Director of Muskie Archives and Special Collection Library Kat Stefko; Bates' Muskie Oral History Project recently won the Elizabeth B. Mason Major Project Award, from the Oral History Association, for excellence in an oral history project. The Muskie project comprises some 400 interviews.

Asked to describe her job as an archivist, Katherine Stefko’s stock reply is, “I’m paid to read other people’s mail.” The joke is revealing. Director of archives and special collections at Bates, Stefko oversees the delicate work of gathering documentary materials that reveal the details — sometimes very personal — of history.

The Muskie Archives houses nationally significant holdings relating to the late Ed Muskie ’36. You’ve called him the hero of the 1968 presidential campaign, running with Hubert Humphrey.

It was the first time a presidential candidate advertised himself as having chosen a VP who could step up and be president. There was this fabulous political ad that Humphrey put out with the image and sound of an electrocardiogram and the line, “Who is your choice to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?”

We have film showing Muskie inviting a heckler to the stage. Muskie basically said to him, “I’ll give you 10 minutes to tell people your ideas, but in exchange your group has to be quiet and listen to my ideas.” He was extraordinarily genuine in wanting to understand everyone’s opinions before formulating a policy.

By extending that respect, he really gained a lot of ground with the antiwar protesters. Many political observers speculate that had the election been even a week or two later, Humphrey and Muskie would have come from behind to win.

You recently had vice-presidential scholar Joel Goldstein at the archives researching a book.

By necessity, archivists have to be generalists, so having somebody there with dedicated time to read through and make connections within the Muskie Papers has been incredible.

He has become a huge fan of Muskie, and wrote a lot of op-eds during this election year drawing parallels between the ’68 and 2008 campaigns. Goldstein has been particularly impressed by Muskie’s ability to inspire and sustain civil discourse.

You have a broad collecting mandate, between representing Muskie and other Bates people, and then officially documenting the College’s history.

We collect externally and internally — that’s important to realize. External to Bates, that’s usually me. I spend quite a bit of time working with alumni, their families, and other donors.

It’s always better if you talk to a person about their papers, because nobody can tell a story like the person who lived it. Also, giving one’s papers to an archives is not necessarily an easy thing to do — “Here’s my mail, make it publicly available.”

I talk to people about the historical importance of their materials. And I try to foster confidence so they understand that as an archivist, I’m ethically motivated to do the right thing, balancing the privacy needs of our donors with the research interest of our patrons.

What’s the on-campus process?

Internally, Pat Webber, the College archivist, works with people on campus to make sure that their records of historical value are preserved in the archives. We are authorized to collect from College offices, but there are other records being created at Bates with permanent value. So he goes to student-organization meetings in the evening to talk about the importance of their records.

The Outing Club, for instance, is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2010, so they and their adviser, Judy Marden, have been thoughtful, with Pat’s encouragement, about their records. Last summer we received all their historic records.

How else do you interact with alums?

We get quite a few casual visits during Reunion and Homecoming Weekend. We’ve offered a historic film festival where we’ve shown old films from the collection, and those have been quite popular.

Whenever possible we try to instill in alumni that we really want material that tells the personal side, the unofficial version of Bates’ history — scrapbooks, letters home to Mom and Dad expressing what it was like to adjust to college in Lewiston. These are the types of materials that support cultural and social history, and they can make the past seem real to today’s students.

Who laid the groundwork for the collections of College records?

Harry Rowe ’12, who worked at the College for about half a century, was the unofficial College historian. Bursar Norm Ross ’22 was a diligent record keeper. And he passed the baton to Bernie Carpenter as treasurer. They did a great deal to make sure that early records survived. We’re extraordinarily lucky to have as extensive a historical record as we do.

How is technology changing what you do?

The speed of obsolescence creates monetary challenges. Where a piece of paper, even a black and white photograph, can live happily on a shelf for 500 years, an 8-inch floppy drive is already obsolete.

We’re constantly thinking about getting things into a stable format — by today’s standards — and then developing a strategy to deal with it when that format becomes obsolete.

