Middleborough Public Library in Snow, 1957

Illustration:
Middleborough Public Library in snow, photograph by Clint Clark, 1957.

"Wisdom's Temple": The Middleborough Public Library Building, 1904

Begun in 1902 and completed in 1904, the Middleborough Public Library Building was erected as a symbol of the intellectual advance of the community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Middleborough Public Library was organized by vote of the Town Meeting of September 19, 1874, as a successor to a number of previous private subscription libraries that had operated locally. In the months following the library’s foundation, the Library Committee commenced the work of accumulating a collection, and by March, 1875, the Committee had some "1200 volumes with which to commence their Public Library, and a fund on hand with which to purchase more." With nearly 2,000 volumes, the library was formally opened in September, 1875, in the northeast corner room of Middleborough Town Hall where it would remain for over a quarter century.

Though the library did not expand in its earliest years as readily as the library trustees might have wished, it did possess a growing collection comprised of some 3,470 volumes by 1882. The continual growth of the library's collection during this early period resulted in increasingly cramped quarters, and within ten years of the public library's establishment, the trustees were expressing a need for greater accommodation. "When the Library was first opened to the public in 1875 it was regarded almost in light of an experiment. Since then its growth has not been rapid, but steady and substantial, so that now it has outgrown its accommodations and is much in need of more room. The present shelves in nearly all the classifications are crowded, and many valuable reports and documents are not cataloged for want of room to shelf them. Including these books the number now belonging to the library is considerably more than 4,000. Will not the citizens of the town see that this library has a place such as befits its sphere of usefulness?" queried the trustees in February, 1885.

Though a memorial hall and library building was proposed in mid-1887 as a monument to the community's Civil War dead, the suggestion never reached fruition, and the library remained in its tight quarters. Some relief, however, was found following September, 1887, once the new Middleborough High School Building (later the Bates School) was dedicated and occupied, and the high school abandoned its rooms in the Town Hall, one of which was given over to the use of the library as a reading room. At this time, the library's collection had reached 5,000 volumes, including uncataloged and unshelved books.

The 1887 "expansion" provided only a temporary respite from the library's problem of lack of space. The original room became increasingly cluttered, and was serviced by only 1,900 linear feet of book cases and shelving to house the library's collection which was continually accruing. This remained the situation until an unanticipated turn of events in 1901 dramatically altered the library's situation.

Funding for the erection of a new building devoted to the exclusive use of the public library was provided by an unexpected bequest made by will of Thomas Sproat Peirce, who died in September, 1901. Peirce was the last survivor of the locally prominent and wealthy Peirce family and reportedly had been motivated by the memory of his late brother William Rounseville Peirce, a trustee of the Middleborough Public Library for years, to establish twin financial bequests benefitting that institution. “I give and bequeath to the town of Middleborough the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the purpose of erecting a Public Library building in said town. Said building to be erected within two years from the date of my decease by the Trustees of the Public Library of said town”. An additional bequest of a further $50,000 was made somewhat reluctantly by Peirce at the urging of his assistant, Chester Weston, for the establishment of a trust fund known as the Peirce Book Fund, income from which was to be utilized for the purchase of books, periodicals and newspapers for the library.

Notwithstanding the generous Peirce bequest, the lack of a suitable lot threatened to delay progress towards a new library building. While the nine library trustees were "laboring very conscientiously to secure a location for the building" during the last quarter of 1901, Adelaide K. Thatcher, head librarian since 1884, did not feel "assured of a new building in the near future," and cited the continuing challenges of the library's existing Town Hall location, particularly the fact that "many of the classifications are crowded and the library force labor under the disadvantage of lack of room and insufficient lighting."

In February, 1902, when the Peirce Trustees offered the town the Peirce family's "squash lot" on the northwest corner of North Main and Peirce Streets as a building site, the library trustees accepted with alacrity. The lot had been so named as it was the corner of the Peirce family garden where squashes had once been cultivated. It was emphasized at the time that the new library building standing beside the former Peirce homestead on North Main Street would form a "double memorial" to the generosity of benefactor Thomas S. Peirce.

