Great Northern Paper Company records

Collection

Identifier: Coll. 2950

Staff Only

Scope and Content note

This collection documents the administration and properties of the Great Northern Paper Company in Maine. Consisting of manuscript material (primarily in the form of ledgers and photographs) and drawings (including engineering and architectural) and maps, the collection reflects aspects of the financial and operational activities of the company, as well as its extensive land and facilities management. Manuscript material includes inventories, accounting records, land purchase and sale records, company newsletters, and two ledgers (Vols. 3 and 4) of indexed and labeled photographs documenting buildings on company land. Drawings include equipment and facilities drawings, as well as a substantial selection of maps and land surveys. An inventory of these drawings is attached to this finding aid in Series 3; it is also housed on the MHS server and available upon request. A selection of digitized GNP drawings is available on Maine Memory Network.

Dates

1813 - 2002
Majority of material found within 1899 - 1980

Creator

Great Northern Paper Company (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

The Great Northern Paper Company (GNP) was founded in 1897 in Millinocket, Maine, by Charles W. Mullen and Garret Schenck. The co-founders collaborated to build a paper mill on the West Branch of the Penobscot River. The Millinocket plant opened in 1900, quickly followed by a second in Madison, Me., and a third in East Millinocket, Me. The East Millinocket mill boasted its own dam and hydroelectric facility.

Upon opening in 1900, the Millinocket mill was the world’s largest paper mill. In the decades that followed, GNP produced a substantial proportion of the newsprint used in the United States and was, at one time, the largest landowner in the state of Maine. At its peak, GNP owned millions of acres of timberland, multiple dams and hydroelectric stations, farms, vessels, and a hotel.

In 1962, GNP expanded to Georgia, and in 1970 the company merged with the Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Company in Wisconsin. Under the new name Great Northern Nekoosa Corporation, mills were built in Arkansas and Mississippi, further extending the company’s operations beyond Maine. From the 1980s through the early 2000s, the company changed hands and names multiple times, and the Maine mills shrunk and eventually closed. In 2017, the non-profit Our Katahdin purchased the remaining GNP property.

Extent

7 Linear Feet (5 boxes + 4 volumes)

approx. 2,950 Sheets (8 flat file drawers (39 folders))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in three series.

1. Administration, 1899-1980
2. Property, 1899-2002
3. Drawings and maps, 1813-1994

Provenance

Gift of Katahdin Forest Management/Acadian Timber, May 15, 2016 (acc. no. 2016.167).

Related Materials

The following sources provide additional relevant information.

Maine Historical Society: Great Northern Paper Company photographs, Coll. S-7598
Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine: Great Northern Paper Company Records, 1889-1992

Processing note

The manuscript portion of the collection consists primarily of ledgers and binders. During processing, binder and ledger contents were removed from their original housing and transferred to folders. Copies were made of covers and spines to retain pertinent information and the original covers were discarded. Volumes 1-4 were not removed from their original ledger casings due to preservation considerations and a determination of intrinsic value.

The mounted photographs in Box 9/Folder 2 were interleaved and their mats discarded; title information was transferred from mats to the prints' cardstock backing. Generally, prints were not separated from backing as doing so would likely damage them; however, the backing on one was deteriorating and thus trimmed accordingly.

The collection’s drawings and maps are arranged by GNP reference numbers in flat file drawers OS5-B – OS6-D. Each drawing was catalogued individually, with pertinent descriptive data recorded in a spreadsheet attached to this finding aid.