“Awesome”-“Wonderful”-“Excellent”-“The show was spectacular”-all comments heard at the conclusion of Swan’s Islanders at Play, a presentation of the Swan’s Island Memory Project held on August 17 at the Odd Fellows Hall. What exactly is the Swan’s Island Memory Project? In a nutshell, it is Island Institute Fellow Meghan Vigeant and lots of volunteers from the community who are working together to build a new historic collection for Swan’s Island.
More than two years ago on July 24, 2008, a fire completely destroyed the Swan’s Island Library. The building was not only the home of the library; it also housed the island’s historical collection-photographs, cassette recordings and artifacts. The loss of the historical collection in the fire was devastating for the community. The library’s books and videos could be replaced, but there was no way to replace the historical collection, at least not until Meghan Vigeant arrived to begin her fellowship.
In the fall of 2009, Meghan, a talented young woman, accepted a position working for the Island Institute as a historic preservation fellow on Swan’s Island. Her job was to begin the work of building a new historical collection for the island. For nine months, Meghan has been visiting with islanders and conducting oral history interviews with them. These recordings are a window into the island’s past.
A Maine Humanities Council grant received by the Swan’s Island Educational Society was used to purchase the equipment necessary to get the Memory Project started. A professional digital recorder and scanner were purchased and put into use by Meghan upon their arrival. She knew exactly what to do with the digital recording equipment. Meghan is a graduate of the SALT Institute in Portland, where she completed a radio documentary studies program. She has produced work for public radio and is now producing work for Swan’s Island. Out she went with the digital recorder, microphone, and headset to visit folks and record their stories of the past. She returned with riveting stories from fabulous storytellers of what life used to be like on the island. “I would like to thank Island Institute for finding Meghan for the Swan’s Island Memory Project. Right from the beginning, she fit in with the islanders and people welcomed her into their homes to record their memories”, said Gwen May, town clerk and one of Meghan’s interviewees.
Back at the town office, volunteers were being trained to scan old photographs using procedures adopted from the Maine Historical Society. Island residents who were willing to share their photographs brought them in to be scanned. Photographs and slides that had been stored in albums, envelopes, boxes and bags arrived at the town office. The logging and scanning process was tedious, but the new digital collection now contains over 1,000 images and the originals have been returned to their owners. Identification of the people, places, boats and buildings has been a challenging part of the project. Throughout the winter, May and Selectman Sonny Sprague met regularly with Meghan to provide information and stories about the photographs. Other islanders have helped out with the photo identification as well with a special Photo ID Day held in conjunction with one of the island’s senior luncheons this past winter. Seniors enjoyed looking through magnifying glasses at tiny faces and figuring out who it was in the photographs.
After a few short months the new historical collection began to grow. Hours and hours of oral histories were recorded and hundreds and hundreds of old photographs were scanned. The Swan’s Island Memory Project was well underway. Under Meghan’s leadership, the Historical Society began meeting again after a long period of inactivity. The idea of how to best present the new digital collection, the voices and the images, was something the historical society had to determine. It was decided to present two shows consisting of an audio listening event and a photographic exhibit. Meghan completed a grant application and $1,000 was awarded from the Maine Humanities Council for the public presentations of the new historic collection.
On July 13, more than 150 people packed the downstairs of the Odd Fellows Hall for the first show, Swan’s Islanders at Work. It was a standing room only crowd, but nobody seemed to mind. Thirty-two exhibition size prints from the new digital collection were on display, all related to the “work” theme. The audio portion of the show began at 7 PM and was hosted by Meghan Vigeant. Using a carefully crafted script, she provided an introduction to each audio piece and to its storyteller. The stories ranged from 81 year-old Betty Carlson telling about her days as a postmaster to 94 year-old Georgie Tainter talking about the “good ol’ sardine days.” Ten short audio stories, ranging from three to five minutes each, told tales of farming, fishing, store keeping, domestic work-all kinds of occupations from the past. Long-time summer resident John McCarthy commented about the show saying, “I didn’t realize how powerful just listening could be.”
For weeks following the first presentation, people talked and talked and talked about how great the Swan’s Islanders at Work presentation was. The excitement and anticipation about the second show was building. It was decided to move the next presentation to the second floor of the Odd Fellows Hall in order to accommodate a bigger audience. Anyone who attended the Swan’s Islanders at Work show and thought it was great hadn’t seen anything yet. On August 17, Swan’s Islanders at Play featured another photo exhibit-this time with recreation as the theme. Another group of historical images were enjoyed, but the audio portion of the evening’s event surpassed everyone’s expectations. The extra effort Meghan put into the second show making it a multimedia event was unbelievable as old-time moving pictures were added along with the still images in the show. Old home movies of snowball fights, sliding, boating, swimming, all the fun activities that families did in the old days were included during the audio portion. The ten audio pieces were unique and showcased a wide variety of activities from young boys drag racing as told by lobsterman Normie Burns to Swan’s Islanders love of music related by the Joyce sisters, Sharon and LaVerne. Marion Stinson’s piece, Last Member of the Band, told of an era when dances were held in the dance hall of the Odd Fellows Hall, the very room that the show was being presented in. Kevin Staples related a tale of the island’s baseball team and how they traveled off island to compete for nearly 20 years. One of Swan’s Island’s most memorable characters, Clyde Torrey who died in 1974, was featured in the show. Old movie footage of Clyde playing his accordion and working with his horse-all while chewing on a tiny stub of a cigar was shown on the screen while Sonny Sprague narrated the piece about his friend Clyde, saying, “Clyde was just Clyde. Everybody loved him.”
When asked about her work Meghan responded: “My work on the Swan’s Island Memory Project has combined many of my interests, my background in theater, storytelling through audio, writing, leadership skills, and interviewing skills. I think my favorite part of this work is interviewing people. I love to sit down with someone and really get to know them and hear their stories. It is amazing what you learn about someone, about a place, a community when you listen and observe. I feel like I’ve been giving a special privilege to record their stories just as I have a big responsibility when I share that story with the public. I think that what we are doing with the Swan’s Island Memory project is holding up a mirror to the people who are a part of this community. It is a mirror that reflects the past and the present. It reminds Swan’s Islanders how special their home really is.”
Donna Wiegle is a resident of Swan’s Island and serves as Meghan’s advisor at the historical society.