The public library's Board of Trustees, then comprised of Calvin D. Kingman, Warren H. Southworth, Nathan Washburn, George Brayton, Edward S. Hathaway, Andrew M. Wood, David Gurney Pratt, Warren B. Stetson (replaced by Kenelm Winslow in 1903) and Joseph E. Beals, would oversee the design and construction of the new library building between 1902 and 1904.

Architect Frederick Newland Reed (c. 1870-1916) of New York was engaged by the trustees to provide a suitably impressive design for the library. Reed was a graduate of M. I. T., and his thesis drawings for a proposed hotel were included in the 1891 architectural exhibition sponsored by the Boston Society of Architects and the Boston Architectural Club. By 1894 when he was awarded a $75 PRIZE BY THE Boston Society of Architects, Reed was engaged by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, architects of Boston and Pittsburgh. In 1899, he was serving as the secretary of the Boston Architectural Club and had a design for a seashore house featured in the architectural exhibition at Boston that year. Reed later opened offices in New York City to which he commuted from Montclair, New Jersey, and he became a member of the Architectural League of New York.

Reed's design called for an imposing Beaux Arts style building measuring 76 by 46 feet with a rear addition of 31 by 41 feet for the stack room. The foundation and steps were to be of granite, basement walls of gray pressed brick and the building walls of a pale pink pressed brick with coordinating terra cotta trim. The main entrance consisted of a highly ornamented pediment supported by two Ionic columns, with the frieze bearing the words "PUBLIC LIBRARY".

Inside, Reed's design for the library conformed remarkably to the then current architectural thinking in America concerning library design. William Fletcher's seminal work in this area, Public Libraries in America (1894), prescribed the optimal library design. "The entrance of a library should be a room with a counter for the drawing of books and should have access to the book room through a gateway in the counter. The librarian's room, with ample space for cataloging, should be placed to communicate with the delivery room and the book room. The reading room should be placed to allow easy oversight by the attendant. It should be well lighted, and there should be an abundance of daylight, if possible mainly from the north and east. Where practicable there should be a fireplace with a slow fire generally burning. The fire on the hearth would do much to make the room attractive."

Reed's Classical Revival interior design clearly provided for the amenities recommended by Fletcher. The library was entered through a marble lined foyer which opened to the main floor which included a sky-lit main lobby with an elaborate coffered ceiling with highly decorative plasterwork, a librarian's room, delivery room, and reading and reference rooms each with their own fireplace.

The first floor rooms were "so arranged as to be as nearly possible under the eye of the librarian." This factor, while certainly convenient for patrons who might require the assistance of the librarian, also permitted the librarian to maintain order in the building, a necessity based upon past experience. In 1889, the attempt to keep the library's reading room in the Town Hall open additional hours without the presence of the librarian was a failure "because of the rudeness of some of the scholars from the public schools, who, finding themselves without restraint, have behaved in such a manner as to oblige the closing of the doors except when the Librarian is in attendance.

The second floor of the library included a room for an art gallery, and a Trustee's room, but perhaps the most critical part of the library, given its history of continually outgrowing the space allotted its collections, was the three-story stack room which was built as a rear projection to the main building and separated from the lobby by the circulation desk. The stack room provided space for housing about 50,000 books and was constructed to accommodate three floors, seven and a half feet above one another. The most distinctive feature of the stack room was its steel and pressed glass floor which allowed light to filter to the basement stacks.