And something I’ve been thinking about is that kids don’t keep diaries anymore — they keep blogs. How can we thoughtfully collect and preserve blogs? I don’t have an answer yet, but I know it’s something that we need to do.

Interview by Doug Hubley, photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen

The Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Project, a decade-long Bates College effort to preserve memories and impressions of people who knew the late U.S. senator and secretary of state, has been chosen to receive an important award from the national professional organization of oral historians.

Andrea L’Hommedieu of Auburn, an oral historian who was central to the Muskie project, will receive the Oral History Association’s Elizabeth B. Mason Major Project Award on behalf of the college on Saturday, Oct. 18, during the association’s annual meeting, in Pittsburgh.

Given every other year, the Mason Award recognizes outstanding oral history projects in two categories, major and small. The awards go to projects that represent high standards of professional accomplishment, are noteworthy in their scholarly and social value, and advance both the understanding of an important historical subject and the disciplined practice of oral history.

The award committee cited the Muskie project as a “model for other Congressional collections and Centers to emulate.”

A native of Rumford, Maine, and a member of the Bates class of 1936, Edmund Sixtus Muskie would become a Maine governor, U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of state and a candidate for the White House.

Completed at Bates under the auspices of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, the Muskie Oral History Collection is the result of one of the largest and most comprehensive oral history projects about a modern political figure ever undertaken.

Interviews were conducted between 1998 and 2007 primarily by L’Hommedieu and longtime Muskie advisor and friend Don Nicoll. The collection includes more than 400 interviews with individuals who knew, affected or were affected by Muskie over the course of his life and career.

Interviewees include Muskie friends and family, Maine and national politicians, journalists, gubernatorial and U.S. Senate staff, Senate colleagues, State Department officials, law practice associates and citizens affiliated with Muskie in a variety of programs. Opinions and topics vary broadly, collectively providing a nuanced, multifaceted picture of Muskie’s contributions to Maine, the United States and the world.

Funding for the creation, processing and online publication of the Muskie Oral History Collection was generously provided by the Edmund S. Muskie Foundation.

The oral history materials complement the Edmund S. Muskie Papers at Bates, some 3,000 linear feet of materials comprising letters and memoranda; press releases and news clippings; speeches, reports and reference materials; photos, film and videotape. Much of the collection documents Muskie’s 21 years in the Senate, where his accomplishments included the landmark Clean Air Act of 1970 and Clean Water Act of 1972.

Thanks to a recent grant and a key donation of personal papers, one of the nation’s most comprehensive collections of political documents outside the presidential library system has grown even larger.

Edmund S. Muskie’s alma mater has completed a project that tells the late U.S. statesman’s story in the voices of those who knew him.

Begun in 1997, the Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Project at Bates College comprises some 440 interviews with people who worked with, otherwise knew or were directly affected by Muskie. A native of Rumford, Maine, and member of the Bates class of 1936, Muskie went on to become Maine governor, U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of state and a candidate for the White House.

The interviews are preserved on audio media and in print transcriptions edited and indexed by project staff. They are kept in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library at Bates, joining a Muskie documentary collection that is among the largest U.S. political collections outside the presidential libraries.

“The interviews provide many perspectives on Edmund Muskie as a public and private figure — as well as a sense of the times, a feeling for the issues with which he was associated and a mosaic of his friends, colleagues, staff and opponents,” says Don Nicoll, project director and a longtime friend of Muskie’s.

The materials are open not only to Bates students and faculty, but to any researchers studying Muskie and the issues in which he was involved.

The interviews “fill in the gap in the written record,” says Nicoll. “Many also provide clues that lead to important incidents or developments in public policy, or help us to understand what lay behind the plain text of committee reports or memoranda.”

“They give insights into Muskie’s personality and character that might otherwise elude us,” he adds. “We’ve worked hard to be sure the record contains favorable, neutral and unfavorable views of Senator Muskie. We aimed to illuminate his life, not glorify it.”

“When I began on this project, I knew Senator Muskie’s biography pretty well, but what I’ve learned over the years from innumerable anecdotes really illustrated his character and personality,” says project assistant Andrea L’Hommedieu, who conducted many of the oral history interviews and is now working on an oral history of Bates.

