The Partnership Begins

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     When Gene MacMullan arrived at the McGuire Library on an October afternoon in 2012 to volunteer his services as a book and paper conservator, we couldn't have known the extent to which he would transform the way we cared for archival collections, fragile books, torn or frayed documents. For the next seven years he undertook a variety of projects to preserve rare or one-of-a-kind items illuminating various parts of New London's colorful maritime history.

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     Gene's unexpected death in June, 2020, suddenly ended our productive relationship. On the following pages we honor his legacy with examples of his work.  The exhibit underscores our debt to Gene by describing some of the most interesting items in our collection.

     

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The McGuire Library team, right to left:  

Gene MacMullan, Laurie Deredita, Brian Rogers

Arriving every Thursday afternoon, Gene went to work repairing books with broken bindings, making boxes for special books and putting together archival albums of rare documents. He complemented these activities by creating indexes ("finding aids") for archival collections he had sorted and organized.