled archives room.
“It was found rolled up in a drawer, as I’m told, during packing up for the renovations,” said Phil Sweeney, president of the
Friends board, referring to the renovation and expansion project completed in 2017.
It is not known how long the original map remained in the drawer in the former young adults room before its rediscovery, but it showed signs of not having been handled for a very long time — rolled for such an extended period that “the top and bottom edges of the map had to be weighted down in order to open the map for viewing,” according to conservators with Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover who did the restoration over several months starting mid 2018.
“The paper was quite darkened and stiff,” the conservators indicated in a summary of the map’s restoration, and “the edges of the map had numerous small losses.”
“It was very crispy,” said reference librarian Vicki Earls, noting that before the library renovations, some items such as this early map of Franklin that were stored away in drawers “were at the mercy of the environment.”
Dated to 1832, the original map shows Franklin the way it was laid out when the town — now 242 years old — was 54.
“It was a very young town, absolutely, at that time,” Sweeney said while recently showing off the reproduction, as well as the restored original.
The population of the town at the time was so small, he noted, that “the mapmaker took the time to print the family name on each house on the map. You wouldn’t do that today.”
The map also shows the location of various taverns and schools, in addition to ponds, wetlands, streams and roads.
“What I’d like to do is identify some of the buildings that are on the map that are still here,” Sweeney said.
The original map is done in black ink on heavy tan woven paper with a fabric backing. It includes numerous annotations, written by hand, and shows all known streets in Franklin at the time. The map was originally produced by Pendleton’s Lithography of Boston from a survey that was commissioned by the town’s Board of Selectmen in 1831.
According to the conservators, the map had been reinforced with “bands of heavy twill fabric adhered with a thick, very dark brown adhesive which was possibly animal glue.”
During restoration, the map was “humidified and washed in a series of filtered warm water baths to clean the paper and reduce staining, discoloration and acidity.”
In all, the Friends invested $2,300 in restoring the map and then having a reproduction made.
“It seemed like such a shame to have this cool thing and not have anybody see it,” said Sweeney of the desire to have a reproduction made for every day viewing while keeping the original safe for viewing within the archive room.
Sweeney said having such items is significant, in his mind, because it is “sort of a continuation of a long history.”
“Maybe it’ll be here for another 200 years,” he said.
“Really, keeping our past through the preservation of documents that represent our past is part of the library’s mission,” said Earls.
She noted that the library has some other antique maps, the oldest of which are border maps from 1778 — the year the town was incorporated. The 1832 map is among the oldest.
The newly displayed reproduction map, and the story behind its discovery and restoration, just go to show an interesting aspect of history: While history may seem like a static thing, already written and lacking the dynamic twists and turns of current events — something that is done — it has a way of surfacing new information at the most unexpected moments, writing new passages, and changing its narrative.