W. H. Wardwell of Brockton was hired as contractor on the project, with masonry work being subcontracted to C. H. Sylvester. Inspector of the works was Winthrop Alexander of Brockton and Boston. Ground for the building was broken in 1902, and the foundation completed by mid-September, 1902, at which time brickwork on the main structure commenced. By November, however, work on the project had to be suspended. "After having the foundation well laid, labor troubles and the approach of winter seemed to make it advisable to suspend the work for the winter," remarked the 1902 Report of the Trustees. The labor difficulties so quickly glossed over in the report of the trustees for 1902, centered upon the bricklayers. "The bricklayers had many grievances and work came to a complete stop when a non-union man was employed who laid one course of bricks ahead of the line, contrary to union rules. The union left the job." Following the walk-out, the unfinished brick walls were covered for the winter. Further compounding the labor issues on the project for the trustees was a notice given by Middleborough carpenters that as of January 1, 1903, they would go to an eight- hour work day "with pay on the nine hour basis already existing."

Construction continued throughout all of 1903, unhampered by the labor trouble that had halted construction in 1902. During the Fourth of July riot in 1903, however, lumber from the building site was pilfered for use in bonfires created about the town center. By November, 1903, the stack room at the rear of the building was nearing completion, and it was reported that "the work on the interior will be finished soon after Jan. 1", 1904. In mid-December, the new metal book stacks were received at the building site and installed.

In preparation for the move to North Main Street, the library's collection was recataloged and rearranged, beginning in June, 1903, under the direction of Miss Mary P. Farr of Philadelphia. At the time, the collection consisted of "about 11,676" books, a substantial number considering that Lakeville's fledgling library at that time had but 150 volumes. Miss Farr was paid an astonishing $982.82 for her cataloging services, more than three times the salary of head librarian Adelaide K. Thatcher. (Mrs. Thatcher did see her salary increase to $450 in 1904 two years prior to her retirement).

Also, additional economies were practiced preparatory to the move, beginning in 1902. "There will be some extra expense in moving into the new building and larger expense of running than in the past. For these reasons we have by practicing careful economy in expenditures, tried to save as much as possible of our appropriation to pay the largely increased expenses we may expect the coming year."

To physically move the library was a large task. Books continued to be loaned from the library in the Town Hall until March 9, 1904, at which time they were called in and the library closed. "Mrs. A. K. Thatcher, librarian of the public library, announces that no books will be given out from the new library building for about two weeks." In fact, the library was closed for a total of seven weeks, allowing the library's collection to be transferred by wagon to its new home where it was reshelved in accordance with Miss Farr's recataloging.

The new public library building was first opened to the public on April 24 for an open house, and on the following day was formally opened for business. Hours were from 2 to 9 pm on weekdays, with the reading room open on Sundays, as well, from 2 to 7 o'clock. However, in case this latter provision might be misunderstood or cause offense, it was announced that "the trustees of the public library wish it distinctly understood that the reading room only in the new building will be open Sundays from 2 to 7. No books will be given out on the Sabbath."

Ironically, in time, the 1904 Reed library building itself would become cramped and outmoded, the library's collection in need of additional space. As a result, the library building was expanded in size in 1991-92 in order to better meet the needs of the community and a growing network of services unconsidered in 1902. While Reed's stack room with its distinctive glass walkways was demolished to make room for the new architecturally-compatible addition by Donald Prout Associates, Architects, the main body of the building was not only preserved, but restored to its original appearance as an architecturally resplendent monument to learning and the generosity of one civic minded individual, acknowledgement of whom was recognized in a plaque which had long hung above the circulation desk for all to see: "The Gift of Thomas Sproat Peirce Erected 1903."

Note:

Local sources typically give architect Reed's first name as "Frederic" though formal records indicate the spelling "Frederick" as used here.

Illustrations:
Middleborough Public Library, North Main Street, Middleborough, MA, facade detail, photograph by Mike Maddigan, October 11, 2009.

Broadside, 1880.
This broadsisde dating from April, 1880, indicates that one of the early sources of funding for the Middleborough Public Library was through benefits such as this one for Mademoiselle Ricard, impersonator.  Another source was the monies received from licensing dogs in Middleborough.

