Biographical Information:  

            James B. Vickery was born in Unity, Maine in 1917, and grew up there. Vickery was educated at Maine Central Institute and Bates College and received a master’s degree at the University of Maine. He worked as a teacher in the Maine school system for many years, and was a scholar, editor, historian and researcher, as well as one of the foremost experts on Maine history. Over a more than thirty year period, he collected thousands of books, letters, and other documents relating to Maine history and Maine families, with a special emphasis on Bangor and its surrounding areas. After his death in 1997, his extensive collection of Maine historical books and documents was divided among several institutions, including Fogler Library.         

Contents: 

          The Vickery manuscript collection contains a wide range of material related to Maine history, Maine families, Maine towns, and the Civil War, as well as a lot of general Maine material and some general interest material. The most prominent subjects include: Bangor, ME; Joshua L. Chamberlain; Civil War (mostly letters, organized by family name). Types of material include: correspondence; deeds; diaries; Maine families (history, genealogy, and letters); letters; Maine; marriage records; newspapers; scrapbooks; ships, etc. 

Organization of Collection:

           The collection is organized alphabetically into sections by subject headings, ie. “Families” or “Civil War”; however material which does not fit under a specific subject has been placed alphabetically by the title on the individual folders. For example, there is no specific section for cities and towns; they are distributed throughout the collection.

Finding Aid: 

Box 2668               (Contains Bangor and Joshua Chamberlain Papers)

Box 2669               (Contains Civil War Papers)

Box 2670               (Contains Civil War Papers)

Box 2671               (Contains Correspondence, Diaries, and Families Papers)

Box 2672               (Contains Families: Connor Papers)

Box 2673               (Contains Families: Cutter through Pickering Papers)

Box 2674               (Contains Prentiss Family  Papers and others)

(see also Civil War: Prentiss, Box 2671 f89-95) 

Box 2675               (Genealogy, letters, Maine items, marriage records, etc.)  

Box 2676               (Miscellaneous items, newspapers, scrapbooks, etc.)

Box 2677               (letters and awards of James B. Vickery)  

Box 2678               (letters and awards of James B. Vickery and other material)  

Box 2679               (oversized materials)  

FOLIO ITEMS  

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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