Opportunity Farm records

Collection

Identifier: Coll. 4248

Staff Only

Scope and Content note

This collection documents the development and administration of Opportunity Farm. Contents include meeting meetings, correspondence, memoirs, financial records, manuals, curricular and pedagogical resources, publications, press clippings, architectural drawings, photographs, and audiovisual material. These items reflect the founding, governance, history, financial resources, property, operations, residential life, and programs of the Farm throughout its century of service. The collection includes ample print and digital photographs, primarily dating from 1980-2010. Portions of this collection were originally arranged and described as an institutional archive by the Farm, the finding aid for which can be found in Box 2, Folder 3.

Dates

Creation: 1910 - 2018

Creator

Opportunity Farm (New Gloucester, Me.) (Organization)

Access

Unrestricted

Copyright

Access to collections at Maine Historical Society is not an authorization to publish. Rights and reproduction requests may be submitted in writing to the MHS Image Services Coordinator or Research & Administrative Librarian, subject to format.

Administrative note

In 1910, the Opportunity Farm for Boys was established in New Gloucester, Maine, by F. Forrest Pease, with considerable support from Ida Nowell. Pease, who was at that point working in Lewiston at a settlement house, envisioned the Farm as a home to care for boys in need. Nowell found the initial property and connected Pease with supporters in Portland who contributed seed money and furnishings for the house. The first resident, Ashley Crozier, arrived that year followed shortly by three others, and the Farm "commenced operations with a few small boys and a wheelbarrow, on land where pine, birch, and blueberry bushes reigned supreme." (Source: Opportunity Farm: A Brief Sketch and Reminiscences, 1938, Box 2, Folder 4)

In June 1912, the Farm incorporated as the Opportunity Farm Association and established a board of trustees. The Daughters of the American Revolution became interested in the Farm around this time and established themselves as long-term supporters of the institution. Over the course of the following decades, the Farm grew rapidly, as donors gifted new property and built additional houses and barns. Residents arrived – boys orphaned, from impoverished homes, or otherwise needing care, stability, and an opportunity to redirect their lives. The boys attended school on the Farm until the 1950s, when the school closed and residents began attending local public schools. After school, on weekends, and over summers, the boys worked on the Farm, caring for animals, growing food, haying, and performing other tasks around the property. They were paid for their work, though the Farm also established an ethos of community and mutual responsibility. There was also plenty of time for play, sports, and group outings.

The Farm’s residential program evolved and changed over the years, as needs and resources waxed and waned. Trips to Boston, New York City, and Disney World stood out for boys in residence at the time, as did opportunities to participate on Farm and school sports teams. The Farm held annual open houses, community dinners, and festivals to raise funds and to celebrate the boys and their families.

By the early 1990s, due in part to changing mores, the farming program was gradually phased out. In 1991, the Farm adopted the Family Teaching Model as its programmatic framework. The model formalized and provided resources to support the traditional family setting the Farm had been employing since its earliest days. Each resident was assigned a home and designated house parent. The program focused on communication, expectations, and consequences, and employed regular family meetings in houses for decision-making and problem-solving.

In 2001, after years of consideration, the Farm announced its intention to establish an Opportunity Farm for Girls, and in 2003, Gina Hutchinson arrived as the first girl in residence at the newly built Welch House. A second home, Snowe House, was built for girls in 2005. However, in 2011, in acknowledgement of a need to reimagine the services the Farm provided for children, Opportunity Farm announced a merger with The Community School in Camden, Me. Together, the two institutions formed Wayfinder Schools, and in 2018, the Opportunity Farm campus was sold, consolidating Wayfinder to the Camden campus.

Extent

9 Linear Feet (18 boxes + 38 architectural drawings, 3 bound volumes, and 4 oversize posters)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in four series.

1. Administration, 1910-2012
2. Program, 1939-2017
3. Publications and news clippings, 1926-2017
4. Photographs and audiovisual material, 1920-2018

Provenance

Gift of Wayfinder Schools, August 2018 (acc. no. 2018.188).

Separated Materials

In MHS museum collection: Opportunity Farm seal press (Past Perfect object id: 2018.188.001).

Processing note

The collection arrived partially arranged in 11 archival document boxes and in 12 cardboard boxes of varying sizes. The material in the document boxes represented the institutional archive developed by Opportunity Farm. The subsequent arrangement of this collection is based on the original archive’s structure, though series were combined and reshaped to accommodate the additional material in the 12 cardboard boxes. Within series, groupings typically reflect the original groupings of the institutional archive.

In 2010, Opportunity Farm celebrated its centennial. Various material was gathered and created at this time and arrived at MHS housed in multiple folders within the Farm’s institutional archive. These items were left in their original groupings, resulting in some repetition across folders. Additionally, photographs gathered for the centennial arrived grouped together and separate from the other photographs. This separation has been retained within Series 4: Photographs and audiovisual material.

Some records related to residents, such as filings with the Maine Department of Human Services and census data recorded by Opportunity Farm, included information protected by privacy laws. These records were redacted to remove access to this information, and are thus photocopies of the originals, which were not retained.

Donated with the collection was a considerable quantity of curricular material and resources. Much of this material consisted of duplicates and photocopies of textbooks and worksheets, and was therefore heavily weeded. All material produced and/or published in Maine was retained, as were any items with notes and created by or for Opportunity Farm staff and residents, as well as a sampling of material from all subject areas. A complete list of original file folder titles for the collection's pedagogical material is included as a note in Series 2: Program.

An Opportunity Farm seal press was gifted with the archival material. It was separated and added to the MHS museum collection (Past Perfect object id: 2018.188.001). Additionally, three sets of architectural drawings were separated and housed in Riverside’s flat files; location information for the drawings can be found in the collection inventory.

The collection includes many photographs and negatives. Photographs arrived housed in albums, arranged on single album pages, in photo processing envelopes, and loose, and were arranged according to original order as much as possible. Complete albums were housed together; loose album pages were photocopied and then prints were removed and sleeved and housed together in individual folders; and individual photos were grouped by subject according to information found on envelopes or on print versos. Most of the negatives arrived loose or alone in envelopes with minimal labeling. They were sleeved and then labeled and arranged according to any information available. However, it is likely that some strips contain images of various subjects not always represented by the arrangement, and thus those looking for specific images or subjects may want to be expansive in their search.

Select digital files on CD, DVD, and thumb drive were migrated to the MHS server and are available upon request; see Series 4. The CDs, DVDs, and drives were retained and are housed in Box 18; they will remain with the collection until 2043, per institutional retention schedules. Files on older media, such as VHS tape, audiocassette, digital videocassette, and floppy disk, were neither migrated nor previewed. These originals were retained and are housed in Box 17.