rbgarr
08-29-2005, 03:43 PM
(and pediatrician for our first child) gets his due recognition:
DOCTOR'S PASSION BENEFITS MUSEUM
By Dennis Hoey
Blethen Maine Newspapers
DRESDEN -- For more than 40 years, Dr. Charles Burden spent his spare time ravaging flea markets, plundering antique shops and poking through people's attics in a quest for artifacts that had a connection to Maine's maritime history.
Though some of the items he purchased might seem a bit quirky, such as a pair of wings from a Flying Fish that he donated to the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, no one has ever questioned his devotion and passion for preserving history.
Museum officials estimate that Burden collected hundreds of artifacts valued at thousands of dollars during his collecting heyday. Burden says the number and value of items he donated to the museum gradually increased from around $2,000 in the early part of his collecting career to $50,000 a year for each of the past 15 years, or roughly $750,000 out of his own pocket.
The museum has received such items as a wooden peg leg, old photographs and paintings, ship models, steamship schedules and ships' logbooks. The items that don't go to the museum wind up in Burden's home, a museum in its own right. Burden also serves as a museum trustee and is co-founder of the Bath institution.
"He has been a great force," said Thomas Wilcox, director of the maritime museum. "I really don't know of another person like him."
But what makes Burden so unusual, his acquaintances point out, is that he is not a trained maritime historian. For 43 years, Burden operated a pediatric practice in Bath and Brunswick, retiring earlier this month. He also served as the school doctor for Morse High School for a number of years.
When he announced that he was going to retire from his practice, Burden requested that there be no retirement party. Instead, he asked that the museum establish an endowment fund in his name that could be tapped whenever the museum needed to purchase artifacts. Burden said the fund is needed now that he is no longer an active wage-earner.
Burden, 73, grew up in Bath and attended Morse High. After graduation, he attended Yale before earning his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He spent his summers working on a lobster boat off the coast of Maine.
After doing his pediatric training at Children's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Burden returned in 1962 to Bath, where he established a pediatric practice in a former sea captain's home at North and Front streets. The home overlooked the Kennebec River and imbued the young doctor with a sense of history and curiosity that has never wavered.
Because of the home's rich history - it had once been owned by Capt. John Patten - Burden found himself drawn to the Marine Research Society of Bath. Its members wanted to find a way to preserve the city's shipbuilding history, so in 1964 Burden volunteered to establish an exhibit of ship models in a small showroom in downtown Bath.
A year later, the society was offered space in the Sewall House on Washington Street. Members filled 30 rooms of the mansion with maritime artifacts. The display remained in the Sewall House until the late 1980s, at which time the collection was moved to what is now called the Maine Maritime Museum.
"We felt strongly that future generations deserved a museum that preserved their maritime heritage. Our collection just kept growing," Burden explained during a recent interview at his home in Dresden. The Colonial-style house, which was built in 1765 and once served as the residence of sea Capt. James Patterson, overlooks the Eastern River.
An anchor has been buried in the garden near the front door of the home. The door knocker is known as a Becket - the metal handle from a sea chest. Inside, maritime artifacts consume wall and floor space. A telescope hangs over the fireplace mantle. Also displayed are ornately decorated seaman's chests, a ship's cradle from the 1790s, ship models, a stuffed parrot that is 200 years old, nautical paintings, ship medicine chests, and a lamp that Burden says allegedly was removed from a house of prostitution - frequented by sailors, of course.
When Burden dies, his will specifies that the artifacts be donated to the museum.
Elena Vandervoort and Thomas Moser, museum trustees, gush over Burden's devotion to history and to the museum, which is on Washington Street near the Bath Iron Works shipyard.
"He has been a great champion for the museum," Vandervoort said. "His enthusiasm flows over and inspires others to give."
Moser adds: "Charlie is probably the preeminent pack rat in all of Maine when it comes to collecting maritime antiquities. He is a huge asset to the museum. I don't know what we would do without him."
Nathan Lipfert, who serves as curator and library director of the museum, said Burden ''is really unique. I know that word gets used a lot, but I really mean it. There has been no one else like him in the museum's history.
The amount of time he spends thinking about what the museum needs, and then going out and buying it, is astonishing."
Burden says his secret to collecting is to get up early and shop tirelessly, at flea markets, estate auctions and elsewhere. He also doesn't own a television. He says there is just not enough time in his day to watch TV.
"He is in here just about every day I am open and he is always shopping," said Norma Scopino, who operates the Montsweag Flea Market in Woolwich. "It's 'Good morning, Charlie,' every time he is here."
