Special Collections: Guide to the Fred Alliston Gilbert Papers

Summary Information:

Collection Title: Fred Alliston Gilbert Papers
Date of Collection: 1900-1973
Box Numbers: Box 551 - 574
Quantity: 26 boxes (29 linear ft.)

Administrative Information:

Provenance:  Gift of Charles Gilbert, Sept. 1972
Access Restrictions: Restricted. Contact Special Collections Dept. for details
Preferred Citation: Fred Alliston Gilbert Papers,  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine
Copyright: Contact department for copyright information

For Additional Information:
Special Collections Department
University of Maine
5729 Fogler Library
Orono, Maine 04469-5729
(207) 581 1686

Biographical Information:

Fred Gilbert began his career in the Maine woods working for his father in the 1880's, struck out on his own in partnership with (among others) McNulty and Stetson, and then in 1900 went to work for the Great Northern Paper Company as vice-president and chief of the Spruce Wood Department until 1928 when he was succeeded by Bill Hilton.

Scope and Contents:

Papers relating to the logging industry in Maine and the Great Northern Paper Company. Included are items concerned with harvesting, stumpage, and logging operations, Also correspondence with Great Northern’s President, Garret Schenck. 

The papers are a rich source of information on the Great Northern paper company woods operations in the first quarter of the century. Gilbert's extensive correspondence with Company President Garret Schenck details all aspects of Gilbert's work in the woods as well as his efforts to lobby Augusta in favor of the company. 

The various notebooks seem to be the only material in the collection that date from Gilbert's activities prior to his work for Great Northern. They are various memorandum, laborers' time, day and account books from Gilbert's logging partnerships with Stetson and McNulty in the late 1880's and 1890's

Notes on Arrangement:

The papers themselves are not arranged, but preserve much of Gilbert's original filing system, with letters filed by letter of author/recipient and then bunched by year. Such personal correspondence comprises the bulk of the collection. Individuals with whom he communicated frequently had their correspondence in separate files, one for each year. Probably the best example of this filing system are the many large files containing Gilbert's correspondence both in-coming and out-going, with Garret Schenck and his successor William Whitcomb.

Mixed in with the letters are a great number of files. While it's difficult to characterize this miscellaneous material, much of it consists of file folders, broken down by township, containing surveyor's reports, and often cruising maps and logging plans. There are also important reports prepared for the company on the Grand Falls, NB power project, the proposed Quebec extension railroad across Northern Maine, and other matters.

Files sorted Alpha, refers to those letters for which Gilbert's filing system remains intact. In other cases, letters have been lumped together by year, or, in some cases, just stuffed in loose, without any apparent order.

Arrangement:

Arranged as per Gilbert, although the order of boxes has been adjusted to bring like materials together.

Finding Aid:

1 General correspondence and correspondence with Garret Schenck, 1909-1914
2 Correspondence, 1914-1917-1918
3 Correspondence, 1917-1918-1921
4 Correspondence, 1921 (Schenck)-1922
5 Correspondence, 1922-1923
6 Correspondence, 1923-1924
7 Correspondence, 1924-1925
8 Correspondence, 1926
9 Correspondence, 1927
10 Correspondence, 1927-1928
11 Correspondence, 1928-1929
12 Correspondence, 1929-1930
13 Correspondence, 1930-1931
14 Correspondence, 1931-1932
15 Correspondence, 1933-1939; Gilbert personal financial records: checkbooks, cancelled checks, etc., 1920s
16 Cancelled checks, 1928-1930; bills and receipts (personal and professional), 1919-1921
17 Bills and receipts (mostly personal), 1921-1924
18 Check registers, bills and receipts (unsorted)
19 Vouchers (unsorted), one folder of family photographs
20 Great Northern Paper Company (GNP) reports on property, etc.
21 GNP miscellaneous reports, etc.
22 GNP miscellaneous reports, etc.
23 GNP reports on property; miscellaneous reports
24 GNP miscellaneous reports, etc.
25 Miscellaneous memo books, some from Gilbert and McNulty or Stetson and Gilbert
26 Miscellaneous subject files of Fred Gilbert

Three linear feet of ledgers.

 

Finding Aids for selected manuscript collections in the Special Collections Department at Fogler Library are accessible online in URSUS, in a browsable Guide to Manuscript Collections. Please contact Special Collections at spc@umit.maine.edu or (207) 581-1686 for further information.

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Special Collections Staff: spc@umit.maine.edu | Revised: 01/15/2013