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The Olive Tree |
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The Olive Tree |
The Manly Hardy Collection |
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by Betsy Paradis |
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Part of the Fogler staff since 1985, Paradis has worked in Special Collections for 11 years. She specializes in Maine History and Genealogy. |
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In the summer of 2000, the Special Collections Department of Fogler Library received a small but significant gift - a collection of materials related to Manly Hardy, 1832-1910, of Brewer, Maine. Hardy was the son of Jonathan T., and Catherine Sears Atwood Hardy and the father of Fannie Hardy Eckstorm, whose large collection of papers related to various Maine topics is already a part of Special Collections. The papers were collected and donated to the library by Ralph S. Palmer, of Tenants Harbor, Maine, who was interested in writing a biography of Manly Hardy and was given much of the original material in the collection by Mrs. Eckstorm and her sister, Charlotte Hardy. Manly Hardy was by trade a fur-dealer, but his soul was that of a naturalist. He traveled the waterways of northern Maine, learning canoeing and trapping from his Native American friends, and shared that knowledge with his daughter, Fannie, in later years, when she accompanied him on several trips. They both kept diaries of the adventures and used those experiences as a basis for later writing. Manly was a reluctant writer, but the articles that he wrote about hunting, trapping, and Maine’s natural environment for such publications as Forest and Stream were well received and enjoyed by many. Transcripts of his diaries and other writings make up about a third of the collection. |
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| Another third consists of correspondence of Manly, Fannie Hardy Eckstorm, and Jonathan T. Hardy. The correspondence ranges from personal letters between members of the Hardy family, to business correspondence with trappers and buyers, to letters of discussion and information sharing with other naturalists and publishers. Mr. Palmer’s extensive research notes and correspondence regarding the Hardy family and the life of Manly Hardy are also included in the collection. One notebook of particular interest is a chronology of Hardy’s life, prepared by Palmer, with notes added by his daughters and granddaughter. | |
| The balance of the collection is made up of a variety of personal and professional documents. Included are business ledgers of both Jonathan T. Hardy and Manly Hardy, which give an account of their fur-trading businesses from 1842 to 1895. Original drawings by Manly’s son, Walter, and transcriptions of his wildlife notes, are also included, as are family photographs and a folder of biographical and genealogical information regarding Manly and his family. A large portrait of Manly Hardy, painted by his cousin, Bangor artist Annie Hardy, also accompanies the collection. | |
| Local history researchers will find that the materials in this collection complement several other collections which relate to Bangor/Brewer history, such as the Chamberlain Family and Hamlin Family Papers, the James B. Vickery Collections and of course the Fannie Hardy Eckstorm Collection. The collection may also be of interest to anyone studying Maine wildlife, Penobscot Indians, ornithology, or fur-trading and trapping in Maine. | |