Special Collections

Gleason Public Library Special Collections is located in the Hollis Room.

• Carlisle: Origins (article)
• Collections
• Local history guide
• Map collection
• Oral Histories
  
  

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 new 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. The core of the collection are the 25 volumes of the Wilkins' Notebooks, 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.

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

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