The Waltham Historical Society is the recent recipient of the entire collection of the Rowland H. Barnes Company, a company that did extensive surveying of property in Waltham. Their records date back to 1899 and cover not only the City of Waltham in detail, but the firm also did work in Sudbury, Lexington, Wayland and the Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. Mr. Russell Stearns, who took over the Rowland H. Barnes Company from his father, donated the records to the Historical Society.

The collection contains surveyor's notes; maps, many in bound books, many more rolled up; field notebooks; and papers. In addition to boxes of notebooks (some dating back to the late nineteenth century), boxes of rolled-up maps, and large bound books of maps, there are at least fifteen file cabinets filled with papers and notes, providing a detailed history of property in Waltham.

We were fortunate, indeed, to receive this collection, a treasure-trove of information about the City. Given our lack of space, and our need to find quarters that will enable us to make our entire collection available to interested researchers and the general public, we were doubly fortunate when one of our members offered to store this collection in his garage.

Hopefully, sometime soon on this web page, we will have the news that we have moved to a location where the Society's collection can be accessible to all.