Many people in the photos need to be identified; the public is asked to help.

LEWISTON – Fred Lebel, former head of Bates Fabrics, who is keeping Lewiston’s 150-year-old bedspread-making tradition alive as president of Maine Heritage Weavers, has donated an important compilation of photos of Bates Manufacturing workers to the Franco-American Heritage Collection at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College.

The collection marked the occasion by reuniting Lebel with long-time colleagues, Donat E. Boisvert and Raoul Philippon. The photos span several decades starting in the mid-40s and, in addition to Bates Mill, also include employees of the Hill and Androscoggin mills as well as the Edwards Division in Augusta and the York Division in Saco.

Lebel noted that these photographs are significant because they focus on the people who worked in the mills, and most of them were Franco-Americans. He has given these photos to the collection in order to preserve them and also make them accessible to the public.

Many of the people in the photos still need to be identified. Lebel, Boisvert and Philippon, who together represent more than 125 years of service at Bates, are involved in naming the workers. Members of the public who worked at Bates are invited to join the effort.

The pictures can be examined from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays and until noon Thursdays at the collection on Westminster Street.

Anyone interested in assisting or who may possess similar material they wish to have preserved is encouraged to call 753-6545.

The Franco-American Heritage Collection, formerly known as the Centre d’Heritage Franco-Americain, is the largest repository of Franco-American archival material in the state, with material on politics, religion, language, education, industry and business, theater and music, genealogy, Lewiston-Auburn history and civic leaders.

All archives are catalogued and preserved in a state-of-the-art climate-controlled facility. An extensive book collection is also maintained in the Madeleine Giguere Reading Room. Anyone interested is encouraged to visit or to check out the Web page at usm.maine.edu/lac/franco.

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