Earl M. McChesney Papers

The collection is arranged in two series: I. Forestry study files and II. Business records. Series II is further sub-divided into seven sub-series: 1. General office files; 2. Land survey account records; 3. Survey field books; 4. Forester client files; 5. Land survey client files; 6. General information files; and 7. Maps and plans.

Series I, Forestry study files, contains information gathered by Earl McChesney in the 1940's to support his work as a forester. He organized the material into topics and assigned each topic a classification number using a system devised at the Yale School of Forestry. Subjects range from general information about forest management to specific work on plants and flowers. Included are pamphlets, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, etc.

Series II, Business records, begins at the time when McChesney set up his own business. The first sub-series includes files used in the day-to-day running of the office. Arranged alphabetically and using file names assigned by McChesney, it contains information on advertising, equipment, finances, and purchasing, as well as correspondence and a small amount of personal material.

The second sub-series, arranged by client name, contains billing and financial information about McChesney's clients. The third sub-series contains survey field books; those from the mid-1930's contain McChesney's notes from his studies in forestry, while the volumes from 1950 to 1996 provide detailed information about McChesney's surveying and forestry business.

Sub-series four contains a small group of client files primarily from the 1950's which document McChesney's work as a forester. Sub-series five, the largest in the collection, consists of McChesney's land survey client files. These are arranged alphabetically by place and then by client name and contain general information about the job, information about property deeds and lot history, reports and maps, and schedules of work. In letters to potential clients, McChesney emphasized that he did measurements in the field prior to marking the property and drawing maps; researched deeds for the property; studied and copied existing maps; and interviewed owners, abutters, and others to clarify any obscure information. Additional maps produced for some clients can also be found in the Maps and plans sub-series.

Sub-series six contains general information files used by McChesney in his work. It is arranged using McChesney's headings and contains geographic information about the state of Maine as a whole followed by information arranged by county and town.

The final sub-series contains maps and plans generated by McChesney for his clients as well as those copied from other sources, primarily registries of deeds and town offices. These maps are arranged alphabetically by place and then by client name. General maps of a community follow each set of client files. Especially represented are properties in Bangor, Hampden, Hermon and Holden, Maine.