Images of America: Maine
Series · 119
books · 1994-2015
Books in series
#1
Along Maine's Appalachian Trail
2011
Maine native Myron H. Avery recruited friends from Washington, D.C.; Maine forest and warden service personnel; guides and sporting camp operators; and the Civilian Conservation Corps to extend the Appalachian Trail through Maine, despite questions of whether it would be possible to carve a trail through the state's wildlands. Volunteers of Maine's Appalachian Trail Club, created by Avery in 1935, have since maintained the trail, built shelters, relocated more than half of the original hastily constructed route, and taken on the task of managing the trail's protection corridor. Along Maine's Appalachian Trail illustrates the rich history of the trail's rugged mountains and vast forests, which have provided a livelihood for generations of workers and communities.
#2
Along the Damariscotta
1995
Since the development of photography in the midnineteenth century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive our image of the past, and can open a floodgate of memories and nostalgia or inspire curiosity and a sense of history. The Damariscotta River has always been an important resource to those who have lived and traveled along its shores. From Jefferson at the head of Damariscotta Lake to the bridge at Damariscotta and eventually on to the sea at Christmas Cove, this small but adaptable body of water has fostered a wide range of human activities. The fishing, shipbuilding, and brick-making industries were the first to harvest and harness the river. As these industries eventually declined and word of the scenic beauty and simple charm of the region spread, summer cottages and camps began to appear along the river's banks. Today, the Damariscotta River region is an evocation of Maine life past and present, and it remains one of the most captivating and extraordinary regions in the Northeast.
#4
Along the Union River
1997
Along the Union River weaves together more than two hundred images with intriguing and informative text to create an immensely enjoyable journey through the history of the towns along the banks of Maine’s majestic Union River and its tributaries. The region comprising Hancock and Penobscot Counties was originally settled by soldiers who came to work in the woods and tanneries. Soon, supporting industries, stores, copper shops, lumber camps, and ladies millinery shops were established, but it was the shipbuilding industry that flourished most prominently. Here, we explore Bingham Millions,Mariaville’s “Greenhouse Settlement,” and Lucerne’s “Little Switzerland,” and experience the wild beauty of this world-famous countryside.
#5
Anson
1998
Join the Anson Bicentennial Committee on a journey through Anson’s past with the help of this unprecedented collection of images. Commemorating the town’s 200th birthday, Anson covers the history of a small but active and progressive community. Included in the collection are images of the great floods and disastrous fires encountered by the residents of Anson. A town that grew and flourished despite setbacks, Anson took advantage of its two rivers, the Carrabassett and the Kennebec. Also included are images of the town’s growth from earlier days, when it was a part of Massachusetts, directly on the path of Arnold’s march to Quebec. Anson details the activities and events in the lives of its residents and the history of a unique community.
#6
Around Dover-Foxcroft
2008
Picturesque Sebec Lake is surrounded by the towns of Dover-Foxcroft, Bowerbank, Sebec, and Willimantic. The area's history goes back hundreds of years to the time when Eli Towne walked through the woods and became the first settler in Southern Piscataquis. For generations, Dover-Foxcroft has drawn residents and tourists alike, eager to enjoy the lake's scenic beauty, take in horse racing at the park, or catch a show at the opera house or the Star Theater. Four railroad stations served the five towns, making the region easily accessible. In the early years, residents found work in many industries, from the Mayo and Brown woolen mills to the Hughes organ factory.
#7
Around Ellsworth and Blue Hill
1995
Surrounded by rugged mountains and bordered by a beautiful, jagged coastline, the city of Ellsworth and the town of Blue Hill exemplify “Downeast Maine” at its best. Few areas in Maine have retained as much nineteenth-century charm: lighthouses, cottages, gardens, and even a castle enhance the natural beauty of the region, which has always drawn visitors from far and wide. At the same time, Maine traditions of Yankee pride and hard work shine through, with granite quarries and copper mines, as well as busy fishing seasons testifying to the industrious spirit of this coastal people. It is this combination of natural beauty and strength of spirit that has always made the Ellsworth and Blue Hill area one of the most compelling and dynamic regions in all of Maine.
#8
Around Great Moose Lake
2006
Athens, Harmony, Hartland, and St. Albans surround the 3,500-acre Great Moose Lake in central Maine, and this volume reveals the fascinating history found here. Sportsmen discovered this land in the mid-1800s and established hunting lodges on the lake's shore, which continued for more than 60 seasons. In their heyday, the lodges provided employment for locals and planted alluring mysteries for later generations. Citizens later thrived on the farming and manufacturing in the late 19th and early 20th century. The colorful past left a rich heritage of seasonal and year-round residents and visitors that shaped the personality of the area. Around Great Moose Lake unravels some mysteries of the lodges and focuses on the changing culture around the lake and its four towns.
#9
Around Hallowell
1996
With Around Hallowell, author Bob Briggs has created a nostalgic look at his home from the Civil War era to the 1940s. Incorporated in 1771, Hallowell is one of Maine's oldest permanent settlements. Incredibly, the 1807 American Encyclopedia predicted that Hallowell would one day be one of the nation's largest cities. This book focuses on the city in its heyday of prosperity, culture, and education, and it gives the reader insight into the now-vanished industries of shipping, granite, lumber, and ice that comprised the stapple of Hallowell's financial prosperity. Over the years, urban renewal has claimed many of Water Street's most prominent landmarks. Manu of the 200 rare photographs included in this volume depict these historic buildings and street scenes as they once were. Covering the area along the Kennebec River between Farmingdal and Augusta, these images speak volumes about a time when life moved at a leisurely pace, enabling residents to take time out for cultural and spiritual refinement.
#10
Around Houlton
1994
Since the development of photography in the mid-19th century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive our picture of the past in a way that other historic relics cannot, and they tell us much more than at first appears. Houlton, Maine, is a town still infused with the Yankee pioneer spirit, an independence that can be traced back to Houlton’s roots at the beginning of the 19th century. This is reflected in nearly every face in this delightful selection of images of the people of Houlton and its surrounding communities in the century between 1850 and 1950. Some of the best photographs are those that simply show “how things used to be”—pictures of potato farming, of industry, of lively activity in Market Square, and of peaceful summer recreation at cottages at Nickerson, Grand, and Drew’s Lakes.
#12
Around Ripley
2003
Two hundred years ago, six tiny villages-Ripley, Corinna, Harmony, St. Albans, Dexter, and Cambridge-were established in the rolling hills of Central Maine, each no more than a few miles from the next. By 1810, the village populations were virtually identical. As waterpower technology advanced, the populations of the villages on bodies of water with sufficient fall increased as industry and commerce developed. However, electric power, the telephone, and the automobile were the great "eveners," and by the twentieth century, waterpower made little difference to the villages' economic growth. Despite fluctuations in population, these towns have remained rural hamlets and bedroom communities for nearby cities. Around Ripley attempts to capture the interesting history and everyday activities of these six towns through carefully selected photographs from each community.
#13
Around Rockland
1996
This wonderful photographic history of Rockland by the Shore Village Historical Society brings to life the story of this dynamic city between 1870 and 1970. Rockland's unique industrial heritage is documented in great detail particularly lime manufacturing, which has brought national attention to Rockland over the years. Lime burning led to shipbuilding and other commercial endeavors, making Rockland the shipping and quarrying center of Midcoast Maine, and many of the photographs collected here show the proud shipping and quarrying traditions of the city in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Most of the images that have been selected for this book are rare and previously unpublished, and many of them although they may have seemed commonplace when originally taken give us a tremendous insight into the way life was lived in the last century. At once comprehensive and accessible, this delightful book will earn a lasting place on the bookshelves of area homes and cottages, as well as in the hearts of Rocklanders young and old alike.
#14
Around Waterville
1995
Recognized today as one of Maine's largest central communities, Waterville has grown immensely since its early beginnings. Due to its location on the west bank of the Kennebec River, which provided power for mills built between 1850 and 1950, Waterville thrived as a center for textile manufacturing and papermaking. Early industries also included lumbering, farming, and shipbuilding, and the community's location in the state made it a railroad center. In 1813, Baptists founded Colby College, considered one of the nation's most prestigious liberal arts colleges. It has transformed Waterville into a true college town focused on preserving its heritage through preservation and downtown revitalization efforts.
#15
Around Wiscasset
Alna, Dresden, Westport Island, Wiscasset, and Woolwich
1996
The Kennebec and Sheepscot Rivers of Maine, natural boundaries for the Wiscasset region, provided the water highways for early explorers, traders, and missionaries. By the early part of the seventeenth century, colonization by European settlers had begun. For over 360 years, the area has been home to shipbuilders, fishermen, farmers, and tradesmen. This marvelous photographic chronicle traces not only the rich historical traditions of the area, but also the shared sense of life’s unbroken continuity present in the towns of the Wiscasset region: Alna, Dresden, Westport Island, Wiscasset, and Woolwich. Vintage photographs profile a few of those who quietly inspired others through their efforts to make life better in the region, as well as those men and women of wealth and vision who provided the area with a legacy by their lifestyles and great homes. The book also features views of local taverns, courthouses, general stores, churches, and schools—all the foundations of a changing, vivacious, and growing community.
#16
Auburn
1996
According to local lore, Auburn’s name comes from “Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain,” a line from Oliver Goldsmith’s poem, “The Deserted Village.” The first settlers were drawn to the Auburn area by the remarkable falls, lakes, and streams, which provided power for early shoe and textile manufacturers as well as opportunities for recreation. Visitors were also attracted by the tremendous natural resources of “Sweet Auburn” and tourism boomed in the nineteenth century, with people “from away” flocking to the area to enjoy cruises on Lake Auburn and to partake of spring waters and tonics. As Auburn grew and changed, photographers began to preserve these developments on film. For the past 130 years, they have recorded the daily lives of the people of Auburn: their workplaces, schools, and houses; their modes of dress and moments of leisure; and the celebrations and disasters that have brought the people of Auburn together.
#18
Bangor
1994
Bangor is a city that has grown in many ways since Jacob Buswell and his family, the first white settlers, built their log cabin by the Penobscot River in 1769. Over the course of the nineteenth century, Bangor developed into a cosmopolitan center of Maine, but to this day it retains some of the proud characteristics of a town that was once the lumbering capital of the world. Collected in this fascinating visual history are over 200 photographs that together reflect the city’s rich and diverse history. The photographs show more than a century of change, with stirring images of four-masted schooners in the harbor, of log drives, of floods, and of fires. People fill the book: Amelia Earhart and Presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Kennedy pictured on visit; the Brady Gang, shot by the FBI in 1937 as the nation’s most wanted criminals; and especially the hardworking men and women who built Bangor into the “Queen City of the East.”
#20
Bath Iron Works
2002
Bath Iron Works was established by Gen. Thomas Hyde in 1884 and launched its first ship in 1891. Since then, the shipyard on the Kennebec River has built dozens of luxurious yachts, hardworking freighters, tugs, trawlers, lightships, and more than two hundred twenty warships for the U.S. Navy. Today, Bath Iron Works continues a shipbuilding tradition that began nearly four hundred years ago when the first ship built in America was constructed just a few miles downriver from Bath. Bath Iron Works showcases a unique collection of photographs that provides a rare view inside one of the nation's great shipyards. The book shows the yard's origins in a few simple buildings, its expansion into a modern shipbuilding facility, and its rapid growth into an industrial powerhouse during World War II. During these years, Bath Iron Works produced famous ships such as the America's Cup defender Ranger, the yachts Aras and Hi-Esmaro, the record-setting destroyer USS Lamson, and fully one fourth of all destroyers built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Bath Iron Works gives an insider's view of these great vessels and many others, as skilled craftspeople turn raw materials into complex ships, each uniquely suited to its purpose. This collection of shipbuilding photographs brings to life the proud history of Bath Iron Works.
#21
Bath and West Bath
1995
Originally founded as one town, Bath and West Bath have gone their separate ways since 1844. By that fateful year, the two areas had already developed different interests and identities. Whereas the western part of town remained agricultural, the eastern part—stretched along the Kennebec River—had become active in shipbuilding and maritime trade. After their separation, eastern Bath went on to become a thriving city, while the farms of West Bath eventually mingled with summer camps and cottages. Because Bath’s shipbuilding industry made a successful transition from wood to steel and from sail to diesel power, the city remained in the forefront of maritime construction—helping to create the modern U.S. Navy, furnish fancy yachts, and build up-to-date fishing vessels. Although home to other industries besides Bath Iron Works, Bath came to consider itself “the Shipbuilding City,” with its high school sports teams being known as the “Shipbuilders.”
#22
Baxter State Park and Katahdin
2012
The character of Baxter State Park and the great mountain at its heart can be powerfully conveyed through two words: forever wild. The mountain was known as Ktaadn, or “the greatest mountain,” to native peoples who first frequented Maine’s interior northern forest. They were followed by colonial adventurers who explored its cirques and massive granite walls, by those who studied its geology and flora and fauna, and later by loggers who came to extract the virgin timber from nearby valleys. Finally, recreational climbing and camping led to an effort to protect the rugged beauty of these mountains, lakes, and valleys. When calls for preservation went unheeded, former governor Percival P. Baxter, beginning in the 1930s, purchased some 201,000 acres over a period of 30 years and gifted them to the state. Today, Baxter State Park is the guardian of this vast wilderness area for all to enjoy. Baxter State Park and Katahdin draws on rich collections of archival images dating back to the 19th century.
#23
Baxter State Park and the Allagash River
2002
Baxter State Park and the Allagash River covers two spectacular areas in the northern Maine woods. Baxter State Park, with more than 200,000 acres, is the largest park in the country purchased by one individual, former governor Percival P. Baxter. The park includes Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail and the highest peak in Maine. Breathtaking photographs portray the scenic Allagash River, which was designated a wilderness waterway in 1966 by the Maine legislature. It was the first state-managed river area in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System in 1970. Included in this volume are stereoscopic photographs of Mount Katahdin from the early 1870s. This mountain, sacred to the Native Americans, has an atmosphere that is masterfully conveyed in the extraordinary photographs used in this history. The Allagash River is portrayed as it was before the wilderness waterway was created. Baxter State Park and the Allagash River chronicles the progression of the river and park from lumbering, hunting, and fishing to its eventual preservation and tourism.
#24
Beaches of Wells
1997
Long before Maine became known as Vacationland in the 1890s, Wells beckoned promoters and guests from the inland cities of New England. During the 1850s and 1870s two grand hotels, complete with entertainment centers, accommodated these visitors. By 1885 the hotels had been destroyed by fires, but they were replaced with smaller boarding houses and private cottages. Beginning with the wealthy mill owners and industrialists and then expanding to include the working class, Wells' tourist industry has thrived for more than a century. Summer visitors have experienced Wells' multitude of natural resources. Miles of beach, rock-bound coast, and refreshing seabreezes beckon vacationers to return annually. In turn, Wells' economy, landscape, and development has catered to the needs of both these visitors and the year-round residents.
#25
Berwick
2014
First settled in 1631, Berwick is the ninth-oldest town in Maine. Its unique location on the border of Maine and New Hampshire has served as one of the most popular gateways between the two states for centuries. Berwick was home to Gen. John Sullivan, a military officer in the Revolutionary War, and James Sullivan, the seventh governor of Massachusetts. Berwick was also the site of the country’s first sawmill, powered by the Salmon Falls River. In the 1800s, sawmills gave way to cotton mills, all which continued to depend on the river for their livelihood. In 1935, Berwick became the headquarters of Prime Tanning, which grew to be the country’s most dominant leather tannery. Today, Berwick is shifting its focus back to the river, not as a means to support factory life, but rather as a place to gather and engage in community activities. Berwick traces the history of a town that has overcome economic hardship and looks to continued revitalization in the future.
#26
Biddeford
2003
In the 1700s and early 1800s, Biddeford was a small, prosperous village dependent on fishing, lumbering, shipbuilding, and merchant mills for its wealth. In 1830, New England's industrial revolution brought massive investment and development to the town. The Saco Water Power Company was developed, two large textile companies were established, and six hundred buildings and thirty-six streets were constructed between 1829 and 1849. Biddeford quickly became the most ethnically and culturally diverse city in Maine. The city thrived for more than one hundred years, but the Great Depression brought hard times to Biddeford. Through images, Biddeford tells the compelling story of this remarkable city.
#29
The Boothbay Region Revisited
2004
The Boothbay Region Revisited is a collection of vintage photographs illustrating the Yankee tenacity of those who settled this historic coastal area. Images ranging from the 1880s to the late 1900s depict the beautiful backdrop of Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor and the activities that have taken place shipbuilding and seafaring, small-town commerce and recreation, and the rise and expansion of the region as a summer resort.
#30
Brewer
1997
Seven miles of beautiful waterfront and a colorful legacy of famous residents and venerable industry have made Brewer a treasured and prosperous city for more than two hundred years. Since its founding in 1771 along the lower Penobscot River, Brewer has flourished in business and architecture, and yet has retained its scenic landscape. Brewer is a unique look at the development of this city. A wide range of photographs spanning a century and a half bring to life its vibrant history. Figures such as Gov. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, who was also an important Civil War general, and Col. John Brewer, the early settler for whom the city is named, are among the residents highlighted. One image showcases the family home of Deacon John Holyoke, which some believe was a station on the Underground Railroad. Ice harvesting along the Penobscot River, brick making, and ship launchings are pictured, including the tiny 3-cent Bon Ton ferries that linked Brewer to Bangor before a second bridge was built. Fourth of July celebrations, soapbox derby races, and events like the devastating flood of 1902 are all captured in this enviable history.
#31
Bridgton
2008
In 1768, Jacob Kimball moved to the shores of Long Lake in North Bridgton, building a store and providing boat service from Standish, at the southern end of Sebago Lake. Jacob Stevens soon followed, building a sawmill and gristmill on what became Stevens Brook in the center village. Ten power sites on this short brook ran lumber, textile, and other mills, as well as a tannery. Bridgton became the area's commercial center as retail stores and businesses sprang up to support the many mill workers and farm families. The first train on the narrow-gauge Bridgton and Saco River Railroad chugged into town in January 1883. Tourists and artists soon discovered Bridgton, and today the town remains a diverse mix of creative, hardworking people.
#32
Brooklin
2003
Brooklin is a Downeast coastal town surrounded by Blue Hill Bay to the east, Jericho Bay to the south, and Eggemoggin Reach to the southwest. Its location makes the town a mecca for sailing, fishing, lobstering, boatbuilding, and summer tourism. From the first settlers on Naskeag Point, the sea has shaped Brooklin's history.Nineteenth-century archeological digs found relics of the ancient Red Paint People and Native Americans in Brooklin. In the early 1900s, Col. Adam Wesley Powell dug artifacts of these people, and later, the famous Norse coin was found here. In North Brooklin, the creatures in E.B. White's barn inspired the characters for Charlotte's Web. On Naskeag Point, a Revolutionary War battle was fought by the local residents. At Center Harbor, sardines and clam factories made Brooklin rich, and in Haven, Noah Tibbets started a summer colony of prominent residents. On Flye Point, another colony was founded on land deeded to the Flye family by the king of England. Boats were built at Allen's Cove, Herrick's Bay, Bridges Point, Benjamin River, and Center Harbor. With its numerous boatyards, the famous WoodenBoat School, and WoodenBoat magazine, Brooklin has been called the "Boatbuilding Capital of the World."
#33
Brunswick and Topsham
1994
Since the development of photography in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive our picture of the past and can open a floodgate of memories and nostalgia or inspire curiosity and a sense of history. Both joined and separated by the Androscoggin River, Brunswick and Topsham were carved from the same land grant in 1715. Despite their proximity, the towns developed separate identities: Brunswick became a manufacturing, commercial, and educational center, while Topsham combined its farms with factories. This fascinating pictorial history illuminates the daily lives of the residents of the two towns, and reveals how life has changed over the past 120 years.
#34
Buxton, Hollis, and Limington
1997
Maine’s Saco and Little Ossipee Rivers have been the life blood of the towns of Buxton, Hollis, and Limington for over 150 years. This delightful collection of over 200 black-and-white images vividly illustrates the two rivers’ influence on these communities, and details the lives and times of area residents. Once known as an integral part of Maine’s logging industry, Buxton, Hollis, and Limington and the rivers along which they reside were sources of electricity and economic prosperity for the surrounding region and the state. Pictured here are the residents and founders who built and established these towns, as well as local celebrities such as author Kate Douglas Wiggin. In this, the first pictorial history of the region, the solid foundations on which Buxton, Hollis, and Limington are based emerge in the faces, buildings, and stories captured in these photographs.
#36
Camden and Rockport Revisited
2015
The towns of Camden and Rockport have had a rich, intertwined history since the first settlements in the mid-1700s. Until 1891, they were one town, built on the abundant natural resources of coastal Maine. Many residents in the early 19th century were farmers that carved out a living from the soil, or fishermen that harvested the teeming waters of Penobscot Bay. As the towns grew, successful industries were established that sustained the communities through the mid-20th century. These included fishing, textile mills, lime manufacturing, an anchor factory, and shipbuilding. Majestic schooners were built in the shipyards, and businesses such as the Bay View House hotel, S.B. Haskell's clothing store, numerous livery stables and harness shops, Joseph Brewster's Shirt Manufactory, and Knowlton Brothers Foundry lined the main thoroughfares. In Rockport, the Shepherd Company supplied lime, and the Rockport Ice Company cut ice on Lily Pond to be shipped as far as the Caribbean. These tight-knit villages, nestled "where the mountains meet the sea," weathered fires and wars, celebrated the launches of massive sailing vessels, and welcomed summer "rusticators" who helped form a lasting legacy of arts, culture, and learning that continues to draw visitors today.
#37
The Casco Bay Islands
1995
Since the development of photography in the midnineteenth century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive our image of the past, and can open a floodgate of memories and nostalgia or inspire curiosity and a sense of history. The Casco Bay Islands have long been one of Maine’s most treasured hideaway places. Connected to Portland and the mainland only by ferry, a trip to the islands is a trip into another world. Fairy-tale Victorian cottages are surrounded by beautiful beaches, boats, and an atmosphere of tranquility. Their separation from the outside world has allowed the islands to preserve their unique identities and rich sense of history in the face of twentieth-century changes.
#38
The Casco Bay Islands
1850-2000
2004
The Casco Bay Islands-romantic, mysterious, a world apart. Native peoples called the bay Auccocisco; their presence is recorded in the shell middens found on the shores of many of the islands. Early explorers, believing there were 352 islands in the bay, called them the Calendar Islands. Visitors from all over the world have flocked to the islands seeking peace and tranquility. The U.S. military, recognizing the strategic location of the islands, has been a presence in times of peace and war. The years 1850-2000 brought constant change. This pictorial history features more than two hundred images that illustrate how the residents of the islands in southern Casco Bay-Peaks, Cushing, House, the Diamonds, Long, Cliff, Chebeague, and Jewell-have adapted to changing times yet have remained rooted in their traditional lifestyle.
#39
Castine
1996
Castine is a delightfully tranquil village located on a peninsula bounded by the Bagaduce River on one side and Penobscot Bay on the other. It makes a powerful impression upon all who visit: indeed the very name Castine conjures up images of verdant landscapes, of sea-washed shores, and of life in a serene Maine village; images so magical that they become ingrained in one’s memory. Castine is a charming, peaceful place, but it has not always been so. Visited as early as 1604 by European explorers and traders, Castine has since been known as the “Battleground of Four Nations” because French, Dutch, English, and American soldiers have fought for control of this strategically important place over the years. The remains of two forts—Fort George and Fort Madison—stand testimony to the part that Castine played in America’s formative wars.
#40
Colby College
A Venture of Faith
1994
Since the development of photography in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive our image of the past, and can open a floodgate of memories and nostalgia or inspire curiosity and a sense of history. Collected in this intriguing visual history are more than 200 photographs that bring to life the history of Colby College from 1813 to the sesquicentennial in 1963. From President Chaplin's voyage up the Kennebec River to the relocation of Colby to Mayflower Hill, it focuses on the events, and more importantly on the people that have defined Colby's history. Using material from the Colby College Archives, Anestes Fotiades leads us on a unique journey into the past, where the faculty, staff, and students of Colby are remembered with reverence and pride; people like President J. Seelye Bixler, Webster "Bugsy" Chester, Julian Taylor, and many others. The photographs have been chosen to provide an accurate history as well as a delightful voyage of nostalgia into the heritage of one of Maine's most progressive institutions of higher education.
#41
The Communities of Western Aroostook County
1995
The beauty and strength of the landscape of northwestern Maine is reflected in the people who have lived here since the area was first settled in the mid-nineteenth century. Arriving from as far away as Sweden and as near as the next village, the first pioneers transformed a hard and often unforgiving land known as “the last frontier” into settlements, farms, and homes. These settlements are still with us today: Ashland, Castle Hill, Crouseville, Mapleton, Masardis, Oxbow, Perham, Portage, Sheridan, Wade, Washburn, and Woodland. The settlers and their descendants earned a reputation for honesty, thrift, dependability, tenacity, and hard work which spread far beyond Western Aroostook County itself. Over two hundred vivid photographs show the way life used to be. We meet loggers and farmers, hunters and guides, and innkeepers and blacksmiths, while also getting a glimpse into the daily lives of the rich variety of people that make the western area of Aroostook County so unique. Whether pictured bustling down Main Street, enjoying Christmas sleigh rides, mourning a departed relative, hauling logs, or tending the farm, our forebears reach out to us across the decades in this fascinating book.
#42
Damariscotta Lake
2011
Damariscotta Lake, the link between the towns of Jefferson, Newcastle, and Nobleboro, has always had a unique allure. Each spring, thousands of alewives return from the Atlantic Ocean to struggle up the fish ladder at Damariscotta Mills and reach their traditional spawning grounds. Many early settlers made a living through shipbuilding, milling, farming, and harvesting ice, wood, and alewives. In the 20th century, the establishment of children's camps, fishing lodges, cottages, and homes relied on the lake's draw for recreation. The area has been a destination for notables such as Arthur Godfrey and Thomas Watson, writers Henry Beston and Elizabeth Coatsworth, and Pulitzer Prize winners Robert Lowell and Jean Stafford.
#43
Deer Isle and Stonington
2004
The island communities of Deer Isle and Stonington lie in Penobscot Bay, a region known and loved by sailors the world over. Deer Isle and Stonington portrays life on the island from the age of ferries and steamships, to the building of the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge, through World War II. These vintage photographs allow the reader to watch as the island's main streets grow and change. Represented are landmarks such as the Mark and Pumpkin Island lighthouses, the Stonington Opera House, and the oldest buildings on the island. The vital industries of seafaring, sail making, commercial fishing, granite quarrying, and yachting are pictured here alongside images of everyday life-celebrations and ceremonies, shopping and picnics, education and worship, work and play.
#44
Dexter
1995
This fascinating collection of photographs brings to life the history of the community of Dexter—in its bounty and its bad times. Author Frank Spizuoco has collected over two hundred unforgettable images from the archives of the Dexter Historical Society which together paint a vivid picture of the community and its environs from the 1840s to the 1990s.
#45
Dixfield
2013
Before its incorporation in 1803, Dixfield was called Holmanstown, after its principal proprietor, Col. Jonathan Holman. Dixfield, the easternmost town in Oxford County, bordered two rivers, the Webb and the Androscoggin, which provided valuable waterpower and drained the town's rolling wooded hills and fertile valleys. The twin peaks of the Sugar Loaves form its most recognizable landmark. In the 1800s, Amos Trask purchased mills that had been built along the Webb River. Over time, his descendants, the Stanleys, Stowells, Eustises, and Harlows, steered Dixfield away from its agrarian roots towards becoming both the toothpick and spool manufacturing capital of the world. From the area's early homes, bridges, and streets to its pioneering toothpick mills and from lumber barons to antique dealers, Dixfield contains an array of photographs designed to present life as it was. The Dixfield community continues forging into the future, drawing on the sterling character of the people who have made it what it is today.
#46
Eliot
2005
Eliot's founding fathers came to Maine in search of prime fishing waters and abundant forests. Settlers traveled up the Piscataqua River for commercial purposes in the 1600s. Eliot evolved as a strong community dedicated to innovation, education, and the preservation of the town's early history and traditions. Citizens excelled as farmers, shipbuilders, and brick-makers. Gristmills and most sawmills of the past gave way to late nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century vacation cottages, summer camps for both children and adults, and the cultural oasis of the Baha'I community. Renowned citizens have included war heroes, entrepreneurs, a prolific inventor, and a governor. Eliot tells the story of the growth of this historic Maine town through nearly two hundred vintage photographs.
#48
Farmington, Wilton, Kingfield, and Sugarloaf
1997
Historian Frank Sleeper catalogues a history of the area's successes and failures, but also captures the amazing triumph of the human spirit.
Maine is a colorful jigsaw puzzle made up of towns and communities that fit together to give the state a unique identity. This photographic collection features Farmington, Wilton, Kingfield, and Sugarloaf, a perfect example of communities working as complements to create an area with a wide appeal to diverse interests. While Farmington serves as the political, educational, and commercial center, Wilton acts as the industrial hub, and Kingfield and Sugarloaf provide the area with recreational attractions. Though the towns may differ in their focus, a scenic beauty does run throughout - whether it be the gentle waters in Wilson Lake, the cascades of the Sandy River, or the stalwart splendor of the mountains. However, to truly understand any place means meeting its people. This volume focuses on three families in particular: the Bass family in Wilton; the Mills family in Farmington; and the Winter family in Kingfield and Sugarloaf.
#49
Fort Kent
2009
Fort Kent is located in northern Maine where the Fish River joins the St. John River. Joseph Nadeau, the first settler in Fort Kent, arrived in 1829. Acadian refugees from eastern Canada developed a farming community along the fertile river valleys, and within a short time other settlers from Canada and lower Maine came to make a new life. Fort Kent, remote from other populated areas, gradually developed into a thriving farming and lumbering community. An early pioneer, Maj. William Dickey was a strong advocate for the region and helped to establish the Madawaska Training School, a public school system, and improve roads. In 1902, the railroad connected to Fort Kent and provided needed freight and passenger services. As a border town, Fort Kent has enjoyed a colorful past, especially during the years of Prohibition, and a rich history that continues today.
#50
Franco-Americans of Maine
2010
Nearly one-third of Maine residents have French blood and are known as Franco-Americans. Many trace their heritage to French Canadian families who came south from Quebec in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to work in the mills of growing communities such as Auburn, Augusta, Biddeford, Brunswick, Lewiston, Saco, Sanford, Westbrook, Winslow, and Waterville. Other Franco-Americans, known as Acadians, have rural roots in the St. John Valley in northernmost Maine. Those of French heritage have added a unique and vibrant accent to every community in which they have lived, and they are known as a cohesive ethnic group with a strong belief in family, church, work, education, the arts, their language, and their community. Today they hold posts in every facet of Maine life, from hourly worker to the U.S. Congress. These hardworking people have a notable history and have been a major force in Maine's development.
#52
Gardiner on the Kennebec
1996
Prior to the American Revolution, Dr. Silvester Gardiner, a prominent Boston physician, acquired land on Maine’s Kennebec River. His grandson, Robert Hallowell Gardiner, later devoted himself to the civic, industrial, educational, and religious development of the community founded there. In this fascinating pictorial history, Gardiner’s story is traced from Colonial times to World War II. The images deliver us to intriguing destinations: along the picturesque Kennebec watching the steamer Star of the East sail to its wharf, and Depot Square in 1884 at the peak of the railroad era. We visit an ice house on the river, where “frozen gold” was harvested; Water Street during the destructive 1896 flood; and Pulitzer Prize-winner Laura E. Richards’ “Yellow House,” during the visits of her mother, Julia Ward Howe, and her colleague, Helen Keller.
#53
Georgetown
2014
Georgetown is an island located between the historic Kennebec and Sheepscot Rivers. Incorporated in 1716, it was accessible from the mainland only by various ferries and local fishing boats until a bridge was erected in 1898. Maritime endeavors like fishing and shipbuilding emerged as the major industries in town very early on and continue to be a primary means of employment today. Georgetown encompasses several beautiful villages, all of which retain a feeling of an older time and place. As the area continued to grow as a destination for artists in the early 1900s, several notable photographers congregated at the Seguinland Hotel, now known as Grey Havens Inn, to discuss starting a school that would ignite the development of commercial photography. One of the most recognizable parts of Georgetown is Reid State Park, which attracts visitors with its beautiful beaches. Today, residents take pride in the new historical society building, firehouse, post office, and restored community center.
#54
Glimpses of Maine's Angling Past
2000
Before airplanes, and with few roads, getting to Maine and the isolated fishing spots that made the state a world famous fisherman's paradise was no small task. Huge resorts and hotels peppered the fishing regions, accommodating hundreds, perhaps thousands of sportsmen at any one time. From these lodgings, sports with their guides branched out, taking expeditions and canoe journeys that lasted for days, even weeks, into Maine's wilderness. Only recently have vacationers been transient and as such, have changed the concepts of fishing in wilderness areas forever. Today, the hotels are mostly gone, and people now fish for a few hours to a day or more and then move on. Glimpses of Maine's Angling Past returns to the days when vacationers settled into their camps for whole summers, before the endless acres of timber were dissected by logging roads, and secret, little-known lakes and ponds took days or weeks to reach. This
long-anticipated volume includes countless images from the entire state, broken down into eight distinct areas: the Sebago Lakes, the Belgrade Lakes, the Rangeley Lakes, Down East, the Penobscot River Valley, the Kennebec River Valley, the Moosehead Lake Region, and northern Maine and "the County." Included are rare photographs from lodges no longer in existence and antique sports magazines such as In the Maine Woods and Field and Stream. All of this is complemented by the author's painstaking research and his intimate memories of Maine's sporting history.
#55
Gorham
1998
Located just 10 miles west of the state's largest city, Gorham, Maine, is known as a college town, a
bedroom community, and a suburb of Portland. In this unique pictorial history, discover the early days of Gorham and the residents who established the community's traditions and quality of life. With the advent of the automobile and a new accessibility to other cities, the face of Gorham was changed forever. Residents no longer traveled via the
York-Cumberland canal or electric trolleys; gone were
the livery stables, gunpowder mills, and tanneries of an early Gorham. View the early industries and activities of the community in this carefully crafted historical tribute, compiled and written by local historian David Arthur Fogg. Included in Gorham are the schools founded in its early days and the educators who shaped the lives of residents. John Green became Gorham's first paid teacher in 1765, receiving three pounds yearly for keeping school. The Western Maine Normal School, now known as the University of Southern Maine, is included as well.
#56
Gray
1999
Also known as “the Crossroads of Maine” due to the intersection of five major routes in its village center, Gray is a town known for its exciting past. The home of the first water-powered woolen mills built in the United States, Gray has experienced tremendous success through the years while maintaining its small town values. In addition to the town’s sense of community and drive to succeed, its prime location between the cities of Portland and Lewiston has also contributed to its growth and progress. This richly detailed visual history chronicles Gray’s last 230 years, beginning with the 18th century, when the early settlers established King’s Mast Yard. In this collection of over 200 photographs, the author explores a variety of topics, from the nationally known grave site of a Confederate soldier to one of the first high-speed electric railways. As you leaf through the pages of this book, you will meet many of the people who have shaped the town’s history, from a teacher of the Fisher Brothers, the designers for GM automobiles, to the citizens whose influences went far beyond Gray’s borders and into the worlds of banking, medicine, and moon exploration.
#58
Harpswell
1999
Harpswell's uniquely scattered geography has shaped its destiny. With a long peninsula known as the Neck, three large islands—Orr's, Bailey, and Sebascodegan—and more than thirty other islands of varying sizes, the town has, from the start, been a fishing and farming community. In the late nineteenth century, when Casco Bay steamboat lines made the area easy to reach, flourishing resorts developed, with numerous hotels and boarding houses catering to summer visitors. The photographs that make up this fascinating visual history bring to life the changes that took place in Harpswell between the 1870s and 1960s. Images of the early, sometimes-harsh life on the coast contrast with later postcard views of Harpswell as a family resort area, complete with favorite cottages and camps. Of particular interest are the many previously unpublished views of families and fishermen, shipbuilders and farmers who have called Harpswell home throughout the years.
#60
Jonesport and Beals
1999
About a year after the Mayflower arrived in the New World, Colonel William Beal came to America on the Fortune. He soon settled in the area of Jonesport and Beals Island. The quaint area of Jonesport and Beals, on the northern section of Maine's shoreline, became a summer haven for many families in northern Maine and remains a summer resort area today. Jonesport's livelihood still relies on fishing and sardine packing, as it did over 100 years ago. Beals, a community on Beals Island, is known for itsdeep-sea fishing. Over 200 images reflect the peaceful life in Jonesport, Beals, and the outer islands of Jonesport as it has been for many years. Residents and tourists spend time exploring the many secluded bays and islands, walking the beaches, and picking the blueberries that are abundant in this area of the country.
#61
Kennebunk
2005
In the summer of 1643, John Sanders was granted land bordering the Mousam River in Kennebunk. From this early grant to the present, many generations have called Kennebunk home. Through nearly two hundred vintage photographs, Kennebunk portrays life in this charming village from 1850 to 1940. From the architecture of its downtown neighborhoods to scenes of the rural countryside, the images in this book provide a window on Kennebunk’s past. They also capture the people who made up the fabric of this community, from early sea captains to hardworking farmers. Among them are immigrant Sam Tvedt, an eccentric preacher who sported shoulder-length hair and a long flowing coat while shouting sermons from beside the town pump; and Colby Jack Coombs, the famous World Series pitcher, shown spending time with his family on their Alewive farm.
#63
Kennebunkport
1994
Since the development of photography in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive our image of the past and can open a floodgate of memories and nostalgia or inspire curiosity and a sense of history. From its early settlement in the 1600s to the present, the area known as “the Port” and “the Cape” has typified what it means to live or vacation on the Maine coast. Kennebunkport is a study in contrasts: fishermen work the sea while tourists fill Dock Square in search of art, “lobstah,” and steamers; fish shanties dot the shore of the Cape while estates and luxury hotels dominate Ocean Avenue; sailboats glide serenely through the harbor while carnivals take place on the Kennebunk River. It is this variety of people, places, and events that has always made Kennebunkport one of the most dynamic and vivacious communities on the Northeastern seaboard.
#65
Kittery to Bar Harbor
Touring Coastal Maine
2010
Maine's more than 3,000 miles of rocky coastline, picturesque islands, sandy beaches, iconic lighthouses, and quintessential New England harbors have lured visitors since the middle of the 19th century. Steamships first transported sportsmen and "rusticators" along the coast. Soon summer colonies formed, and art schools flourished. Expanding train travel led to the development of seaside resorts with grand hotels, while America's wealthiest families built opulent summer "cottages" in exclusive enclaves. Yachts became common sights along the coast and cruising grew in popularity. With the 20th century came the automobile and the development of the highway system, including Route 1, which encouraged road trips. The history of touring the Maine coast between 1860 and 1960 offers fascinating insight into the history of Maine, tourism, and America itself.
#66
The Lake Region
Bridgton, Harrison, Otisfield, Waterford, Bridgton and Saco River Railroad
1998
Maine's Lake Region is uniquely endowed with a network of lakes and waterways that define its identity. Long before the first resemblance of a road extended into the hinterland from Falmouth (Portland), the more intrepid and rugged individuals traveled up the Presumpscot River to Sebago Lake, and then up the serpentine Songo River to where they either chose to meander up Crooked River or continue following the Songo the short distance from the confluence of the two rivers into Brandy Pond, and up beautiful Long Lake (or Long Pond, as it was first named). For little more than 40 years beginning in 1830 the Lake Region reaped the benefits of the Cumberland & Oxford Canal that extended from Portland to the Lower Basin on Sebago Lake. By 1870 the rails of the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad were laid to Sebago Lake Station and this momentous event ushered in the colorful steamboat era. A little more than a decade later the Lake Region was directly linked to the outside world by the lilliputian Bridgton and Saco River Railroad.
#67
Lighthouses and Life Saving Along the Maine and New Hampshire Coast
1999
Lighthouses and Life Saving along the Maine and New Hampshire Coast is a unique tribute to the men and women who protected mariners as they traveled along New England's rocky coastline. With thousands of vessels plying the dangerous waters, the chance of a shipping disaster was always great. Hundreds of shipwrecks did indeed occur off the coast with startling losses. Through descriptive text and a variety of vintage images from private as well as museum collections, we get a rare glimpse into the lives of the dedicated government men and women.
Author James Claflin combines an extensively researched text with this exquisite collection of previously unpublished images to tell the story of an area heavily dependent on its coastal commerce. The task of lighting and protecting the coasts was taken on by the U.S. Light-House Establishment and the U.S. Life-Saving Service, later merged to become the U.S. Coast Guard. Within these pages, see the Boon Island Lighthouse keeper, his family alongside, as he proudly poses in his uniform; life savers at Hunniwells Beach station as they pull through a blinding snowstorm to rescue the crew of a stranded schooner; and the way of life on an offshore lightship. Lighthouses and Life Saving along the Maine and New Hampshire Coast is a visual journey into our nation's maritime history.
#68
Lighthouses of Bar Harbor and the Acadia Region
2009
With the exception of Mount Desert Island's Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, the lighthouses of Bar Harbor and the Acadia region are among the most remote and lesser-known lighthouses of Maine. As the vessel traffic changed in these areas in the early 1900s, some of these lighthouses were sold into private ownership while others became less important as aids to navigation. Since the structures were located on remote islands or in a highly restricted military installation, the photographs and historical firsthand memories of most of these lighthouses have remained elusive and seemingly lost in the dusty pages of time. Through vintage photographs, Lighthouses of Bar Harbor and the Acadia Region uncovers the history of these structures that kept watch over Maine's rocky coast.
#69
Lisbon
2006
Chief Warumbee sold Ten Miles Falls in 1678, and a century later, the first Lisbon settlement was established along the Androscoggin River. The water's mammoth power generated thousands of jobs and shaped a way of life for Lisbon's earliest citizens. Near beautiful cascading waterfalls, European immigrants found a magnificent place to share hard work, old-world customs, family traditions, and pride in their new home. Lisbon's history is as intricately woven as its fine Worumbo cloth. The town has suffered ravaging floods and fires, yet it has triumphed with the indomitable spirit of the community. In this volume, vivid photographs tell fascinating stories and carefully preserve the past for future generations.
#70
Logging and Lumbering in Maine
2001
Known as the Pine Tree State, Maine once led the world in lumber production. It was the first great lumber-producing region, with Bangor at its center. Today, the state has nearly eighteen million acres of timberland, and forest products still make up a major industry. Logging and Lumbering in Maine examines the history from its earliest roots in 1630 to the present, providing a pictorial record of land use and activity in Maine. The state's lumber industry went through several historical periods, beginning with the vast pine and spruce harvests, the organization of major corporate interests, the change from sawlogs to pulpwood, and then to sustained yields, intensive management, and mechanized harvesting. At the beginning, much of the region was inaccessible except by water, so harvesting activities were concentrated on the coast and along the principal rivers. Gradually, as the railroads expanded and roads were constructed into the woods, operations expanded with them and the river systems became vitally important for the transportation of timber out of the woods to the markets downstate. Logging and Lumbering in Maine traces these developments in the industry, taking a close look at the people, places, forests, and machines that made them possible.
#71
Lost Villages of Flagstaff Lake
2010
Permanent settlers began arriving at the village of Flagstaff around the 1820s, drawn by its advantageous location along the Dead River floodplain and the availability of waterpower at the outlet to Flagstaff Pond. In 1923, the Maine legislature passed a bill condemning a 25-mile section of the upper Dead River Valley to inundation, causing the eventual permanent flooding of the villages of Flagstaff, Dead River, and Bigelow. The bill authorized the construction of a dam at the river narrows at Long Falls and the subsequent creation of Flagstaff Lake. The properties in these towns were obtained by the process of eminent domain, and residents were forced to relocate. In the spring of 1950, Flagstaff Lake was officially created when the gates in Long Falls Dam were closed. It remains a controversial project today.
#72
The Lower Penobscot River Region
1996
The Lower Penobscot River region has long lured vacationers and mariners alike, entranced by the natural beauty of the “Rhine of Maine.” Early sailors named this nearly 30-mile stretch of the mighty river “Bangor River,” since Bangor, the great nineteenth-century lumbering port, was the head of navigation for their schooners, barks, and brigs, laden with dry cargo, rum, and ice. Eleven historic towns line the Lower Penobscot: Searsport, Stockton Springs, Prospect, Verona, Bucksport, Frankfort, Winterport, Hampden, Orrington, Brewer, and Bangor. All are represented here with vivid photographs dating from the 1860s to the present. We journey to a time when ice harvesting was an important industry, and we see pleasure boats, town squares, and tidy shuttered cottages and hotels. Bangor and Brewer are especially highlighted with images of their ice sheds, shipyards, and once-bustling downtowns. We visit old Fort Knox, a never-completed fortress made of Maine granite, and Waldo-Hancock Bridge, a 1931 engineering marvel linking Prospect, Verona, and Bucksport via Route 1.
#74
Madison, Norridgewock, and Smithfield
1998
The Maine communities of Madison, Norridgewock, and Smithfield all have their own unique ties to the waters on which they were founded. Madison depends on the waterfalls of the Kennebec River, the backbone of central Maine, to support its manufacturing roots. Wool mill operations began in 1881, but soon gave way to the still prosperous paper mill. Norridgewock also rests on the shores of the Kennebec, but lacking the falls it was able to remain true to its name, “quiet place in the river.” The town remained so quiet in fact, that it lost its county seat to Skowhegan in 1871. Shoe manufacturing later turned Norridgewock into a booming industrial town. Smithfield lacks the river entirely, but in its place one finds North Pond. The beauty of the area has made it a natural recreation area for the other two towns.
#75
Maine Life at the Turn of the Century
Through the Photographs of Nettie Cummings Maxim
1995
Before her death in 1910, Nettie Cummings Maxim chronicled the people, landscapes, and animals of a typical Maine farm at Bird Hill in Bethel at the turn of the century. In a time before mass media, her world consisted almost entirely of her family and farm. This intimate familiarity with her immediate world and a degree of cultural isolation allowed Nettie to explore and capture on film the details of farm life through the seasons and the innocence and wisdom in the eyes of the children whose lives were so closely entwined with life on a rural Maine hill farm. After one look at her photographs, her innate artistic talent becomes immediately apparent: her use of natural light, the composition of her images, and her eye for detail lend a tremendously beautiful, evocative quality to her images. She turned the long exposures mandated by film at the turn of the century to her advantage, and somehow manages to create the illusion of motion in her photographs. Through her cameras, Nettie recorded the world that was so endearing to her, a world that has gone largely undocumented by photography. In doing so, she has given immortality to the people, buildings, and even the animals that were part of her life and her microcosm of society nearly a century ago, as well as giving us a rare insight into the intricacies of daily life in the nearby communities of Locke's Mills and Greenwood. Allow her to lead you back into life in rural Maine at the turn of the century: it is a journey worth making, and one that you will never forget.
#76
Maine Lodges and Sporting Camps
2005
Beginning in the mid-1800s and lasting for more than a century, Maine boasted a large number of lodges and sporting camps that catered to the pursuit of outdoor activities. While the primary interests of guests were fishing and hunting, many of the larger, more expensive resorts offered a variety of opportunities, including golf, horseback riding, tennis, boating, archery, and hiking, and some boasted gourmet dining and elegant parties. While some of these establishments survive, many have been demolished, existing only in memory and in photographs. Maine Lodges and Sporting Camps tells the story of the most prominent destinations, featuring nearly two hundred historic images that depict the life that existed when Maine was a sportsman's paradise, abounding in trophy game and fish.
#77
Maine State Prison
1824-2002
2009
For 178 years, Maine State Prison peacefully coexisted with the town of Thomaston. In addition to its stately elms, the formidable brick facade overshadowed Main Street to the south and provided a stark contrast to the former sea captains' homes to the north. At the time of its closure in 2002, Maine State Prison was one of the oldest prisons still in use in the country. The decision to move from the antiquated prison to a state-of-the-art facility in nearby Warren was met with mixed emotions and even sadness. On February 12, 2002, round-the-clock operations moved Maine's most violent and dangerous prisoners, leaving behind unlocked doors and darkened cells. By June of that year, the old prison was demolished and buried in the ancient abandoned limestone quarry, although its memory continues to live on in the minds of those who knew it firsthand.
#78
Maine
Unforgettable Vintage Images of the Pine Tree State
2000
hardcover with dust jacket
#79
Maine's Covered Bridges
2003
Maine once had more than one hundred covered bridges. Only seven of these bridges remain today, but the photographic record of the others is surprisingly complete. Maine's Covered Bridges offers views of these structures that once graced the state's roads and railroads, many of them in the Oxford Hills and Western Mountains regions. All of Maine's major rivers-the Saco, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Penobscot, and Aroostook-and even smaller rivers-including the Presumpscot, Ossipee, Little Androscoggin, Ellis, Sandy, Piscataquis, Narraguagus, and St. Croix-had a covered bridge.
#80
Maine's Hunting Past
2001
Maine has long been a well-known and frequently visited hunting region. Long ago, moose and caribou were abundant and as time passed, trappers have been able to earn a decent living pursuing choice and prized fur-bearing animals. Small game and waterfowl populations remained fairly stable over the years and have continued to increase in popularity. However, as large areas of habitat were cleared for timber, larger animals began to disappear and populations dwindled. Trapping has since become a less favorable mode of producing income because of the low prices offered for native and raw fur. Maine's Hunting Past captures the pursuit of wild animals through a century of documentation. Since about 1850, animals have been taken for sport, for food, and for their hides. Hunting has long been not only a sport but also an industry, resulting in the increase and growth of sporting camps and an expanding number of guides. Maine's Hunting Past highlights favorite regions, featuring famous sporting camps and well-known guides. Big game, small game, upland birds, waterfowl, furbearers, and numerous photographs of trophy animals and large bag limits are all included.
#81
Maine's Jewish Heritage
2007
According to historian Benjamin Band, the first record of a Jew in Maine concerns Susman Abrams, a tanner who resided in Union until his death at 87 in 1830. Historical records beginning in 1849 also tell of a small Bangor community that organized a synagogue and purchased a burial ground. But it was not until the late 19th century that Jewish communities grew large enough to establish multiple synagogues, Hebrew schools for boys, kosher butcher shops, and Jewish bakeries. Eventually there were Jewish charitable societies, community centers, and social clubs across the state. Now, 150 years later, Jews serve every Maine community in every possible capacity, free from the barriers of social or religious discrimination. This book honors the accomplishments of Maine's Jewish residents.
#82
Maine's Steamboating Past
2007
Maine steamboats existed in two different arenas: the ocean steamers that traveled up the coast and the inland steamers, which are the focus of this book. The Maine wilderness once witnessed an enormous movement of people, goods, and mail through steamboat traffic. Originally freighters provided supplies and merchandise for the lumber industry and, with the lack of roads, they were the only dependable transportation to many sporting lodges and resorts. Boat traffic also delivered indispensable goods to lakeside villages and outposts. Eventually sportsmen and vacationers discovered the beauties of the lakes and mountains, and steamboat companies formed early in the 19th century to serve the growing numbers of visitors and businesses. Thousands of families trekked from the southern cities to the interior to delight in a popular Northeast pastime. Getting to places was a chore as well as an adventure, and the railroads and the steamboats did the job. At one time, they facilitated the cycles of life in the Maine woods.
#85
Millinocket
2008
The town of Millinocket rests at the junction where the West Branch of the Penobscot River and the Millinocket Stream converge. In 1898, settlers arrived in the area and carved a town out of the wilderness, constructing the Great Northern Paper Company, the largest paper mill in the world at that time. Utilizing the waterways, lumbermen floated the logs downriver to feed the mill and export paper around the globe. The town and mill sprang up practically overnight, built at a fevered pace to keep up with the paper demand, and gave Millinocket the nickname "Magic City in Maine's Wilderness." Today Millinocket is the closest town to the famous Baxter State Park and Maine's highest peak, Mount Katahdin. As the gateway to the Allagash region, Millinocket draws tourists year-round with its numerous outdoor activities.
#87
Monhegan Island
2009
The natural beauty of Monhegan Island has continuously attracted generations of artists, day-trippers, and summer sojourners. White Head, Pulpit Rock, and Cathedral Woods are names that resonate throughout New England and beyond. Long before the first ferry full of seasonal visitors arrived, the Monhegan Island fishermen had established a permanent community on the island, scratching out an existence on a remote offshore outpost. As early as 1890, prominent artists Robert Henri and George Bellows, followed by Rockwell Kent and Jamie Wyeth, captured the magnificence of Monhegan. They shared the cliffs and coves with the lighthouse keepers, carpenters, lobstermen, and the island people.
#88
Monmouth
2010
In 1783, Revolutionary War hero Gen. Henry Dearborn built Monmouth's first framed house. In his honor, the town was named for the Battle of Monmouth, where Dearborn had distinguished himself. The area's lakes, streams, and fertile soil helped early farmers and manufacturers to prosper, and soon the area was renowned for its Ben Davis apples and Monmouth moccasins. Monmouth is a compilation of historic images capturing the everyday lives of the hardy and hardworking individuals that created the town's fascinating history. Photographs document three of the five devastating fires to the town's center between 1885 and 1913, as well as the creation of the town's centerpiece, Cumston Hall, designed by architect, artist, author, and composer Harry Hayman Cochrane.
#89
The Moosehead Lake Region
1995
The pristine natural beauty of the Moosehead Lake Region is legendary. Towering white pines, clear, free-flowing rivers, rugged, massive Mount Kineo, and the unforgettable, stunning expanse of the lake itself have offered spiritual renewal to civilization-weary people for centuries. This fascinating visual history captures the essence of the Moosehead Lake Region, and reveals the many people and places that have been important in the area’s past. Included are photographs of the grand hotels and the Mount Kineo House; the steamboats that plied the waters of the lake; camps such as Camp Lucky and Camp Comfort; Henry Red Eagle and the hermit of Moose Island, John Cussack. The accompanying captions include a wealth of information as well as excerpts from interviews with people who spent their lives on and around Moosehead Lake.
#90
The Moosehead Lake Region
1900-1950
2004
The Moosehead Lake region has long been a place where travelers go to escape. In the first half of the twentieth century, the region became a mecca for hunters and fishermen, as well as for travelers looking for rest and relaxation at popular resorts such as the Mount Kineo House. The Moosehead Lake 1900-1950 uses vintage photographs to tell the story of this Maine retreat. The images depict visitors and residents of Greenville, Shirley, Rockwood, Beaver Cove, and Kokadjo; the lumbering era in the North Woods; and the locomotives whose whistles pierced the wilderness.
#91
Mount Desert Island
Somesville, Southwest Harbor, and Northeast Harbor
2001
Annually, Mount Desert Island attracts over three million visitors to Acadia National Park, where lofty mountains, balsam-scented forests, and Maine's granite-lined coast enchant all. Almost bisecting the island is Somes Sound, a Norwegian-style fiord with three villages, Somesville, Southwest Harbor, and Northeast Harbor, nestled around its shores. In the 1850s, about two thousand residents made this pristine area their home, living off the sea and land with few visitors. By World War I, Mount Desert Island had become a destination for summer tourists. Mount Desert Island, with more than two hundred photographs selected from eleven collections, illustrates the transition of Somesville, Southwest Harbor, and Northeast Harbor as they evolved from isolated fishing and shipbuilding hamlets to meccas for Victorian summer visitors, a Who's Who of academia and theology. These images, some of them dating back to the Civil War era, bring to life the people, places, and events that form the history of these communities. From dignitary visits, such as that of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to carefree buckboard rides, Mount Desert Island demonstrates the broad range of rustic experiences and the complex lives of islanders as they forged their living in a changing economy. Both new and old visitors will recognize many of the images, though some will surprise all as they show places that no longer exist.
#92
New Gloucester
2009
Named by the proprietors from Gloucester, Massachusetts, New Gloucester began as a frontier town, as it was the most inland settlement in Maine at the time. Incorporated in 1774, the town has been called home by such notables as mapmaker and author Moses Greenleaf, artist D. D. Coombs, original proprietor of the town of Foxcroft Joseph E. Foxcroft, traveling minister Ephraim Stinchfield, Abraham Lincoln's secretary of treasury William Pitt Fessenden, and abolitionist Samuel Fessenden. Shaker societies were set up in nine states, but the Sabbathday Lake Society, founded in 1783, is now the only active Shaker community remaining. With a long history of lumber mills and farms, New Gloucester is also home to Pineland Farms, the former site of the Maine Home for the Feeble-Minded, established in 1908, and now a renovated 19-building campus and 5,000-acre working farm.
#93
Newport
2012
Located around the shores of Lake Sebasticook, Newport first attracted settlers about 1800 and was officially incorporated in 1814. Originally known for abundant fishing and hunting, the lake is the site of an ancient Native American fish weir that predates the pyramids. The settlers who established the town were also industrious and established businesses providing a variety of products, including silk, leather, lumber, and ice. The arrival of the railroad in 1855 further increased local industry and boosted tourism by making the lake accessible to tourists and sportsmen. As fishermen and vacationers alike came to Newport, hotels and camps flourished. The GAR property, Camp Benson, was a popular destination—particularly the Pavilion dance hall. In 1891, a woolen mill and condensed milk plant were built, both of which were vital to the local economy well into the 20th century. In recent decades, Newport has reclaimed some of its natural heritage by making major efforts to restore Lake Sebasticook and the East Branch of the Sebasticook River.
#94
North Berwick
2013
North Berwick's earliest settlers heavily relied on the Great Works River and the Negutaquet River to transport animal skins and other goods to the seaport in Kittery. Shortly after John Morrill built North Berwick's first cabin in 1690, great homes belonging to families such as Hobbs, Weymouth, Buffum, Nowell, and Estes began to line North Berwick's quiet streets and dot its sweeping countryside. Businesses started to flourish, and the town expanded into a community of hardworking families who were proud to build their homes and raise their children there.
North Berwick shares photographs of the factories, mills, farms, churches, schools, and small businesses that thrived because of their proximity to rivers and later the railroad. Within these pages, readers will see how members of this rural community used natural resources and their ingenuity to establish a small New England town of wealth and industry.
#95
Oakland
2004
In the nineteenth century, Oakland was both a bustling industrial village and a rural farming community. The town was home to busy ax factories, a railway complex built for tourists and trade, an electric power company, a waterfall nearly as high as Niagara Falls, oxen plowing fields, and a Civil War memorial to rival any in the state of Maine. Today, Oakland is a quiet suburban town for most of the year. Its downtown does not draw the shoppers it once did, and its factories and farms can be counted on two hands. Even after two hundred years of change, Oakland continues to rebuild and transform itself for the twenty-first century.
#96
Ogunquit By-The-Sea
1994
Since the development of photography in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive our image of the past and can open a floodgate of memories and nostalgia or inspire curiosity and a sense of history. From its early history as a fishing village to its official recognition as a town in July 1980, Oqunquit has always been one of New England’s most dynamic coastal communities When Charles Woodbury opened an art school in 1889 among the fishhouses and dories of Perkins Cove, he could scarcely have known the effect it would have on the little village. Drawn by the natural beauty of its rocky shore and rolling sand dunes, hundreds of aspiring artists flooded the Cove every summer, creating one of the most vivacious creative communities in the Northeast. The people of Ogunquit—the residents and tourists; artists and fishermen—have each contributed to its rich cultural heritage, making it one of the most unique resorts on the Atlantic seaboard.
#97
Old Kittery
1994
PAPERBACK BOOK
#98
The Old Orchard
2003
From Pine Point in the north to Goosefare Brook in the south, Old Orchard boasts miles of marvelous sandy beaches. For hundreds of years, this well-loved stretch of coastline was home to Native Americans and a few hardy settlers, undisturbed by the chaos and cacophony of modern life. With the coming of the railroad in 1874 this serene place exploded into life. The boom in tourism brought hundreds and then thousands of pleasure-seekers every week to the Old Orchard. They came to relax in the opulent surroundings of the elegant hotels, to stroll hand in hand along the pier with their sweethearts, and to feel the thrill of the wind in their hair as they rode the rollercoaster. Some came to dance to the Big Band sound of Glen Miller and Benny Goodman; some came to ride on the Dummy Railroad; others arrived to take airplane flights over the beach, or to watch automobile races in the sand.
#99
Old Sebec Lake
1997
Old Sebec Lake is an intriguing look at one of Maine’s most beautiful and historically interesting areas, containing a series of photographs as well as accompanying text that document the most colorful era in the lake’s history. T he photographs, which date from 1860 to 1950 and come mainly from private collections, illustrate a time of steamboats and tenting parties, log drives and spool mills, market hunters and 30-mile trap lines. This was also a time of uncertain employment, boom-and-bust economies, and remarkable changes in transportation, all of which profoundly affected the lake and the communities surrounding it. Although the images tell the story, woven through the text are interesting stories about B.M. Packard, Fred Gates, Walter Arnold, and others whose lives contributed to the lake’s interesting past. Accounts of the 1936 flood, the scuttling of the Marion, and the construction of The Castle are also included in the text.
#100
Old York
1994
Since the development of photography in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive our picture of the past in a way which other historic relics cannot, and can tell us much more than at first appears. The colonial history of York, Maine has been well-documented, but this delightful visual history tells a new and different tale–of the way the people of York lived in the century between 1850 and 1950. Some of the best photographs are those which simply give us a picture of ‘how things used to be’– images of the people of York at work and at play, of stores and businesses, of schools and sports, and perhaps most importantly, of special people whose faces are still remembered or whose names are still used.
#101
Old York Beach
1994
Prior to 1860, York, Maine was simply a small coastal fishing and farming community . After the Civil War the beauty of this area began to attract summer visitors, and by the 1880s large summer hotels and private cottages began to line the beaches and bluffs. Thus the idyllic seashore community of York Beach was created between the Cape Neck peninsula and the Cape Neddick River. With the turn of the century, Victorian opulence gave way to bustling promenades and streets as motorized transportation increased the influx of tourists. Locals were quick to respond with cabins and cottages, ice and fresh fish, saltwater taffy and popcorn, as the community developed into the Atlantic resort we know today. The history of York Beach began shortly after the invention of photography, and this fascinating collection draws upon the area’s rich and varied legacy of images. Commercial photographers recorded decades of change in popular postcard scenes. Snapshots of holidaymakers at the beach, at the ballroom, or simply enjoying a cottage cookout filled the family albums that were left in cabins and cottages to be marveled at by future generations.
#103
Orono
2004
The images contained in Orono present the many facets of this central Maine town. Incorporated in 1806 and named after a blue-eyed American Indian chief, Orono began as a farming community but quickly capitalized on the presence of the Penobscot and Stillwater Rivers to evolve into a burgeoning industrial town. When it became the home to Maine's land grant university in 1865, the lamp of higher learning was added to the stacks of lumber that served as Orono's contribution to state and nation. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, lumbering gave way to papermaking, which continued until the end of World War II.
#104
The Ossipee Valley
2005
In 1668, a Sagamore Indian named Wesumbe conveyed all of the lands between the Great and Little Ossipee Rivers to Kittery trader Francis Small. This area ranged from the waters of the Saco to the Newichawannock River. For over 100 years, the land title was questioned. Finally, the ancient deed was declared genuine by two Boston experts: William P. Upham of the Suffolk County Court and Robert B. Swan, commissioner of public records for Massachusetts. Once the court rendered the deed valid in 1772, this unbroken wilderness was surveyed. Within a few short years, five new communities emerged. Over 230 years later, The Ossipee Valley presents a visual history of the villages, lifestyles, and the countryside as it once was. Vintage photographs witness a place of family and friends, working and sacrificing for what they believed important.
#105
The Oxford Hills
Greenwood, Norway, Oxford, Paris, West Paris and Woodstock
1999
The Oxford Hills have always been unique in the history of Maine. They were not settled until after the French and Indian War of 1763, and their isolation allowed the communities to develop distinct identities apart from external influences. The arrival of the railroad connected the area to Portland and Boston, sparking the development of a thriving wood products industry to complement the region's agricultural economy. As transportation developed, so did the outside world's awareness of the pristine natural beauty of the Oxford Hills, and the resulting influx of tourists and sportsmen brought further growth and diversity to the area. Despite the many changes that have transpired since the sound of the first axe resounded through the valley of the Little Androscoggin River, the Oxford Hills remain one of the most rugged, independent, and beautiful regions in all of Maine.
#106
Phippsburg
1999
Discover the history of Phippsburg, Maine, where the English initially attempted to settle and the first European ship in the New World was constructed. It is no surprise that Phippsburg became a major shipbuilding center. Both Phippsburg's history and development were greatly influenced by the area's geographical features. Its uneven, rocky landscape made farming difficult; many turned to the sea for their livelihoods, while others developed lumber mills and ice-harvesting operations. Phippsburg's location on a major river encouraged the development of commerce and shipbuilding, and local ice and lumber were exported worldwide in Phippsburg-built ships. Its breathtaking, rugged scenery made Phippsburg a resort destination for many.
#107
Poland Spring
2009
In 1794, Jabez Ricker traded his land in Alfred to the local Shaker community for property in present-day Poland. Shortly after his arrival, travelers came looking for a place to stay, and the Ricker family began its first inn. In 1844, Hiram Ricker, a grandson of Jabez, discovered the curative powers of the mineral spring on the property and began to share the water with family and friends. Within another half century, sales of the water prompted the building of the Poland Spring House, a summer hotel that eventually had more than 500 rooms and the first golf course at a resort in the country; the purchase of the Maine State Building from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago; and many other ingenious and trend-setting innovations.
