• The Berlin Community Forum
• Now/Then/When
• The Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire
• Northern Forest Heritage Park

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Beyond Brown Paper is an ongoing project that involves three collaborative departments at Plymouth State University — Lamson Library’s Michael J. Spinelli Jr. Center for University Archives and Special Collections, Karl Drerup Art Gallery, and the Center for Rural Partnerships.

Funded by a grant in 2006 from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, 250 of the 11,000 photographs were scanned with preservation quality resolution. A computer workstation was purchased and set up in Berlin which provided internet access to these images and the capacity for users to provide information on the images either by phone or computer. The Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire worked as a partner in making connections with Berlin-area community organizations and volunteers and in linking this project to a variety of local cultural initiatives through the hard work of a VISTA volunteer.

Scanning these images with preservation quality resolution ensures all subsequent work is done with digital images rather than manipulation of the fragile photographs. The scanned images, totaling over 6000 to date, are accessible from this website and allow users to input written content related to the photographs, or communicate orally directly over a phone via a toll-free number.

The Brown Company Photographic Collection, which is located in Lamson Library’s Michael J. Spinelli Jr. Center for University Archives and Special Collections, documents much of the history of the Brown Company of Berlin, New Hampshire from the late nineteenth century through the mid-1960s. Among the subjects depicted in considerable detail are the varieties of work activity from the felling of trees to the final manufacture of pulp and paper in Berlin and Gorham. Also shown in detail are engineering projects, the construction of mills, and the installation of new equipment and machinery. A significant portion of the collection chronicles the social, cultural, and recreational lives of the workers, their families, and the place of these people in the life of Berlin itself.

On October 15, 2008, the Beyond Brown Paper exhibition opens at Plymouth State University in the Silver Center for the Arts, and runs through December 15, 2008. The exhibition, containing roughly 35 enlarged photos, will allow for more interaction from visitors. It is hoped that the exhibition will travel to other locations in the North Country and beyond.

Hear New Hampshire Public Radio’s report on the Beyond Brown Paper project: http://www.nhpr.org/node/17569