The DORR ARCHIVE A Research Archive on the Life of George Bucknam Dorr and the Creation of Acadia National Park Ronald H. Epp Ph.D. Jesup Memorial Library Bar Harbor, Maine 2021 Last modified: 9:29 AM I The Dorr Archive. Series I. Introduction. The Dorr Archive: George Bucknam Dorr and the Development of Acadia National Park The Dorr Archive is primarily a collection of paper resources located and copied in federal, public, and academic libraries, archives, and historical societies in the United States and the United Kingdom. These manuscripts, interview and correspondence transcriptions, maps, published books and articles, and diverse clippings were collected over a fifteen year period prior to publication of Creating Acadia National Park: The Biography of George Bucknam Dorr (Bar Harbor: Friends of Acadia, 2016). The interest of Ronald H. Epp, PhD, in the origin and early development of Acadia National Park was sparked by travel to the villages of Mount Desert Island over the last four decades. The island terrain was hiked, residents and park officials were questioned about island history, and what began as curiosity morphed into a new contribution to conservation history. A deficient historical record often sparks inquiry. Unlike most national parks, no administrative history of Acadia National Park existed until this project was undertaken as part of the 2016 park centennial. Myopic is the most accurate way to describe publications about the "Father" of the park for they ignored rich archival content about Mr. Dorr readily available at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New England Historic and Genealogical Society, the National Archives, and other repositories from Santa Barbara CA to Yorkshire England. This initial inquiry culminated in Epp's creation of the Dorr Archive over a period of two decades. No thought was initially given to writing a biography and a conservation history of one of the most visited national parks. However, the resulting Dorr Archive, forty lineal feet of highly organized documentation, not only provided documentation for the biography but an educational tool rich with historical content for use by the next generation of students and scholars. In preparing the archive for digitization, endless opportunities for new lines of inquiry were uncovered. Those with passion for New England land conservation, the history and development of the National Park Service, and the cultural role of Acadia National Park locally and nationally are welcome to begin the quest. The Dorr Archive has been donated to the Jesup Memorial Library, established in 1911 in Bar Harbor. As with other island cultural institutions that Dorr helped establish, the Jesup is currently involved in a capital campaign, enlarging its physical presence, community outreach, and online access. The Archive content is being added to a regional archive (The History Trust Digital Archive) created through the collaborative efforts of museums, libraries, historical societies, and other organizations with significant holdings. Thus, it will enable students, scholars, and the general public to move far beyond the walls of the Jesup. DorrArchive-Introduction1021 10/13/2021 Page 1/5 This research brought to light the considerable extent of Dorr's land conservation and legal collaborators. Harvard University President Charles W. Eliot brought into being in 1901 the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations (HCTPR), the world's second oldest land trust. The Dorr Archive provides ample evidence for the pioneering role of the HCTPR and its Massachusetts precursor, The Trustees of Reservations established by landscape architect Charles Eliot, the son of the HCTPR president. Yet the success of the HCTPR was due to the land conservation diligence of the Luere B. Deasy & A.H. Lynam Bar Harbor law firm; they represented Dorr and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. who undertook in 1913 the construction of an expansive carriage road system interwoven with properties held by the HCTPR. Creating Acadia National Park interprets evidence gathered from two Hancock County legal archives long presumed lost. In 2008 attorney Douglas Chapman opened his archive to historians William Horner & Ronald Epp. Twelve boxes of previously unknown correspondence between John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the Deasy & Lynam law firm. The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) in Tarrytown NY was unaware of the existence of this collection. The RAC agreed with attorney Chapman that the collection should remain an island asset-it was subsequently donated to the Jesup Memorial Library along with extensive correspondence between Dorr and this law firm regarding the development of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. Furthermore, several months later, Joshua Torrance, the director of the Woodlawn Museum in nearby Ellsworth ME and I uncovered in a long-neglected law office attic the "lost" papers of U.S. Congressman and Judge John A. Peters, a Maine conservationist and Executor of the estate of George B. Dorr. These legal collections provided entirely new historical content elevating our understanding of the beginnings of the non-indigenous land conservation history in New England. On a national level, the Dorr Archive also details the establishment of the National Park Service (NPS) and the complicated ways in which Acadia National Park shaped the first three decades of the NPS. DORR ARCHIVES SERIES: Ser. I Introduction & Chronology Ser. VI Dorr Family Collection Ser. II Names Ser. VII Ward Family Collection Ser. III Subjects Ser. VIII Related Families Ser. IV Rockefeller Archive Center Ser. IX Creating Acadia National Park: Ser. V Repositories Consulted Publication History & Author