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| SPRING 2009 | Volume 17 Number 1 |
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Library Receives Native American Collection |
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| SPRING 2009 | Volume 17 Number 1 |
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Library Receives Native American Collection |
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| In this issue:
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In October 2008, the Special Collections department of Fogler Library received a collection of materials providing significant documentation of the Penobscot language and traditional Penobscot stories. The collection was donated by Richard Garrett, and consists of copies of the field notes of Dr. Frank T. Siebert, a physician who amassed one of the largest collections of books and manuscripts relating to Native Americans and who spent many years studying and writing about Penobscot language and culture. |
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Garrett, a professional photographer, worked with Siebert on some of
his projects and is continuing Siebert’s work by creating a
computerized Penobscot dictionary that will feature audio files to
insure proper pronunciation of words. This work will also be deposited
in Fogler Library when it is completed. Though Frank Siebert was not a professional social scientist, the importance of his work as collector of Native American materials and as Penobscot linguist are widely recognized. This is reflected in the fact that some of the materials he collected are now at the Library of Congress, the Bodleian Library at Yale University, and other major research libraries, while some of his personal papers, mainly correspondence, are held at the Newberry Library in Chicago. The Frank Siebert Papers (MS 1494) will augment the documentation of Wabanaki history and culture found in the Fannie Hardy Eckstorm Papers (MS 158), held by Fogler Library, and the papers of Frank Speck relating to Wabanaki culture (MS 1329), copies of which were provided to Fogler Library by the American Philosophical Society Library in Philadelphia. Fogler Library will continue to actively collect materials that provide documentation of the history, languages and cultures of Maine’s native peoples. |
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