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Page THE HERALD Wednesday February Archives lead path to Ha I tons treasured past Walter Lewis presides over the towns history ByALANMACKIE the Herald Can one man fLU a room full of old public documents historical maps historical photographs old phone books and newspapers by himself when it takes so many peo ple to retrieve and preserve just one artifact a 132yearold piece entitled Map County of Halton One man is trying but hes get ting a lot of help Looking through the library for research materials you may reach a door with a label on it which reads Archives Its a small looking door beside a monstrous map that hangs on the dimly lit wall Beside the map is a plaque that rhymes off the people who made the map possible including Marion Young Mary S Cooper John Mowat Marshall the Dominion Seed House the Glen Williams Town Hall Board the Es Historical Society the Georgetown Chamber of Com merce in honor of Walter Biehn and Keith Bookbinding The map was originally printed in four pieces but due to the acid in the glue that held the map together the paper weakened and left the map In over pieces said Walter Lewis a research librarian who is in charge of the archival collec tions of the Historical Society and The Halton Hills Public Library The fact that someone donated something Is historically Important Walter Lewis It cost around to put the map together and frame it Mr Lewis noted There are very few of these in public hands he said He only knows of two in public hands One is down in Oakville and the other is at the Georgetown library The map was printed in 1858 in four pieces because there was not a large enough printer to print it on one piece of paper Mr Lewis noted The map is just one of the few documents in the archives that is not sealed in the small archives room Mr Lewis explained the Good service good coverage good price- Thats State Farm insurance 1 Guelph St Georgetown 8731833 Like a good neighbor State Farm is there STAT FARM frame seals the picture from any harmful environmental dangers and the glass has a special filter aspect to it to help battle against light fading the maps lines The actual archives room is fair ly small and appears to be com pletely filled with all sorts of various artifacts There is an ac count book from a general store in Stewarttown that dates in the 1830s The oldest newspaper in the col lection is the June 12 edition of the Canadian Champion based in Georgetown The Champion mov ed to Milton a few years later Mr Lewis said In the 1820s farmer George Ken nedy and Sarah Bedford were mar and the archives received a certificate of of the cou pie The certificate came from the prairies with the help of Mayor Russ Miller Mr Lewis noted The small archives room was not always filled with such knowledge and information The library was renovated in the fall of 1981 and Mr Lewis started in the spring of as a reference librarian Part of his job was to work with the Esquesing Historical Society to create the archives The room was empty when I started Mr Lewis noted He quickly added that he did not fill the room but organized it He said the people who donate pieces to the archives come from all walks of life Some people do not want to play favorites in leav items to their children so they decide to leave them to the com he said Other people who are leaving the area feel they want to leave certain items with the ar chives instead of taking them away from the community Mr Lewis also said some people have been able to obtain tax reciepts for their donations But this happens quite rarely He does realize how tough the decision to donate an item to the archives is This is one of the reasons the archives tries to keep a separate piece of documentation so people know who donated a specific item The other reason is the fact that someone donated something is historically important separate Waller Lewis searches out one of the older document contained in the archival collections of the Historical Society and Hills Public Library in the small archive room in the Georgetown Public Library Herald photo from how historically important the donation is Mr Lewis said For example the first major dona to the archives was made by Walter who was a member of the Esquesing Historical Society and a publisher for the Herald He donated numerous copies of the paper and any other information he could give to the archives But whether the donation is a small piece or a major collection does not matter since Mr Lewis tries to treat every donation the same way This includes a letter of thanks Mr Lewis noted Mr Lewis has two degrees history from Queens University and a masters degree of library science from the University of Toronto He has spent eight years working at the Halton Hills Library and with the archives The archives door is kept closed with the lights turned off to help protect the documents within the room Mr Lewis said He also noted the acidity of paper can also destroy it People who tend to keep a newspaper for some time will notice it turning yellowish in color he said This is due to the acid the pulp industry adds to the papers Mr Lewis said the industry only started to add the acids after The paper that came out before 1880 will last as close to forever as we can en vironmentally keep it Paper pro duced after needs to be kept apart from other pieces to prevent the acids migrating from one piece to another This can be done using acid free folders and boxes Special 1 repilnt gome negative or enlargement at our and receive the 2nd print of the ONLY ONE CENT rSrst 69 1 79 1 149 It 8X10 5 1 g99 It 16X20 1499 1 on Free Film Free replacement roil of Sooters Suprenu Quality high resolution color film with every roll of color negative film processed at Sooters ISO 100 15 or EXPOSURES 211GUELPHST CENTRE GEORGETOWN Mr Lewis said A good environment will also control temperature and humidity he said He added there are a number of features in the library that allow items to last longer than in most Georgetown homes The future for the archives looks very tight Mr Lewis said The library itself will be getting cramped and within the next three to five years it will lose a large amount of pubbc studying space he predicted I can only see it the archive collections growing he said We are at one level a victim of the success we have had over the past few years he said We have col- lected almost as much as we can future store he said Mr Lewis does not see this as a bad problem I would rather have that problem of having too many items than if no one cared enough or had anything to give He already knows of a couple of possible solutions to this good problem One solution is to put everything on microfilm and keep the original copies in a different place Another solution is assuming the library moves the archives could use the existing building or gain a larger place at the new library site he said He added there is nothing that says to me that this inflow of documents isdryingup Mark president of the Es queuing Historical Society said people have been approaching the society with items they believed they could not keep in a state of good repair One of the societys objectives is to collect and preserve local history which is the main reason for creating the archives Mr said He also would like to see all the archives readily accessible to the public This is the reason Mr Lewis keeps strict records of all the items in the archives As people come to know about the archives they will start to have more confidence in the fact they can look at the items they have donated Mr Rowe said Mr noted it is not in conceivable that the archives may move into its own building in the 1990 Do you know someone who deserves a medal If you know someone who has made Ontario a better place to live through their selflessness humanity and kindness tell us An Advisory Council of Ontario citizens whose honorary chairman is the Lieutenant Cover nor of Ontario The Honourable Lincoln Alexander selects the recipients from nominations made by you each year We need your nominations by March 15 Nomination forms are available now by writing The Ontario Honours and Awards Secretariat Ministry of mental Affairs Floor Mowat Block Bay Street Toronto M7A or from your M constituency office The Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship