LEWISTON — The new character card program at Museum L-A enables visitors to feel more engaged while taking a museum tour and learning about the history of Lewiston and Auburn. “Visitors now have a new, interactive way to honor a former employee who worked in the textile, brick or shoe manufacturing industries of our area,” said Camden Martin, museum visitor services coordinator.

The backside of Eloi LaChance’s character card gives biographical information and a quote directly from the former factory worker.

Visitors can choose from 35 badges that contain the picture and biographical information of a former worker. “While you are visiting the museum and learning about these different spheres of industry, you will have a more in-depth experience as you read what work meant to those individuals and more about their lives,” continued Martin.

Additionally, the museum has completed over 280 oral histories and continues to seek grants and donations to continue these histories. For the past few years, museum staff have discovered through surveys and comments the importance of finding new ways to bring more of these past-worker stories to visitors, both locals and tourists, for a closer connection with L-A’s history.

A year ago, a group of Bates College students developed the laminated card system on a trial basis. This year, a work-study student put a program together to launch different methods to make the character cards more relatable to visitors in several age groups.

“Student work from our college interns and work-study students are extremely valuable to our nonprofit. Our major partnership with Bates College often has given us impetus to move forward with programs that a small staff cannot get to, but can have a great impact on what we do,” said Rachel Desgrosseilliers, executive director.

The new program has proven so successful that visitors wanted to take the cards with them as a memento of their visit. “It was decided that we would print out paper copies of the cards that they could take home with them as part of their visit since the original piece was expensive to make,” said Martin. A recent visitor was “very impressed” to see that a small museum like Museum L-A was offering such an intimate connection with local history.

The museum looks forward to seeing more visitors try out the new program. Last year the museum had over 4,600 visitors. Its visitors come from 44 states and 13 countries.

Museum L-A is located in the Bates Mill Complex at 35 Canal St. Use the Chestnut Street entrance to its parking lot. Its hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Special tour requests and large group tours outside of those hours are available by appointment. For more information, contact info@museumla.org or call 207-333-3881.