After Museum L-A has finished cataloging all 5,000 of its documents and artifacts, Executive Director Rachel Desgrosseilliers figures the museum — along with the Lewiston Public Library which is home to some historical documents — will have “the most complete documented history of the Industrial Revolution in New England, if not the country.”
Those documents and artifacts have to be stored while they are sifted through, photographed and catalogued in the computer.
“People are still donating items,” Desgrosseilliers said.
Whenever a historically important building is slated for demolition, Desgrosseilliers works hard to save pieces of it for a later display in the museum.
She has managed to save the mahogany rotunda with beveled glass from the former Auburn Post Office.
From the Empire Theater, she salvaged the ticket booth, chandelier, second-floor railing, seats, a popcorn machine and signs.
There are also wooden beams from Libbey Mill, Bates Mill and the Camden Yarns Mill in the museum’s collection.
On top of that are looms, Bates spread remnants, machines from the shoe industry, and many other historically significant artifacts.
“I need to decide if we’re going to keep all of the stuff from the machine shop. We don’t have the space to store it all,” Desgrosseilliers said. “And that’s the problem we’re running into. If we had to pay to store this, it would cost a mint.”
But while the museum is preparing the Camden Yarns Mill as the new location for Museum L-A, the staff is slowly culling its collection to the most important items and wondering where they’re going to keep it all.
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- Along with Bates of Maine artifacts, the storage of Museum L-A also includes machinery and relics from the shoe-making industry, including these wooden shoe forms.
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- The extensive collection of the Museum L-A includes original seats from the Empire Theater, along with the sign, the ticket booth, the second-floor railing, the chandelier and the popcorn machine salvaged before the building on Main Street in Lewiston was demolished in 2005.
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- In the basement of Mill 1, Museum L-A stores artifacts from the textile and shoe-making industries. Items in storage include a box of keys, a first aid kit and huge machines.
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- Equipment used to make Bates of Maine spreads are in Museum L-A’s collection, which was culled down when Bates Mill no. 5 was slated for demolition.
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- Punch cards from 1850 to 2001 are part of Museum L-A’s collection stored in a section of Bates Mill No. 5 that is safe from demolition. The punch cards contained patterns for the bedspreads and communicated the information to the looms.
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- The Bates sign is also in storage in Mill No. 5, waiting for a permanent home in Museum L-A.
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- When Mill No. 5 was slated for demolition, giant warp beams spooled with threads used to make Bates of Maine spreads had to be moved by crane.
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- “These were the only ones we were able to save,” said museum Director Rachel Desgrosseilliers, of the edging used on some Bates of Maine spreads.
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- Before Bates of Maine closed shop in 2001, anyone who purchased an original spread was given a certificate of ownership, and the company retained a copy for their records. Museum L-A has those certificates, along with thousands of other documents, and hopes to catalog them someday.
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- Large pieces of machinery in the basement of Mill No. 1 need to be moved and stored in a space large enough to accommodate the equipment as Museum L-A makes room for the brewery going into building 1A. “We won’t be able to keep it all,” lamented museum Director Rachel Desgrosseilliers.
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- Pieces of equipment used to make Bates of Maine spreads are in Museum L-A’s collection, which was culled down when Bates Mill No. 5 was slated for demolition.
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