Creating Acadia National Park: The George B. Dorr Research Archive of Ronald H. Epp
The Creating Acadia National Park Research Archive (CANPRA), also known as The Epp Archive or The Dorr Archive, is a vast research archive on the life of George Bucknam Dorr and the creation of Acadia National Park. This archive has been donated to the Jesup Memorial Library.
The archive primarily consists of 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, including manuscripts, interview and correspondence transcripts, maps, books, articles, and other diverse clippings. They were created over a fifteen year period prior to the publication of Creating Acadia National Park: The Biography of George Bucknam Dorr (Bar Harbor: Friends of Acadia, 2016).
The archive is available online through the Jesup’s Online Archive, which is one of many available through the History Trust.
It is highly recommended to begin with the introduction by clicking the button below.
Series
Series I. Introduction and Chronology
A brief introduction to the origin, development, and fruition of this research into the life and times of American land conservation pioneer George Bucknam Dorr (1953-1944), Superintendent of Acadia National Park (1916-1944). Chronology refers to the arrangement, dating, or timeline spanning here the late 18th century to the mid-20th century.
Refers to the identification of an individual or corporate body and overlaps content in the Index that concludes Creating Acadia National Park: the Biography of George Bucknam Dorr (Bar Harbor: Friends of Acadia, 2016).
This section frequently overlaps with Series II for a subject is a noun or pronoun that may imply topical or thematic associations that are usually linked to a library catalog to provide researchers with resources in similar categories.
Series IV. Rockefeller Archive Center
An exclusive grouping of relevant documents copied for Ronald Epp by archivists at the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY. Official and personal correspondence between philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960) and George B. Dorr dominate the Series.
Series V. Repositories Consulted
A set of alphabetical files listing a wide array of public and private archives in North America and Great Britain that were utilized through visitation and written or verbal conversation.
Series VI. Dorr Family Collection
Since his migration from Dorchester (County Dorset) England in the mid-17th -century, progenitor Edward Dorr (1648-1734) and his heritage line to George B. Dorr are provided by the latter with vivid brief biographies. They are preserved as the “Dorr Collection” in Boston at American Ancestors, formerly the New England Historic Genealogical Society. See item “N” below.
Series VII. Ward Family Collection
A collection of documents covering the Salem Massachusetts maternal side of Dorr’s family since they crossed the Atlantic in the mid-17th century as part of the Great Puritan Migration from Erinth (county Kent). See items “L” and “M” below.
A limited selection of families “related” both by blood and social choice are included. There are also relationships that may be found in Series II and III.
Series IX. Creating Acadia National Park: Publication History & Compiler Scholarship
A complete record of the early drafts of the Dorr biography, including public addresses, publications, and correspondence relative to the Acadia National Park centennial—and the 2016 National Park Service centennial. See items “C,” “D,” “E,” and “G” through “K” below.
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. (Use the reader view icon on the left hand side of the PDF if you only see page 1)
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. [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
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.
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.
Acknowledgements
Much appreciation is extended to Maureen Fournier of Somesville ME and Pathway Project agent Isabella Connelly of Bar Harbor ME for their cataloging of the 30,000 documents in the Creating Acadia National Park Research Archive.
Mathematician and programmer Sophia Caldwell of Cranberry Isles Research overcame innumerable digital technology challenges in preparing this archive for inclusion in the most commonly used search engines.
ARC Document Solutions of Farmington CT superbly digitized the thirty thousand documents in this research archive. And, of course, the welcome, persistent encouragement of my late wife, Elizabeth Clewell Epp.
Disclaimer
Title 17 of U.S. Code, governs reproductions of copyright material. A photocopy or reproduction is not to be used for any purpose other than private study scholarship, or research. This constitutes "fair use." Content in the Creating Acadia National Park Research Archive is exclusively for use for educational purposes and copyright attached to individual documents contained therein may vary.