Safeguarding the past: A look at Acton’s archived treasures

In May 1775, Acton’s Town Meeting warrant began with, “In his Majesties name …” and the articles included appointing “persones to joine in a Provincial Congress appointed to be convened and held at Watertown.” 

Townspeople discussed determining a sum of money to pay Minute Men, as the colonies had just begun to fight for independence.

The following year, in July 1776, Rev. William Emerson of First Parish received a broadside copy of the Declaration of Independence to be read from the pulpit. That copy still exists in the town’s archives. 

Nate Smith, Acton’s municipal archivist and records manager, credits the resources and respect the town devotes to its records. 

“I think Acton has cared about its history for a long time, so it was probably recognized as something they should take extra care with early, whereas some towns may not have done that or just may not have had the resources to do that,” he says.

Though the original document — which was recently taken out and cleaned — resides safely in the vault, it and most other treasures can be viewed upon request. 

Centuries of records

Home to records that date from over 300 years ago to today, the Acton Archives are located in the basement of the Acton Free Public Library in an agreement with the library’s Special Collections. They share the climate-controlled vault space and work together closely. 

Smith was hired five years ago as Acton’s first municipal archivist. His job involves ensuring that town records are preserved and accessible to researchers, as well as receiving new records and digitizing them. 

Currently, the archives operate in a hybrid mode. 

“It’s kind of an ongoing policy being drafted,” Smith says. “We have to meet our state law requirements and then go beyond that to think about what will be helpful to the future.” 

Town Meeting minutes, for example, must be permanently retained in the archives. “Town Meeting votes carry legal weight even hundreds of years later,” Smith says. “We’re still held to those things that generations before us may have voted on.”

History repeating itself

“When you’re making decisions about the future, it’s helpful to understand the past,” Smith says, and sometimes, the parallels are striking. 

In 1820, the town was considering “adopting any measures for building a school house or school houses in the middle-school-district.” In 2022, two centuries later, the town approved construction of that facility’s latest iteration, which opened this year as the Ellen Garrison Building at Acton Middle School. 

The 1925 Annual Town Report shows Acton townspeople voting on articles regarding building and maintaining new roads and traffic signals, as well as an extension of the town water system. This year’s articles included a debt exclusion for road maintenance and a stormwater enterprise fund. 

Free-range swine

Certain issues, of course, are no longer relevant. 

“Some things have changed a lot,” Smith says. “They used to have a Town Meeting vote to let the swine roam free, which is basically to let the pigs in the town square.”

Smith sees the archives as “a snapshot” of Acton’s history, albeit with holes that are crucial to acknowledge. 

He also emphasized that the archives can never provide a complete historical representation of Acton. 

“No archive will ever cover everything, especially underrepresented populations,” he says. “The further back you go, certain people had access to paper and ink, and others didn’t, so it’s pretty interesting to think about what’s missing. [This] is what survived, but not necessarily the whole picture.”

To view records in person, contact Smith at [email protected] or visit concordlibrary.org.