Documenting History

Four MSSM Key Club students spent Saturday afternoon volunteering at the Caribou Historical Society and the Whittier Memorial Museum. They helped staff with a project that matters to any museum, keeping artifacts organized and properly documented so the public can learn from them for years to come.

The students worked for a few hours on artifact cataloging and organization, including taking clear photos of historical items, matching them to their ID numbers, entering the details into the museum's records, and uploading the information to the database.

Founded in 1974, the Caribou Historical Society collects, records, displays, and preserves information about Caribou’s past, with artifacts and documents that reflect daily life from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. Its facilities include a two-floor log museum, a replica 1860s one-room schoolhouse, exhibit and storage buildings, a barn with tools and farm equipment, and walking trails along Spring Brook.

The Whittier Memorial Museum was dedicated in 1986. It honors Mericos “Max” Whittier, a Caribou native who left at age 25 with $25 and a ticket to California, later finding major success. His story still resonates in Aroostook County, where many families know what it means to work hard and build something from very little.

Why this matters:

Museums do not just display history; they protect it. If an artifact is not labeled, photographed, and logged, it can get lost in storage or separated from its story.