SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

• Carlisle: Origins (article)
• Collections
• Local history guide
• Map collection
• Oral Histories
• Wilkins Notebooks (Old Houses and Families of Carlisle)

For a century, what is now the Hollis Room was the home of the collections of the Carlisle Historical Society and the Gleason Public Library. When the library renovation was completed in the summer of 2000, the collections were separated. The Carlisle Historical Society now houses their object and document collections in their headquarters, the Heald Homestead.

In 2002 the materials in the Gleason Public Library's archives were processed and arranged. A finding aid is available to assist researchers in locating materials. The collection contains documents and records unique to Carlisle that are of interest to researchers and genealogists.

Wilkins Notebooks (Old Houses and Families of Carlisle): NOW ONLINE

The core of the Gleason's local history collection is the 25 volumes of the Wilkins' Notebooks (Old Houses and Families of Carlisle), researched, written, and assembled by Martha Fifield Wilkins during her tenure in Carlisle as the wife of the minister of the Congregational Church. The result of over a decade of research, the Notebooks contain local history and lore, genealogies, photographs, poems and drawings, and a wealth of information illustrating the history of Carlisle.

In 2012, the Wilkins Notebooks were digitized through the Internet Archive in cooperation with the Boston Public Library, supported by a grant the BPL received from the MBLC (Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners) and funded by the LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act). You can flip through the notebooks online, or download a copy to your computer.

• Indexes (click for PDF): By Street Address | By Family Name (partial listing) | Selected genealogies (families with more extensive genealogical sections)
• Click here for all volumes. Indexes are found in Volume II.
• For information on reprint permissions and image reproductions, please contact the library or visit our special collections policy.

COLLECTIONS

Town Histories

Military Histories

Vital Records to 1850 for Carlisle and surrounding towns

The Wilkins Notebooks and the History of the First Parish Church - now available in full online at the Internet Archive: http://archive.org/details/gleasonpubliclibrary

Photograph Collection

Lewis French Collection

Old Home Day Collection

Numerous small local history document collections

Carlisle Mosquito: print and microfilm

Carlisle Journal/Concord Journal Scrapbooks

CARLISLE: ORIGINS

"Creating Carlisle" originally ran in the Spring 2002 edition of The Concord Magazine, an online webzine based in Concord, Massachusetts.
www.concordma.com/magazine/maraprmay02/carlislema.html

LOCAL HISTORY GUIDE

This guide provides a list of print resources at the Gleason Public Library for researching Carlisle's history. The guide is in pdf format. Carlisle History Guide

MAP COLLECTION

A listing of maps housed in special collections.
In pdf format Map Collection

ORAL HISTORIES