#109
The Portland Company
1846-1982
2002
The Portland Company commenced operations in 1846 in Portland, Maine, under the leadership of John A. Poor. It was founded primarily to manufacture railroad locomotives for the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad. The company played a major role in the economy and development of the state of Maine and continued in business until 1982, producing a wide range of cast-metal and fabricated products. The Portland Company manufactured a total of six hundred thirty steam locomotives, starting in 1848, along with hundreds of railroad cars, boilers, marine engines, ships, steam fire engines, elevators, and paper and textile mill equipment. Locomotives, ships, and cannons were built for the Civil War, and munitions were manufactured for both world wars. Later, the Portland Company produced snowplows, nuclear plant components, and common castings from manhole covers to streetlights. In the early 1900s, the company sold five makes of new automobiles and trucks. In this rich photographic history, the Portland Company and the city of Portland, with its great waterfront and industrial heritage, come to life.
#111
Portland in Victorian Times
1998
#112
Presque Isle, Caribou & New Sweden
1994
Since the development of photography in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive a picture of the past and can open a floodgate of memories and nostalgia or inspire curiosity and a sense of history. This intriguing visual history contains over 200 photographs that bring to life the rich cultural heritage of the region known as ‚“America's Last Frontier.‚” The isolation and harsh environment of Presque Isle, Caribou, and New Sweden have shaped the distinctive character of these three communities. The social mobility of the frontier went hand in hand with a pioneer pride and spirit that remains today, and indeed has recently been shown in the determination to recover from the closing of the Presque Isle Air Force Base in 1961 and the Loring Air Force Base in 1994.
#113
Rangeley Lakes Region
2004
Pursuit of the fabled wild brook trout has for generations attracted anglers to the western mountains of Maine. This phenomenon has, over the course of two hundred years, transformed the town of Rangeley from a settlement of farmers and woodsmen to a popular outdoor sporting destination where the names of Carrie Stevens, Herb Welch, and Fly Rod Crosby still echo along the streams and lakes. Rangeley Lakes Region examines the region's rich heritage and provides an intimate glimpse of the past, people, and places that make Rangeley special.
#114
Raymond and Casco
2011
Early residents in Raymond and Casco pioneered the land, building roads and carving a life out of the wilderness. In the late 1800s, local manufacturers harvested and sold ice blocks. Later residents built yachts and established radio communications. Local poets and authors like Martin Dibner and Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote of characters and folklore. The many vintage photographs in Images of America: Raymond and Casco depict hardworking men and women in their corn shops, blacksmith shops, sawmills, schools, and places of worship, taking readers back in time to a way of life that is since long gone.
#115
Revisiting Seal Harbor and Acadia National Park
1997
Seal Harbor and Acadia National Park are areas rich with history and natural beauty. Several hundred photographs, taken by Seal Harbor's original residents, inspired this pictorial history of the well-known resort and surrounding Acadia National Park. A perusal through Revisiting Seal Harbor and Acadia National Park will reveal to the reader the natural beauty of the area, through views that attracted the early rusticators and created such dedication from the island's summer and winter residents, that Acadia National Park was born. The pages within trace the community's history, from its humble beginnings as a small fishing hamlet, through its metamorphosis into a Victorian-era summer resort, and on through the park's development, an economic boon for the island's residents. From images of a time filled with sweeping Victorian dresses, grand yachts, and wildwood hikes, to accounts of the area's prosperity in the 1910s and 1920s-when the area became synonymous with the Rockefeller and Ford names-Revisiting Seal Harbor and Acadia National Park invites the reader to take a lingering look into the lives of the early islanders and summer visitors.
#116
The Rines Family Legacy
2005
For over 130 years, the Rines family made significant contributions to Portland in retail, broadcasting, charitable ventures, and law, among other endeavors. The Rines Brothers store, Maine's first department store, redefined the retail district of Portland when it opened on Congress Street in 1883. Every luxurious Portland hotel at the beginning of the 20th century was owned by these industrious brothers. A string of family-owned radio stations and two television stations formed the Maine Broadcasting System, one of the most powerful broadcasting operations in America at the time, which included WCSH Radio, Maine's first commercial radio station. Through 200 vintage images, The Rines Family Legacy offers insight into one of Maine's most interesting and exceptional families.
#117
Rockland Area Lime Industries
2006
Ever since William McIntyre produced and sold the first lime shipment in 1733, lime production has been a vital part of the Rockland area economy. Local farmers dug into a vein of high-quality lime rock running along the coast from Thomaston to Lincolnville. They burned it in homemade kilns and shipped it to cities farther south to be used as mortar and plaster. As lime manufacturing grew in the area, specialized support industries developed, such as shipbuilding, shipping, barrel-making, and lumbering, to provide the kilns with fuel. Thus a full-fledged regional economy was born, and lime was the mainstay. This book explores the tough and gritty lives of those who made their living from an industry that was, and still is, a backbone of the area.
#120
Saco Revisited
2010
Saco Revisited reveals an unprecedented glimpse into Saco's history. Vintage photographs from the collections of the Dyer Library and Saco Museum show the energy, industry, philanthropy, and patriotism of the city and its citizens from the mid-19th century to the present day. From the stately homes of early entrepreneurs to tragic fires and floods and the rise and decline of Saco's powerful textile mills, many photographs are presented publicly for the first time.
#121
Scarborough
1996
Imagine arriving at Scarborough in the late 1800s, stepping out of your train car onto the platform, and becoming one of the many visitors enjoying the summer beauty of coastal Maine. This pictorial history transports us back to an exciting era in Scarborough’s long history—a simpler time, when shore dinner houses and trolley cars were the latest attractions. The images contained in this volume—many of them rare and previously unpublished—feature early automobiles, old homesteads, and summer cottages, as well as unique views of violent shipwrecks and bustling stagecoaches. Through this significant and entertaining collection we experience Prout’s Neck the way artist Winslow Homer knew it and everyday life the way that Scarborough photographer Charles F. Walker captured it on film for future generations to marvel at.
#122
Scarborough in the Twentieth Century
2004
Located on the coast just eight miles south of Portland, Scarborough was fertile territory for the dramatic changes that swept over eastern Maine in the twentieth century. This history transports the reader from Scarborough's simpler days as a small coastal community to its current status as the fastest growing town in the state. The images contained in this volume, most of them previously unpublished, showcase advances in transportation, the growth of business, old homesteads, and portraits of some of the movers and shakers of the time. This significant collection offers an overview of the history that shaped today's Scarborough.
#123
The Sebago Lake Area
Windham, Standish, Raymond, Casco, Sebago, and Naples
1996
Clean and clear, the waters of the streams and ponds that feed into Sebago Lake bring a constant supply of newness to a region centuries-deep in tradition. Located in southwestern Maine’s Cumberland County, Sebago, “great stretch of water,” has been a gathering place for generations of native people and settlers. This striking pictorial history quickly transports us to the past. We see the area as it was before the railroad came through; fishermen coming to enjoy the famous landlocked salmon of Sebago, travelers spending the night at farmhouses, and later inns and hostelries. A turn of the page and we find ourselves watching majestic steamboats as they slip through quiet waters. Vistas of summer camps and classic cars abound—fond memories for many.
#126
Shapleigh and Acton
2010
Incorporated in 1785, Shapleigh and Acton once comprised a single town covering approximately 32,000 acres. Due to the several large lakes at its center, the land was divided into east and west parishes. After much controversy and disagreement, the west parish was incorporated as the Town of Acton in 1830. With its abundant timber, fertile farmland, and extensive bodies of water, the area grew quickly and prospered. Today many local farmers work the same land and live in the same homes as their forefathers. Each summer, countless families throughout New England migrate to the numerous lakes that lie within the Shapleigh and Acton area, and motorists enjoy the the area's rolling hills, stone walls, picturesque mountains, and sparkling lake views. Nestled between the rocky Maine coastline and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Shapleigh and Acton are charming, historic towns that capture the spirit of Maine and "The Way Life Should Be."
#127
South Portland and Cape Elizabeth
1995
This compelling collection of more than two hundred old photographs brings to life South Portland and Cape Elizabeth in the century of change between the 1850s and the 1950s. Most of the photographs in this fascinating visual history are rare and many have never before been published. They are taken from family albums which provide an intimate chronicle of the history of the area, ranging from the Spurwink River to the boatyards at Ferry Village, the estates at Delano Park, and the many neighborhoods that make up South Portland. The photographs introduce us to the people, places, and events which defined South Portland and Cape Elizabeth between 1850 and 1950, including the descendants of some of the first settlers—the Jordans, Dyers, Murrays, and Cleeves, whose families still live in the area. This treasury of images and information will be a source of fascination and enjoyment for resident and visitor, young and old alike.
#129
Togus, Down in Maine
The First National Veterans Home (ME)
1998
Togus, located 4.5 miles east of Augusta, Maine, was formerly part of the town of Chelsea. After the Civil War, Congress enacted laws and established a system of facilities that collectively became known as "National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers." The critical need to establish an eastern branch of the National Home led to the selection of the former Togus Spring Hotel, which after some remodeling, opened for Union Civil War veterans in
November 1866. Gathered from cherished family albums, collectors of Togus artifacts, libraries, and archives, Togus, Down in Maine: The First National Veterans Home represents the first published history of the area, and most of the photographs have not been viewed by the public. The images of Civil War veterans are of particular interest, along with views of buildings, barracks, and hospitals from 1866 to the 1930s. From 1932 to 1960, over 60 buildings were demolished, and new buildings with reinforced concrete and brick facings were built.
#130
The Upper Kennebec Valley
1997
The scenic Upper Kennebec Valley has played an important role in the history of Maine. Long-frequented by Native Americans, this area was settled year-round after Benedict Arnold's ill-fated 1775 expedition to Quebec. The earliest settlers found great natural resources in the woods, lakes, and the river and moved in to set the stage for this area's future. The images in The Upper Kennebec Valley show life in the area from the earliest days of photography through the 1950s. You see the area's growth and development, and its people at work and play. Examining these pages, you will see early loggers; intrepid river drivers braving log jams and swift currents to get their wood to market; hunters and fishermen, long drawn to the area; and families going about their daily business. You will also see the results of disastrous fires and floods, as well as the parades, picnics, and other occasions that brought local people together.
