July 2008

The Franco-American Collection, at USM's Lewiston-Auburn College, has recently received a significant addition to its unique selection of books on the French in North America.

These rare volumes, which were once part of L’Union St-Jean Baptiste’s Mallet Library in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, have arrived as part of an agreement reached in 2004 when U.S.J.B. merged with Catholic Family Life Insurance. Through the efforts of Louise Champigny-Boulanger, director of New England operations for CFLI and of the late Georgette Bérubé and Jean Gastonguay of USJB’s local Ste-Croix Council and Donat Boisvert of the Franco-American Collection, a part of this precious documentation on the French presence in North America has found a home in Lewiston.

Most of the books date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Of particular note is a multi-volume series called ‘Le bulletin des recherches historiques’ which contains a wide variety of information on archeology, genealogy and arcane historical facts, such as a soirée Voltaire hosted, in 1759, celebrating  England’s conquest of New France. Many other works, including John Shea’s classic two volume “First establishment of the faith in New France” (1881-1882), are part of this important new acquisition.

The Franco-American Collection is housed at USM's Lewiston-Auburn College and is supported by private funding. It is the largest repository of Franco-American archival material in the State of Maine. For more information, call 753-6545 or email franco@usm.maine.edu.