Scholarship DorrArchive-Introduction1021 10/13/2021 Page 2/5 DISTINCTIVE COLLECTION ELEMENTS A. The 1901-1945 Minutes of the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations (HCTPR). They supersede the documentation held in the HCTPR Archive at the aforementioned Woodlawn Museum. Its Trustee holdings were determined to be incomplete; relevant minutes and memoranda uncovered in other archives were incorporated into these holdings. B.. The Sieur de Monts Publications. Nearly two dozen land, sea, flora and fauna articles associated with park-building were edited or authored by George B. Dorr between 1915 and 1919. This collection is the most complete record of Dorr's earliest conservation writings undertaken to disseminate information about the new national park, including scores of unattributed photographs most likely taken by Dorr. C. "George Bucknam Dorr: A Bibliography of Secondary Sources," December 2009. Compiled and copyrighted by Ronald H. Epp, this document lists alphabetically the resources utilized in preparing the first draft of Creating Acadia National Park (2016). On the issue of primary sources, the repository files (Series 5 & 6) provide the best guide. D. The Spirit of Acadia Committee Notes. On November 15, 2004 ANP hosted at park HQ the meeting of 30 individuals to devise strategies for celebrating the men and women who inspired and created Acadia National Park. These notes form an outline of fuller documentation for what became a preliminary plan for the 2016 park centennial. E. Acadia National Park Centennial. A collection of news clippings, event announcements, planning documents, and publicity for the 2016 A.N.P. centennial. This collection is available in print whereas the official record was deposited in the 2016 Acadia Bicentennial Time Capsule, scheduled for opening in 2116. F. "A Guide to the George B. Dorr Papers & Old Farm Guest Book Directory." Compiled by Ronald H. Epp. 2006. Transcriptions, published writings, correspondence essays, fragments and memoirs of the first superintendent of Acadia National Park, including a list of over three decades of signatures and annotations from Old Farm guests. The Guide is a finding aid to the Dorr Papers at the Bar Harbor Historical Society; microfilm copies available at the Jesup Memorial Library and the William Otis Sawtelle Collections and Research Center, A.N.P. G. "Becoming Acadia National Park: A Biography of George Bucknam Dorr" (2008). A rough chronological draft devised prior to the first written narrative completed later in 2010 in order to provide a detailed timeline of events. Researchers will find here historical threads not contained in the fabric of the finished manuscript, areas ripe for future research. H. "Making Acadia National Park: Ms. Submitted" (2010). Two volumes. This is the draft available to publishers for consideration, later retitled, Creating Acadia National Park. DorrArchive-Introduction1021 10/13/2021 Page 3/5 I. Creating Acadia National Park. Contains correspondence relative to securing an agreement with Friends of Acadia to publish Dorr's biography as part of the Acadia National Park Centennial (2016) J. Creating Acadia National Park: The Biography of George Bucknam Dorr. Reviews and publicity for the 2016 centennial year. K. Ronald Harry Epp (RHE) Acadia Scholarship. A complete curriculum vita precedes individual files (2001-2019) containing all publications, addresses, and interviews by RHE on the legacy of George Bucknam Dorr and the land conservation movement. L. Ward Family Papers by Samuel Gray Ward. (Boston: Merrymount Press, 1900). Family history authored by Dorr's maternal uncle, S.G. Ward, that stretched from William Ward (1767-1825) to the final year of the 19th-Century. Only twelve copies were printed, and this photocopy is from the copy donated by the author to the Harvard College Library. This document is best appreciated when compared with RHE research notes taken from the Thomas Wren Ward Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. M. Puritan Aristocrat in the Age of Emerson: A Study of Samuel Gray Ward by David B. Baldwin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania dissertation, 1961). This dissertation was the first and still definitive account of 19th-century Ward family members. The file is supplemented by correspondence between myself and David Baldwin and his children; Baldwin's much cited "The Emerson-Ward Friendship: Ideals and Realities," is included. N. "The Dorr Collection." Several hundred pages of historical information on the Dorr family was deposited in the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections Department at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) on Newbury Street, Boston (several hundred feet from 18 Commonwealth Avenue, George B. Dorr's residence for more than a half century). The bulk of these family member biographical profiles were authored by GBD. O. Castle Howard Correspondence between Howard and Dorr Families. Correspondence between the Ninth Earl of Carlisle the English artist George Howard, and his wife, Lady Rosalind Howard. Following the 1876 death of Dorr's brother, forty-eight letters to and from the Howards --spanning three decades-- were sent to and received from the Dorrs. RHE transcribed copies of the letters, and arranged them chronologically after editorial input from the Castle Howard curators. These documents provided the fullest rendering of Dorr family life in the final three decades of the 19th-cenury. Files also contain secondary resources about Howard family history, travel, social life, and the impact of the pre-Raphaelite movement on George & Rosalind Howard. Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. October 10, 2021 Farmington, CT DorrArchive-Introduction1021 10/13/2021 Page 4/5