Peirce Squash Lot, postcard, early 1900s
The view of the Peirce family's squash lot on the corner of North Main and Peirce Streets dates from just prior to commencement of construction in 1902.

Middleborough Public Library, North Main Street, Middleborough, MA, facade detail, photograph by Mike Maddigan, September 7, 2009.

Middleborough Public Library Lobby, postcard, Fred N. Whitman, Middleborough, publisher, early 1900s.
So important was the new Middleborough Public Library as a sign of progress within the community considered to be that it was featured on numerous picture postcards in the early 1900s, including this interior view of the building's lobby by Walter L. Beals.  The building is perhaps the best visually documented Middleborough structure of the era.

Middleborough Public Library Stack Room, photograph, 1904.
This photograph dates from immediately following completion of the library in 1904 and depicts the ground floor entrance of the distinctive three-story stack room with its metal shelving and pressed glass floors.

Middleorough Public Library construction site, 1902.
Foundation work is nearing completion in this view taken late in the year in 1902.  Shortly afterwards, union brick-layers engaged to construct the library's walls struck when a non-union man violated their rules. 

Cataloging, Middleborough Public Library, Middleborough Town Hall, photograph, c. 1903-04.
In preparation for the relocation of the library from Middleborough Town Hall to its new home on North Main Street, the entire collection was recataloged, a process captured in this photograph.  The cramped quarters of the library's town hall home can be seen.  Walter L. Beals, "father of the Middleborough Public Library" and an active library trustee, stands at the left rear and observes the work.

Middleborough Public Library, North Main Street, Middleborough, MA, photograph, early 1900s.
The view probably dates from just a short time following the building's 1904 completion. 

Click here to read Betty Brown's history of the Middleborough Public Library.

"A Place to Review the Progress of Cranberries and Cranberry People", 1954

"Dumping Fruit into Seperator at L. B. Barker's, Bournedale, Mass. 1938", photograph, 1938
Middleborough Public Library Cranberry Collection

On April 22, 1954, Walter E. Piper Marketing Specialist of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture spoke on WEEI radio Boston on the topic of the Middleborough Public Library cranberry collection. Piper had earlier given these same remarks to the annual meeting of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association. Piper claimed that he held two special interests in cranberries outside his day to day work. One was Edaville Railroad in Carver, the other was the Middleborough cranberry collection.

In this frame of mind I recently dropped in at the Middleboro Public Library to visit the Cranberry Room, as I do on almost every occasion when I get down, that way. This is a small room on the lower floor of the Library, which has been set apart for the use of the industry in preserving its records and mementos. It is in line with many such similar endeavors in various branches of industry and agriculture. The aim is very admirable. Certainly it may be of untold value to cranberry growers of a century hence to have easy access to such records. It has been said that history is philosophy taught by examples. In any industry or business, much can be learned from the experiences of predecessors—much that can be of immense importance and value in preventing a repetition of earlier mistakes, and in capitalizing on earlier accomplishment and successors.

Pioneers Of The Industry

That Cranberry Room is indeed a place for the quiet reflection which I have just mentioned. It carries the atmosphere of the pioneers of the industry. Some of their pictures hang on the walls. There, for example, is A. D. Makepeace, a name to conjure with in cranberry lore and tradition. An attached card states that he was the first large grower in a "combination whose crop in 1887 totaled 16,000 barrels." Another picture is that of Cyrus Cahoon, typical rugged Cape Codder, looking for all the world like a character out of a Joe Lincoln book. It was he who is associated with the discovery of the Early Black variety in 1847. Other
photographs and other views tell graphically of those pioneer days, such as the one marking the location of one of the bogs where Eli Howes brought to light the Howes berry in 1843.

Such were the men in their respective times who laid the foundation of the cranberry industry. The spirit with which they surmounted their difficulties is typical of Cranberry-land. This same spirit still prevails among cranberry people, and will be a factor in bringing about new and further achievements in cranberry culture and marketing.

