By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

Somewhere, there’s a marble bust of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the Bowdoin College professor who won a medal of honor and fame as the “Hero of Little Round Top.”

The bust should be on display at the Hall of Flags in the State House in Augusta. After all, once Chamberlain helped win the Civil War for the north, he went on to serve four terms as Maine’s governor.

But the bust is still missing.

It hasn’t been seen since sometime around 1910, the year the State House was renovated with the addition of its dome and other work.

Matthew Dunlap would love to see it back in the Hall of Flags.

Dunlap is Maine’s secretary of state. Part of his job is watching over Maine’s public property – things like the Chamberlain bust – and especially its public records.

He’s hoping Mainers will help preserve that property. In recent years, some public records, often town documents detailing such things as meeting minutes, election results and the like, have started showing up at yard and rummage sales and auctions, both traditional and digital. An original copy of the Declaration of Independence sent to one southern Maine town more than 200 years ago is currently one such item the state is trying to regain.

It’s against Maine law for an individual to sell the state’s public records. Most people, however, aren’t aware of the law, which makes unauthorized sale or transfer of records a Class D crime.

Often people come across town – and sometimes, state – records stored away in musty chests in an attic corner. Because there’s a market for such old papers, the finders try to capitalize on their discovery by selling the material.

These days, though, when, say, birth records from a deorganized town or plantation show up on eBay, auctioneers may learn quickly about the law. A notice has been sent out from Maine State Archives officials advising people who run sales sites about the law prohibiting such sales.

Dunlap said that already some people have forwarded to the state public records they had planned to sell at auction.

“These are valuable historic documents,” Dunlap said. “They’re irreplaceable.”

Occasional sleuthing

Archivists and others who work for the state aren’t surfing eBay or other auction sites on a regular basis, but every once in a while someone will do a random search for Maine materials. If any are found, sellers are contacted and encouraged to send the records to the state.

It’s rare when there’s an objection. There is one challenge under way, though. Dunlap said someone is contesting the state’s claim to an original copy of the Declaration of Independence. Such copies had been sent to the nation’s towns shortly after the Founding Fathers penned the famous document. They were typically nailed to the bulletin board of a town hall or, sometimes, a barn door.

Dunlap said this particular copy had been sent to a southern Maine town and, at some point, disappeared, only to show up recently in a southern state. A legal challenge has been lodged against Maine’s claim, which has yet to be resolved.

The importance of public documents was underscored during repeated challenges by New Hampshire to Maine’s assertion of its right to tax earnings by Mainers working at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Because the state had ancient maps and other documents showing the shipyard is physically situated, in part, on land that’s in Maine, the nation’s Supreme Judicial Court supported the state’s position.

Now, Dunlap says, he’s working to lay the foundation for new guidelines that will govern the archiving of electronic records.

“One of the great tragedies of Maine public policy is that it loses some electronic data right now,” he said. “Who’s to say whether my e-mail to the governor today will be important tomorrow? We need to find a way to capture and keep digital data.”

Maine’s archives have 3 million records, Dunlap said, but that’s only about 15 percent of the records generated by cities, towns, counties and state government.

As for yesterday’s records, Dunlap says everyone can help in preserving them.

“Just be aware,” he said. “If you go to a yard sale and see a town record for sale, put up the $2, then give it back to the town.”

Oh, and if the Chamberlain bust is gathering dust in a corner of the root cellar, give Dunlap a call. He’ll see to it that it gets picked up too, no charge.