Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home

11/8/2012 12:08:00 PM The Free Press, Rockland, Maine Guiding Spirit of Rockland Historical Society - Barbara Perkins, 1924-2012 by Ann Morris Curator, Rockland Historical Society On Wednesday, October 31, members of the Rockland Historical Society were saddened to learn of the death of Barbara Perkins, a longtime member, past president, first curator, and guiding spirit of the society. Barbara was born in 1924, on Rankin Street, in the same house where her father and grandfather had been born. She married in 1945, and she and her husband moved to Connecticut in 1950 and to Massachusetts next. Barbara had nine children and raised them on homemade bread and cookies. At the same time she worked as a home healthcare aid and was active in her local historical society. Barbara moved back to Rockland, back to the house where she was born, in 1976, to take care of her father, who had had a stroke. She worked at the Knox Nursing Center for many years, where the Alzheimer patients were her favorites because she understood their love of the past. Barbara brought adventure to many lives by planning charter bus trips to parts of the country she wanted to see. Barbara became involved in the Shore Village Historical Society soon after it was created, to care for the large GAR collection of Civil War memorabilia. The few remaining descendants of the Grand Army of the Republic donated their meetinghouse on Limerock Street and its contents to the City of Rockland in 1977. The city turned the GAR building into the Shore Village Museum, named for the neighborhood that was to become Rockland after the Town of Thomaston divided in 1848. Barbara helped plan programs for the society; she solicited donations of items and collections that tell the history of Rockland; she helped preserve historical items; and she helped with dinners and the booth at the Lobster Festival. When, in 2001, the City of Rockland sold the former GAR building on Limerock Street and made arrangements for the historical society to move to the newly expanded public library, Barbara was instrumental in moving the entire historical collection into storage at the Lincoln Street Center for the Arts, while the library expansion and renovation proceeded. The society changed its name to the Rockland Historical Society, and Barbara and other longtime members, including Brian Harden, Alice Knight, Ed Coffin, Harold Simmons, Dave Hoch, and Marjorie East, went about the difficult but inspiring task of creating a museum and archives on the lower level of the library. They designed long, tall, glass-fronted museum display cases from old, oak library bookshelves. In those cases are displayed ship models, items from the shipbuilding industry, and the fish-packing industry, the lime industry, and the Rockland police and fire departments, and farm implements from the Tolman family, one of the oldest families in the area. The GAR Civil War Collection is beautifully displayed and will be featured on the Maine Civil War Trail next summer. And in the back room, Barbara collected archival materials - published and unpublished histories of Rockland businesses and organizations, extensive photograph collections, archival materials from the Courier-Gazette newspaper and the Rockland Rockport Lime Company, and the city's records of all the Rockland schools from before the school district was created in 1959. After the society made Barbara its curator, one of her most valuable contributions was the creation of a large vertical file of articles from the Courier-Gazette arranged alphabetically by family name or subject. With help from her army of friends and volunteers, Barbara worked on the vertical file until she had to retire due to health problems, and then off and on at home. Barbara loved to help visitors with research questions, and she made it possible for those of us who follow in her footsteps to similarly help students, genealogists, and those curious about the history of their houses. Barbara Perkins's gift to the citizens of Rockland is more valuable than gold. She has saved the memories of the past. That history provides the uniqueness of Rockland that businesses can trade on, and in confusing times those memories give comfort to us all. Thank you, Barbara.