#131
The Upper Kennebec Valley, Volume II
1999
The Upper Kennebec Valley is one of the most important gateways to Maine's Great North Woods and has, for over 200 years, attracted those who love the wilderness, lakes, mountains, and streams. The Upper Kennebec Valley Volume II begins, once again, at The Forks, where the East Branch of the Kennebec and the Dead River unite to form the Kennebec. The
area has long been dominated by logging and tourism trades. Starting with the days of horses and oxen, when loggers and sports came to the woods by foot and wagon to the coming of the railroad and the automobile, we see the growth of these small towns and the hardworking loggers, daring river drivers,
sport hunters and fishermen, and those who guided and hosted them. Early scenes of the daily lives of valley folk enjoying local parades, picnics, reunions, and sporting events come alive within these pages
#132
Upper Saco River Valley
Fryeburg, Lovell, Brownfield, Denmark and Hiram
2002
Until 1725, the Saco River was the main artery for the Pequawket Indians traveling in canoes to and from the Atlantic. Soon thereafter came trappers, followed by loggers, who harvested the colossal white pine and sent the logs floating down the river to sawmills mushrooming all along its course. By 1871, the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad had reached Fryeburg, fifty miles from Portland, thus linking the Upper Saco River with Boston and beyond. Soon, a steady stream of summer visitors began arriving in the region and the White Mountains beyond. Upper Saco River Valley: Fryeburg, Lovell, Brownfield, Denmark, and Hiram visits the days when logs floated down the river and trains thundered up and down the valley. The first stop is in Fryeburg, home of Fryeburg Academy and the Fryeburg Fair, the oldest and largest fair in Maine. Next is Lovell and its many lovely brick homes and Kezar Lake. The book then journeys to Brownfield, largely depicted before the devastating fire of 1947. Denmark was the home of Rufus Ingalls, the quartermaster general under Ulysses S. Grant. The volume ends in Hiram, the home of a famed Revolutionary War general who was also the grandfather of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Throughout the region and throughout this book are rarely seen vintage photographs of the Saco River and the nine covered bridges that once spanned it.
#134
Vessels of Camden
1998
The care and craftsmanship in the art of building wooden vessels has become a thing of the past. Replaced by the fiberglass boats of today, wooden vessels are a reminder of the way things were done in an earlier America. Discover the beauty of these vessels and the history behind them in Barbara Dyer’s Vessels of Camden, a unique and engaging tribute to a shipbuilding community. Along with Bar Harbor, Maine, Camden is one of only two towns on the eastern seaboard where the mountains meet the sea. Tourists have been attracted to this picturesque town since its incorporation in 1791, and its coastal location has had a great influence on the town’s industries. Shipbuilding played a prominent role in the development of Camden, a development that can be traced through carefully preserved historic photographs. The images in this collection depict approximately 100 years of vessel craftsmanship in Camden, from 1863 to 1963. The charm and elegance of these maritime gems is sure to take hold of the reader’s imagination and elicit visions of sailing the open seas.
#135
Victorian Augusta
2008
From the 1860s through the 1880s, local photographer Henry Bailey captured all aspects of Victorian life after the Civil War in Maine's capital city. Bailey's rare stereoscopic images depict downtown Water Street, the industrial north end, Capitol Park, the Togus veterans home, and numerous public buildings, churches, and residences. Through these historic images, Victorian Augusta presents a view of the world through one man's lens. Most of the vintage photographs in this volume have come from the collection of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, which has acquired many Bailey stereographs once owned by the photographer and his family.
#136
Vinalhaven Island
1997
Located in Penobscot Bay, Vinalhaven Island is a land mass about 10 by 5 miles, with the town situated on Carvers’ Harbor, 15 miles from the mainland. Always a working community, Vinalhaven presently serves as one of the largest lobstering centers in the world. Islanders, summer residents, visitors, and other interested persons on the mainland and elsewhere are invited to partake of this striking photographic record of the island as it was between 1860 and 1960. Contained within are classic views that bring to life the island’s ongoing fishing and granite industries. Some show the enormous columns for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City being cut and polished; others document the carving of the eagles for the Buffalo, NY, Post Office. Lesser-known occupations are portrayed as well, like the making of horse nets, which employed many women. Readers are given the rare opportunity to meet such people as granite company operator Moses Webster; Joseph Bodwell (a Maine governor); Edward Russell (from Ireland) and Joseph Black (from Scotland); and O.P. Lyons, founder of the first local newspaper and band.
#137
Vinalhaven Island's Maritime Industries
2015
Vinalhaven Island has been the home port of a productive commercial fishing fleet for over 200 years. By 1819, Vinalhaven vessels were fishing for cod and herring from Seal Island all the way to Labrador waters. By 1878, Carver's Harbor was lined with docks, fishhouses, a sail loft, a net factory, and the Lane & Libby fish plant. Throughout the 19th century, boats brought bait, salt, and supplies to Vinalhaven and returned with fish and granite from the island's quarries. Lighthouses at Brown's Head, Heron Neck, Saddleback Ledge, Goose Rock, and Matinicus guided mariners through storms. In Vinalhaven shops, boatbuilders constructed small dories, peapods and double-enders, masted schooners, and lobster boats, as well as the 365-ton Margaret M. Ford. Passenger ferries played an important role as the primary link between Vinalhaven and the mainland. The island has long been a successful center of maritime economic activity, so it is no surprise that islanders call it "the center of the universe."
#138
Wells
2003
Wells has a history as fascinating as it is long. Blessed with tremendous natural resources, this enticing place attracted native people and then European fishermen and traders long before Edmund Littlefield established the first permanent mills on the banks of the Webhannet River in 1640. Wells incorporated in 1653 as Maineas third town, and since then more than thirteen generations of New Englanders have nurtured their families by reaping the waves of the Atlantic or toiling on the furrows of their farms. The early settlers were independent Yankees striving to make a living, but they created small communities grouped around the traditional institutions of the blacksmith shop, the store, the church, and the one-room school.
#139
Westbrook
2014
The town of Westbrook, Maine, was incorporated in 1814 while under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was voted to become a city in 1891. Settlers were first drawn to the area for its prime location along the Presumpscot River as they harvested lumber and built sawmills and gristmills. The Cumberland & Oxford Canal, built by Irish laborers, ran along the river through wooded areas, ponds and lakes, and neighboring towns. It served as a major transportation route until the development of railroads. Rail enabled Westbrook to become an industrial center, attracting many skilled workers. Several mills, such as Westbrook Manufacturing, Haskell Silk Mill, S.D. Warren Paper Mill, and Dana Warp Mill, exported their goods across the globe. While dairy farms once populated the town�s landscape, only a few are left standing, most notably Smiling Hill Farm. Today, Westbrook, diverse in population, features fine restaurants and a growing music and art community.
#140
Westbrook on the Presumpscot
1996
Life is always changing by the falling waters of the Presumpscot. This new photographic history compiled by the members of the Westbrook History 2000 Committee brings to life the deep heritage of an area that has gained strength and spirit from the river that flows through it. Over time, the river has been used as a source of food, recreation, and power for mills. Sadly, it has also been abused with overuse and pollution. It is now being slowly restored, through legislation, modern technology, and human consideration. This book takes readers on a journey into the days when steamers plied the Presumpscot and life was a bit quieter. From Cumberland Mills and Highland Lake to Duck Pond and Prides’ Corner, we view turn-of-the-century schools, homes, trolleys, street scenes, parades, and festivals. We also see where some of Westbrook’s earliest residents lived and worked. Images of Frenchtown, Irish Hill, and Scotch Hill vividly show what life was like for the laborers and mill workers in the S.D. Warren and Dana Warp Mills.
#141
Wilton
2014
Wilton was incorporated in 1803, when it was a mostly self-sufficient agricultural community. Manufacturing was the backbone of town even before it was fully incorporated and would continue to be until the late 20th century. Early industrial success can be attributed to Wilson Stream, which provided waterpower for Wilton's mills. The names of Bass, Butterfield, Furnel, Walker, Robbins, and Goodspeed would become well known in Wilton as early entrepreneurs. George Henry Bass entered the shoe manufacturing business in 1876 and started his first shoe shop in 1879. G.H. Bass & Co. went on to become a major employer in the area and a nationally known company. The early 1900s was a time of great progress for the town in which the Wilton Academy was accredited, the town library was acquired, and the Wilton Woolen Mill was established. Several businesses also emerged on Main Street, including the Cony Miller Grocery Store, Mrs. Magrath's Millinery, Holman's Drug Store, and Stockford's Drug Store. Today, the essence of Wilton is still reflected in its official motto, "A great place to live, work & play."
#142
Winthrop
2003
The Winthrop lakes region is a richly historical area of great natural beauty. Winthrop chronicles the town's life since the mid-1800s with views of many resort hotels and camps on the Maranacook, Annabessacook, and Cobossecontee Lakes, still fondly remembered by summer rusticators. Also included are vintage photographs of the town's rapidly evolving Main Street and village, recently the focus of modernization efforts that resulted in the restoration of the Penniman Block.
#143
Yarmouth
2002
It is an odd fact that Yarmouth grew richer as it grew smaller. By 1849, parts of six towns had been formed from the original settlement and yet Yarmouth still prospered due to the many mills and shipyards clustered around its sheltered harbor. The mansions of sea captains and merchants arose along its elm-shaded streets. When shipbuilding and other key industries declined, the town turned to its scenic islands and peninsulas to attract cottagers and other tourists to a leisurely world of clambakes and sailing parties.Yarmouth explores this fascinating coastal town in more than two hundred rare photographs. Haunting images, many of which have never been published, portray employees working in the shipyards and factories while the mill owners entertain in their gardens. The tranquility of life in Victorian cottages by the sea contrasts sharply with the drama of floods, fires, and train wrecks. Fourth of July celebrations appear raucous in comparison with the somber parades of Civil War veterans.
#144
Yarmouth Revisited
2013
The Yarmouth area has always had a strong maritime history with a legacy of shipbuilding and those who chose the seafaring life. On land, Yarmouth had a diverse industrial history with goods produced in mills located on the four falls of the Royal River. As the town expanded in the late-19th century, civic leaders recognized the need to modernize its infrastructure. A library and central grammar school were built, sewer lines were laid, and telephone service and electricity became available. The railroads allowed for goods to be shipped in and out of the town, and new trolley lines promoted tourism in the area. The automobile changed the direction of the town literally as Route 1, built in 1948, became the primary road north and south to Portland, replacing coastal Route 88. By the 20th century, the shipbuilding era had come to a close and the mills were soon to follow. Despite these setbacks, the town of Yarmouth has consistently grown while maintaining the character of a small New England village.
#145
York County Trolleys
1999
Until hard surface, all-weather thoroughfares were constructed and private automobiles became numerous, residents of York County depended on trolleys for local transportation. Many people commuted regularly to and from work on the electric cars, which also carried children to school from September through June. In the winter, when streets, roads, and highways were buried under deep drifts, powerful snowplows swiftly cleared the street railway tracks after severe storms so the trolleys could get through. Maine’s York County boasted more than 100 miles of trolley lines from 1907 through 1922. The World War I years were difficult for street railways throughout the United States. Soon after the conflict ended, automobiles began rolling off the assembly lines at progressively more attractive prices. As the nation entered the “Roaring Twenties,” more and more residents of York County acquired motorcars and no longer needed the trolleys that had served them so faithfully through the years. York County Trolleys takes us on a visual journey from Kittery to Old Orchard Beach, from Old Orchard to Portland, and inland to Eliot, South Berwick, and Sanford.
Authors
Diane Barnes
Author · 4 books
There is more than one author with this name
Lydia Vandenbergh
Author · 1 books
Lydia Bodman Vandenbergh
Mary Sheldon
Author · 3 books
daughter of Sidney Sheldon