First Organization

In reference to today's meetings, it is well here to record the beginnings of organized activities of growers in the original Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association which are so carefully recorded there in the Library Room. Written in a bold hand in the first record book is a notice of the original call to discuss organization—February 15, 1866. It reads as follows:

Notice

Cranberry Growers' Convention

All persons interested in the cultivation of cranberries are invited to meet at the Exchange Hall in Harwich on Thursday the 15th day of February first at 1 o'clock to consider the best method of cultivation, and such other matters relating to the subject as may come before the meeting. It is signed by Zebina H. Small, Obed Brooks, Cyrus Cahoon and Nathaniel Robbins.

Those were all men who were prominent in the then infant industry. Zebina Small, an odd Christian name to be sure, is spoken of frequently in the old histories in connection with cranberries and with public affairs. The meeting adjourned on that date to March 1, when the constitution of the Cape Cod Cranberry Association was adopted with 67 signers.

In Our Time

Thinking of the organization as we know it in our time, I thumbed through the records, and as I frequently do, I looked for reports of meetings over ten-year periods, such as 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago. The record for the meeting of 1914, for example, lists the president as John C. Makepeace of Wareham. Vice-presidents were Seth Finney of Carver and Dr. F. F. Marsh of Wareham. Treasurer was Z. H. Jenkins of West Barnstable, and Lemuel C. Hall of Wareham served as secretary, as he did for many years.

In later reports, nearer my time, more familiar names came into view, and I was impressed to an increasing extent with these records of these many fine people who put all they had in time, effort and energy in helping bring the cranberry business up to its present prominent position in New England and American agriculture.

Looking Ahead

This Room in the Library is acquiring a great deal of worthwhile material. It started back more than a decade ago. I noted, for instance, at the 1944 meeting an item of $25 was voted for the Library Committee. The Association has encouraged its development, and the Library has shown a continuing interest.

The atmosphere of the Room is certainly wholly detached from the uncertainties and the tension of the present time. To me it emphasizes the fact that there is a branch of our agriculture which has its high place in the economy of the Commonwealth. It seems to carry a message to present-day cranberry people that they can well take pride in what has been achieved so far, and that they can go forward from here to new destinies.

A New Chapter

The Cranberry Room in the Middleboro Library is, as I have said, a place for quiet reflection and contemplation, with ample opportunity to review the progress of cranberries and cranberry people. And today as the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association gets together at its annual spring meeting in the Town Hall at Wareham, it will be writing a new chapter in the continuing records of the organization — a chapter which will be recorded for those years ahead, maybe for some interested group in 2054 who will search into the recordings of the past for guidance in their day and age.

Sources:
Cranberries, May, 1954, “Cranberry Room”, p. 20; June, 1957, “Walter E. Piper, Mass. Marketing Specialist, Does Much for Cranberries”, p. 12

Middleborough Cranberry Collection Established, 1939

Magnolia Brand cranberry barrel

label, early 1900s

Colorful cranberry labels such as this

are highly collectable today.  As early

as the 1940s, however, cranberry

labels were being solicited for inclusion

in the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers'

Association collection housed at the

Middleborough Public Library.

Source: Middleborough Public Library

Cranberry Collection

One of the most historically important collections of the Middleborough Public Library is its Cranberry Collection, once termed “the outstanding cranberry literature collection anywhere”. Yet while the collection has been long archived at the library, it was established not by the town but rather through the agency of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association beginning in the late 1930s.



The driving force behind the establishment of the library was Russell Makepeace of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association and Dr. Henry J. Franklin, Director of the University of Massachusetts Cranberry Experiment Station at East Wareham.  Looking to place cranberry cultivation on a more scientific footing, the two men agreed that the foundation of a library, available as a resource to growers, would help advance this goal. The development of agricultural libraries at this time was not a unique phenomenon. In the 1930s, the United States Department of Agriculture under the leadership of Henry A. Wallace was likewise expanding its holdings to create what would become one of the largest agricultural libraries in the world, the National Agricultural Library. Though Makepeace and Franklin’s objective was naturally much smaller, their goal of establishing a library for the cranberry industry was no less visionary.

