Page 5 - The Bell Tower - Summer/Fall 2015

John Martin’s Papers Enter Library
Over 350 cardboard boxes are in haphazard stacks within a room on the second floor of the University of Maine at Fort Kent Blake Library. The boxes contain the John Martin Papers, including a recent shipment that arrived in April, which the famous politician donated to the university.
“These are the culmination of John Martin’s career from the late ’60s to 2012,” said Assistant Director of the Acadian Archives and Library Kathryn Donahue. For the past several years, Donahue has conducted an inventory of, and is currently processing, the boxes of documents.
Donahue, who had made significant progress with the documents, said a new shipment which arrived on April 13 has extended the length of time to complete the project. “I was about 40-percent com- plete until they delivered this last ship- ment.”
The boxes contain letters, emails, drafts of bills, interoffice memos, memorabilia, clippings, and speeches. “Really, it’s every- thing you can think of that passed through his hands while he was in office,” said Donahue.
When anyone speaks of the collection, the capital letters are apparent in the way they refer to the battered cardboard boxes as the “John Martin Papers.” Everyone involved recognizes their historical signifi- cance.
John Martin, who is currently a state representative in Augusta, said the collec- tion includes the lands claim case, settle- ments with Native Americans under for- mer U.S. President Jimmy Carter and many other pieces of information about impor- tant Maine legislation. “All that material would be there,” said Martin.
It also includes his own correspon- dence. Martin said people would contact him for countless reasons. “Anything from problems getting food stamps, problems with a son in the military, you name it, there was every kind of issue you can imagine.”
Opinions of Martin as a person and as a politician vary widely. The documents, according to Donahue, present a more nuanced picture.
“He played such a huge role in con-
Mikeala Risch, a sophomore, stands amidst the John Martin Papers.
temporary politics, and I think John Martin is such a fixture up here, but people may not recognize his influence on the greater Maine political environment. I can’t think of a more complex political career in the state,” she said.
One educator has already featured
the collection in a lesson. UMFK President Wilson Hess said it was a useful tool in his history class. “I was just so excited about the historical insights that are in there. It was neat to give my students in my class a taste of that,” he said.
Hess said he regards the John Martin papers as a valuable addition to the legacy of the university. “This is the type of thing scholars travel to study. It’s really quite
a coup for the town of Fort Kent and the university.”
As a historian, President Hess said he has an interest in working with the collec- tion. “The opportunity to potentially play a role in the editing of the John Martin Papers would be an enormous honor and privilege if I could arrange for that to hap- pen,” he said.
Martin appeared indifferent whether the papers might change some people’s opinions of him. He said, “I follow the motto of Edmund Muskie. If you try to please everyone all the time, you are not doing your job.”
Martin said he hopes people will come away with one lesson from the papers.
He said, “I think they will be surprised to some degree on how one person can make a difference if they work at it.”
Donahue left the Fort Kent area after the spring 2015 semester. She said someone else will need to process and then catalog the papers, noting the person must recog- nize what to keep, discard, or send else- where. “The fact is, archival work is an art and a science,” Donahue stated.
Fox and Ginn Movers, from Bangor, Maine, delivered the last 100 boxes of the Papers.
Donahue received written consent from John Martin to inventory the collec- tion in 2010 and began inventorying the documents from January of 2010 until April of 2012.
Martin signed over the papers to the library through a Deed of Gift in August of 2012.
After the inventory, she began process- ing the papers for items to keep or discard. After the processing, someone will have
to catalog the material so scholars can use the collection for research.
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