"I am driven," Burden said. "I want the museum to do well. People without a heritage are missing out on an important part of their life."
DOCTOR'S PASSION BENEFITS MUSEUM
By Dennis Hoey
Blethen Maine Newspapers
DRESDEN -- For more than 40 years, Dr. Charles Burden spent his spare time ravaging flea markets, plundering antique shops and poking through people's attics in a quest for artifacts that had a connection to Maine's maritime history.
Though some of the items he purchased might seem a bit quirky, such as a pair of wings from a Flying Fish that he donated to the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, no one has ever questioned his devotion and passion for preserving history.
Museum officials estimate that Burden collected hundreds of artifacts valued at thousands of dollars during his collecting heyday. Burden says the number and value of items he donated to the museum gradually increased from around $2,000 in the early part of his collecting career to $50,000 a year for each of the past 15 years, or roughly $750,000 out of his own pocket.
The museum has received such items as a wooden peg leg, old photographs and paintings, ship models, steamship schedules and ships' logbooks. The items that don't go to the museum wind up in Burden's home, a museum in its own right. Burden also serves as a museum trustee and is co-founder of the Bath institution.
"He has been a great force," said Thomas Wilcox, director of the maritime museum. "I really don't know of another person like him."
But what makes Burden so unusual, his acquaintances point out, is that he is not a trained maritime historian. For 43 years, Burden operated a pediatric practice in Bath and Brunswick, retiring earlier this month. He also served as the school doctor for Morse High School for a number of years.
When he announced that he was going to retire from his practice, Burden requested that there be no retirement party. Instead, he asked that the museum establish an endowment fund in his name that could be tapped whenever the museum needed to purchase artifacts. Burden said the fund is needed now that he is no longer an active wage-earner.
Burden, 73, grew up in Bath and attended Morse High. After graduation, he attended Yale before earning his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He spent his summers working on a lobster boat off the coast of Maine.
After doing his pediatric training at Children's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Burden returned in 1962 to Bath, where he established a pediatric practice in a former sea captain's home at North and Front streets. The home overlooked the Kennebec River and imbued the young doctor with a sense of history and curiosity that has never wavered.
Because of the home's rich history - it had once been owned by Capt. John Patten - Burden found himself drawn to the Marine Research Society of Bath. Its members wanted to find a way to preserve the city's shipbuilding history, so in 1964 Burden volunteered to establish an exhibit of ship models in a small showroom in downtown Bath.
A year later, the society was offered space in the Sewall House on Washington Street. Members filled 30 rooms of the mansion with maritime artifacts. The display remained in the Sewall House until the late 1980s, at which time the collection was moved to what is now called the Maine Maritime Museum.
"We felt strongly that future generations deserved a museum that preserved their maritime heritage. Our collection just kept growing," Burden explained during a recent interview at his home in Dresden. The Colonial-style house, which was built in 1765 and once served as the residence of sea Capt. James Patterson, overlooks the Eastern River.
An anchor has been buried in the garden near the front door of the home. The door knocker is known as a Becket - the metal handle from a sea chest. Inside, maritime artifacts consume wall and floor space. A telescope hangs over the fireplace mantle. Also displayed are ornately decorated seaman's chests, a ship's cradle from the 1790s, ship models, a stuffed parrot that is 200 years old, nautical paintings, ship medicine chests, and a lamp that Burden says allegedly was removed from a house of prostitution - frequented by sailors, of course.
When Burden dies, his will specifies that the artifacts be donated to the museum.
Elena Vandervoort and Thomas Moser, museum trustees, gush over Burden's devotion to history and to the museum, which is on Washington Street near the Bath Iron Works shipyard.
"He has been a great champion for the museum," Vandervoort said. "His enthusiasm flows over and inspires others to give."
Moser adds: "Charlie is probably the preeminent pack rat in all of Maine when it comes to collecting maritime antiquities. He is a huge asset to the museum. I don't know what we would do without him."
Nathan Lipfert, who serves as curator and library director of the museum, said Burden ''is really unique. I know that word gets used a lot, but I really mean it. There has been no one else like him in the museum's history.
The amount of time he spends thinking about what the museum needs, and then going out and buying it, is astonishing."
Burden says his secret to collecting is to get up early and shop tirelessly, at flea markets, estate auctions and elsewhere. He also doesn't own a television. He says there is just not enough time in his day to watch TV.
"He is in here just about every day I am open and he is always shopping," said Norma Scopino, who operates the Montsweag Flea Market in Woolwich. "It's 'Good morning, Charlie,' every time he is here."
"I am driven," Burden said. "I want the museum to do well. People without a heritage are missing out on an important part of their life."