Accordingly, the two men persuaded the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association which had been organized in 1886 for the “promotion of cranberry culture” and which had been instrumental in the founding of the East Wareham Experiment Station to establish a library committee to investigate the matter with Makepeace at its head. “It is hoped to obtain a library of documents and old records of the cranberry industry in Massachusetts. [Makepeace] said an agreement had been made with the Middleboro Public Library to store any records or books which could be obtained.” With the promise of a home, at its meeting in May, 1938, the Association voted to form a permanent library committee.

The approach to the trustees of the Middleborough Public Library was later reported to have been warmly received, and in part this may have been due to the influence of Mertie E. Witbeck, the librarian at the time. The library agreed to set aside space the collection, making available a room on the lower floor. Though it has been stated that Middleborough was selected due to its central location, the presence of the New England Cranberry Sales Company in Middleborough may also have been a likely factor in the Association's decision to house the collection in town.

A year later in 1939 Makepeace announced the library as an accomplished fact with the library to “consist of all publications, letters, records, etc., pertaining to the cranberry industry which it is possible to obtain.”

Already a great amount of material has been placed there. These, he said, included the magazine “Cranberries,” a set of reports of the annual meetings of the American Cranberry Growers’ Association, this being obtained through the courtesy of Frank D. Underwood of Harwich, the book “Cranberry Culture,” by Eastwood, furnished by Mrs. Drake of Harwich, a number of papers, letters, state and government bulletins, relating to the industry.

He urged any member who knew of any old diaries of cranberry growers of the past, bog records or other material which might easily be considered as being of no value and might be thrown away, to have them placed in the library so that eventually there will be a complete reference room with cranberry material kept for the information of visitors and for reference upon every possible phase of the industry.

He gave Dr. Henry J. Franklin of the State Cranberry Experiment Station great credit for assembling much of the material already gathered.

The Growers’ Association was supported in this work by Clarence J. F. Hall (1898-1967), editor and publisher of Cranberries magazine who was a vocal advocate of the project and who editorialized in the May, 1939, edition of that magazine about the benefits that could be derived from such a library. “This should be of help to the cranberry industry, not only of Massachusetts but to the growers in the other cranberry states. For, here will be filed away in time all information about all the ramifications of our cranberry culture, which can possibly be obtained.”

The Middleborough collection in fact may have stimulated others in cranberry growing districts throughout the nation to consider establishing similar libraries as well. Bandon, Oregon, a noted center of cranberry cultivation which today styles itself as the “Cranberry Capital of Oregon” was reported as contemplating the establishment of a cranberry collection in the 1940s.  “Mrs. Ethel Kranick, always alert to West Coast cranberry interests, hopes to start a ‘Cranberry Library’ at the Bandon city library. Her first contribution was a subscription for the library to CRANBERRIES”.

Throughout its first decades, Makepeace continued to be the motive power behind the Middleborough cranberry library. In 1941, he provided the Growers’ Association with a listing of the library’s holdings which were being continually supplemented, and suggested in 1943 that this listing be updated and published every five years. In 1944 “a number of reports and three volumes of ancient date” were added to the collection, largely through the effort of Dr. Franklin. The Association provided a small budget to the library committee of $25 during these years which was typically spent on maintenance and binding.  Accession of items including early records of the Association, photographs, cranberry labels, technical papers, journals and other documents to the collection were largely made at no cost, these items being generously donated.