Though a Maine native, L’Hommedieu was surprised to learn that Muskie’s Blaine House run in the 1950s did more than make him governor. Muskie, along with Nicoll and Bates alumni Frank Coffin and John Donovan, belonged to an innovative group that gave new life to a Democratic Party long out of power in Maine.

“Muskie was so extraordinary, and so very human at the same time, that you couldn’t help not only to admire him, but to strive to be more like him in his civic-mindedness,” says L’Hommedieu, who points to Muskie’s pioneering role in creating U.S. environmental law. “I’m much more aware of my civic responsibilities, and more active in volunteer organizations, since the project began.”

Interviewees include Muskie’s friends from throughout his life, college contemporaries, Maine legislators, political associates and competitors, journalists, campaign supporters, gubernatorial and Senate staff, Senate colleagues, public officials, lobbyists, State Department officials, foreign-policy specialists, law practice associates and citizens associated with Muskie in myriad ways.

Among them are former Maine Gov. Kenneth Curtis, former Maine attorney general James Tierney and Howard Baker, until recently U.S. ambassador to Japan.

Nicoll first got to know Muskie in 1954, when Nicoll became the first full-time executive secretary of the Maine Democratic Party. He worked on Muskie’s two gubernatorial campaigns and his 1958 senatorial race, and later served as his news secretary, legislative assistant and administrative assistant in the Senate. The two remained close friends and colleagues until Muskie passed away in 1996.

Nicoll calls the oral history project, taken together with the Muskie documentary holdings at Bates, “a gold mine for anyone studying a wide range of political, legislative and international issues affected by the man who was one of the most versatile and formidable legislators in the history of our country.”

“This has been an unalloyed treat for me,” Nicoll says. “I’ve had an opportunity to contribute to an important modern historical record and have been able to refresh my memory — and, in some cases, to correct my recollections. And I’ve had numerous chances to visit with friends and former colleagues, and to gain a new appreciation of fine people I knew years ago only as antagonists.”

Although some editorial work remains to be done, the project’s official end came in December. The $225,000 project has been funded by the Edmund S. Muskie Foundation.

The Where’s Rumford? exhibit consists of over 70 photographs by Mark Silber, of Sumner, and excerpts from interviews with Rumford residents conducted by Linda Farr Macgregor. Started in 1999, the exhibit is a product of the Rumford Bicentennial Oral History Project 2000. The project is cosponsored by the Rumford Public Library and the Rumford Historical Society and supported by grants from the New Century Community Library Fund, the Maine Humanities Council, The Betterment Fund, Mead Paper Division and the Maine Community Foundation.

The exhibit first opened July 2, 2000, as part of the town’s bicentennial ceremonies and was on display in the Rumford municipal building through December. Christopher M. Beam, Bates College archivist, said the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library is a logical place to host the exhibit.

“Muskie was born and raised in Rumford and the community formed the bedrock of his distinguished career” as a Maine governor, U.S. senator, vice presidential and presidential contender, and U.S. secretary of state. Beam continutes, ”The exhibit will give visitors a sense of the vitality and values of the community that shaped his life and led directly to his many contributions to Maine and national politics, community development and the protection of the environment.”

The opening will include several speakers who will discuss various aspects of the exhibit and the history project. Donald E. Nicoll, long-time friend and political associate of Muskie and the current director of the Muskie Oral History Project, will discuss the influence of the community on Muskie’s life.

Dean of the College James W. Carignan will deliver welcoming remarks. Linda Macgregor, Mark Silber and several Rumford residents featured in the exhibit will comment on how the project has influenced their view of their community. Rumford Stories, a publication based on the project, will be available for purchase.

Dedicated in 1985, the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library documents the Bates alumnus’ career in public service, from his first election to the Maine House of Representatives in 1946 to his 21 years in the U.S. Senate to his appointment as U.S. secretary of state in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. Each year it sponsors lectures, symposia and conferences on national and state politics, foreign policy and the environment.

The Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, 70 Campus Avenue, is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.