BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

POTSDAM -- The village board has authorized the village treasurer to pull more than $4,000 from a Potsdam Museum fund to pay for the restoration of an extremely rare 1803 map of the village, town and Upper Canada.

Potsdam Public Museum Director Trevor Blank told the board at their Jan. 16 meeting that the map’s creation coincides with the founding of the town. The settlement of Potsdam began in 1803, with the town being established in 1806.

“The map conservation actually started with the previous director a couple years ago,” Blank said. “A balance of $2,700 has already been paid. We have a balance of $4,310 to complete the project.”

Blank said the museum has around $68,000 in its Rossi fund balance. Access to the money needs to be approved by the village board of trustees however.

“We are hoping to utilize $4,300 to complete the conservation project,” Blank said.

“Is that the Upper Canada map?” asked Deputy Mayor Steve Warr.

“Yes it includes Potsdam and part of Upper Canada,” Blank said.

“In addition to being a highly detailed map it actually has the names of the residents, of the homeowners, listed along with that map,” Blank said.

“I think it is only one of three existing in the world,” Warr said.

“Yeah, extremely rare,” Blank said.

“So, what is your intent to do with it?” Warr asked.

Blank said part of the restoration involves digitizing the map fully, which will make it available for people to access in online collections.

Blank said the goal of the preservation was to restore the map and preserve it in safe storage or display it. Blank said the restoration project was begun before he took over at the museum but he was encouraged to see it through.

Warr said he did not believe there was anything like the map in Quebec City, the home of Upper Canada, and that he thought the idea of the project was to restore the map, digitize it for use in Potsdam, and then donate the map to the museum in Quebec City for display there.

Later during the meeting, the board voted to authorize the Village of Potsdam’s Treasurer to withdraw $4,310.00 from the Potsdam Public Museum's Rossie fund balance to pay the Northeast Document Conservation Center for completion of the map’s restoration.