Dr. Henry J. Franklin, photograph,

1930s

Franklin served as the first

Director of the University of

Massachusetts Cranberry

Experiment Station at East Wareham,

Massachusetts, being named to the

position in 1910.  As a research

scientist, Franklin sought to

strengthen the scientific

foundation of cranberry

cultivation and believed that an

extensive library of cranberry

literature could help further this

goal.  Through his efforts, a large

portion of the materials ultimately

included in the Middleborogh

Public Library's Cranberry

Collection were first gathered.  The

collection was named in his honor in

1946.

In 1946, the library was named the “Henry J. Franklin Cranberry Library” in honor of the man who had done so much to assemble the materials which constituted the bulk of the collection. The Growers’ Association appropriated $550 to outfit the room in Middleborough Public Library where the collection was housed for the purchase of files, shelves, tables, chairs and for the completion of a card index to the collection.

Despite this expenditure for library furniture, the collection remained housed in rather rustic conditions.   “…The book cases and filing cabinets now are quarter barrel cranberry boxes, stacked atop of each other, to hold the valuable data. There are some metal filing cabinets, and when available it is planned to have metal stacks for the room, instead of cranberry boxes, but they sure do seem in keeping with the business to have them so used.” (Today, the collection is maintained in archivally-stable boxes in secure cases).

At the time the library was named for Franklin, “it was pointed out this is the outstanding cranberry literature collection anywhere, and it might be desirable later on that a bibliography be prepared for other libraries in the country, including the Department of Agriculture library at Washington.”  Much of the work, subsequent to Franklin, was carried out by Dr. Frederick B. Chandler of the East Wareham Experimental Station. Chandler solicited members to make donations of items to the collection, including cranberry labels, an item which prompted Cranberries to report in that “barrel labels have now become so rare as to be collected and deposited in the Middleboro Public Library.”

A review of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association in 1950 indicated the foundation of the library as among its most noteworthy achievements. At this time it was recognized as “undoubtedly the greatest collection of ‘Cranberryiana’ in the world”.  Yet despite the wealth of materials archived in the collection and the pride which the Growers’ Association clearly had in the collection, it was underused by growers, so much so that Cranberries urged “visits – frequent ones – to that ‘cranberry room.’ This is a project of Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association which is given too little attention. There is much of interest there to every grower.” To reinforce its case, the magazine reprinted remarks made by Walter A. Piper of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture before the spring meeting of the Growers’ Association and on WEEI radio Boston supporting the library.

The Middleborough cranberry collection remained a tangible reminder of the Association’s presence and was regularly cited by officers of the organization throughout the period as an example of the group’s success. Outgoing president Arthur M. Handy of Cataumet pointed with pride to the work of the library in August, 1957.

Today, the cranberry collection remains an important resource to researchers. With photographs, barrel and box labels, early records of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association and other materials, the Middleborough Public Library Cranberry Collection likely remains the largest collection of historic cranberry-related materials in existence.

A small portion of the Middleborough Public Library’s Cranberry Collection may be viewed on-line.

Sources:
“Middleboro Library Has Novel Cranberry Room”, undated newspaper clipping

Cranberries, May, 1938, “Cape Growers’ Association has Annual Meeting”, p. 8; May, 1939, “Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association Holds It’s [sic] Spring Meeting at Wareham”, p. 6, and “Cranberry Library”, p. 9; September, 1943, “56th Annual Meeting of Cape Growers Association”, p. 12; September, 1944, “Mass. Crop Can Be Called ‘Poorest Ever.’ Considering Present Acreage Possibility”, 7; March, 1945, “Cranberry Scoops and Screenings”, p. 20; September, 1946, “Program of Cape Growers’ Association Exceptionally Interesting”, p. 6; December, 1946, “Some Random Thoughts”, p. 18; May, 1950, “Mass. Cranberry Station and Field Notes”, p. 3; September, 1951, “Marketing, main Topic of Annual Meeting, Cape Association ..”, p. 10; May, 1954, “Fifty Years Ago, and Now”, p. 15, and “Cranberry Room”, p. 20; August, 1957, “Massachusetts Growers Warned State is Slipping in National Production”, p. 13