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POTSDAM — The village board has authorized the village treasurer to withdraw more than $4,000 from Potsdam Museum funds to pay for the restoration of an extremely rare 1803 map depicting the village, town and Upper Canada.
Potsdam Public Museum Director Trevor Blank told the Jan. 16 board meeting that the creation of the map coincided with the town’s founding. Settlement of Potsdam began in 1803, and the town was founded in 1806.
“The preservation of the maps actually started several years ago with the previous director,” Blank said. “The balance of $2,700 has already been paid. He has a balance of $4,310 to complete the project.”
Blank said the museum has a balance of about $68,000 in the Rossi Fund. However, access to funds is subject to village board approval.
“We would like to utilize $4,300 to complete conservation projects,” Blank said.
“Is that a map of Upper Canada?” asked Deputy Mayor Steve Waugh.
“Yes, that includes Potsdam and parts of Upper Canada,” Blank said.
“In addition to being a very detailed map, we actually have the names of the residents and homeowners listed along with the map,” Blank said.
“I think this is only one of three that exists in the world,” Waugh said.
“Yes, it’s very unusual,” Blank said.
“So what are you going to do with it?” Waugh asked.
Blank said part of the restoration will include fully digitizing the map and making it accessible to people in an online collection.
Blank said the goal of preservation is to restore the map and store it in a secure storage location or display it. Blank said the restoration project began before he took over at the museum, but he was encouraged to see it through to completion.
Waugh said he doesn’t believe anything like a map exists in Quebec City, the home of Upper Canada, and the idea for the project was to restore the map, digitize it for use in Potsdam, and then He said he thought the best thing to do would be to donate the map to Potsdam. It is on display at a museum in Quebec City.
During a subsequent meeting, the board approved authorizing the Potsdam Village Treasurer to withdraw $4,310 from the Potsdam Public Museum’s Rossi Fund balance to pay the Northeast Archives Center for the completion of the restoration of the map. It was decided to do so.
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