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A pictoral history and moving tribute to the people of Portland's spirit, drive and ability to overcome adversity from the last 130 years.

Portland is often associated with the mythological phoenix, the animal that rises out of the ashes of its apparent death. Life here has often been a struggle: to overcome the disastrous fires of 1775 and 1866, to rebuild after the change in Canadian policy in 1920 that devastated the waterfront and to outlast the Depression and the other economic crises that have affected the area. The people of Portland have always faced these problems head on, survived, and rebuilt the city stronger then it was before.
Portland features more than 200 images that together document life in Maine's largest city over the last 130 years. We see immigrants arrive from all corners of the world and watch as they build lives and businesses in their new home. We witness the waterfront and Congress Street rise, fall, and rise again. We observe how the political scene has changed and been changed by everyday people. Perhaps the most interesting photographs, however, are those of everyday life: people working, playing sports, relaxing, falling in love and living life to its fullest.

For eight decades, an epic power struggle raged across a frontier that would become Maine.

Between 1675 and 1759, British, French, and Native Americans soldiers clashed in six distinct wars to claim the land that became the Pine Tree State. Though the showdown between France and Great Britain was international in scale, the decidedly local conflicts in Maine pitted European settlers against Native American tribes. Native and European communities from the Penobscot to the Piscataqua Rivers suffered brutal attacks. Countless men, women and children were killed, taken captive or sold into servitude. The native people of Maine were torn asunder by disease, social disintegration and political factionalism as they fought to maintain their autonomy in the face of unrelenting European pressure. This is the dark, tragic and largely forgotten struggle that laid the foundation of Maine.

In 1604, when Frenchmen landed on Saint Croix Island, they were far from the first people to walk along its shores.

For thousands of years, Etchemins--whose descendants were members of the Wabanaki Confederacy--had lived, loved and labored in Down East Maine. Bound together with neighboring people, all of whom relied heavily on canoes for transportation, trade and survival, each group still maintained its own unique cultures and customs. After the French arrived, they faced unspeakable hardships, from ""the Great Dying,"" when disease killed up to 90 percent of coastal populations, to centuries of discrimination. Yet they never abandoned Ketakamigwa, their homeland. In this book, anthropologist William Haviland relates the history of hardship and survival endured by the natives of the Down East coast and how they have maintained their way of life over the past four hundred years.

Around Houlton documents the history of this town with Yankee pioneer spirit from potato farming to Market Square.

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.

Photo by photo, discover the stories that have been made along Maine's stretch of Appalachian wildneress.

Maine native Myron H. Avery recruited friends from Washington, DC; 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.

Around Rockland is a fascinating pictorial history of this dynamic city, documenting its development from 1870 to 1970.

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.

Maine Narrow Gauge Railroads is a comprehensive pictorial record of the history of the narrow gauge railroad in Maine. From the one-hundred-twelve-mile Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad to the five-mile Kennebec Central, Maine Narrow Gauge Railroads features the toylike miniature trains of Maine as they appeared at different stages in their history. The Bridgton and Harrison Railroad, the Monson Railroad, and the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway lines are documented within, as well as the current restoration projects that are under way.

Bangor has grown in many ways since Jacob Buswell and his family, the first white settlers, built their 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. ""

Discover four hundred years of Maine's history through the tales of its unique residents.

Maine history would be bare but for the contributions of hardy and impassioned individuals whose lives make up the story of Maine's "hidden history." Author Harry Gratwick creates intimate and detailed portraits of these Mainers, from the controversial missionary Sebastien Rale to Woolwich native William Phips, whose seafaring attacks against French Canada earned him the first governorship of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Gratwick also profiles inventors such as Robert Benjamin Lewis, an African American from Gardiner who patented a hair growth product in the 1830s, and Margaret Knight, a York native who defied nineteenth-century sexism to earn the nickname "the female Edison." From soprano Lillian Nordica, who left Farmington to become the most glamorous American opera singer of her day, to slugger George "Piano Legs" Gore, the only Mainer to have ever won a Major League batting championship.

Journey to picturesque York County's past in this photographic history.

Rural York County, with its charming historic towns and villages, has long been one of the most delightful areas of Maine. While tourists from the nineteenth century onward sought out the high life that made Maine's coastal areas so famous, the residents of the more peaceful, pristine countryside kept the serenity of their backyard a secret. The fascinating selection of images that make up this visual history have been carefully selected as a journey into the past, a journey from Kittery up the coast to Saco; through the Berwicks and Lebanon; to Alfred and Springvale, and Sanford close by; around Acton, Shapleigh, Newfield, and Waterboro; then on to Parsonsfield, Porter, Kezar Falls, and Cornish.

See for yourself how the Maine communities of Deer Isle and Stonington grew and changed from its very beginnings.

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 Stoningtonportrays life on the island from the age of ferries and steamships, to the building of the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge, through World War II.

Represented in this piece 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.

One of the largest bilingual Franco-American territories in the United States, the beautiful Upper St. John Valley is revealed in over two hundred images and accompanying text in this fascinating pictorial history.

This history covers the regions from Hamlin Plantation to Allagash along the river and south to Eagle Lake, Winterville, and Guerette. The Upper St. John Valley is a product of the dispersal of the Acadian French by the English in 1755 and 1785. Tested by a severe climate and semi-isolation for years, the Valley inhabitants were strong survivors. Through images dated up to 1960 we see the intense religious feeling, strong work ethic, and leisure activity of the people living in this unique enclave.

This collection of over two hundred photographs brings life to South Portland and Cape Elizabeth in the century of change from the 1850s on.

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.

With over 200 historic images, Vinalhaven Island is sure to inform and entertain.

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.

The isolation and harsh environment of Presque Isle, Caribou, and New Sweden have shaped the distinctive character of these communities and are together known as "America's Last Frontier.'?

While these days the first thing people associate Maine with are dreadfully scary happenings in Stephen King novels, the history of the Pine Tree State is nothing less than fascinating. As part of Aroostook County, the largest American county in the nation, the communities of Presque Isle, Caribou, and New Sweden are remarkable for their rich cultural heritage, which not only includes Anglo-Saxons, but French, Native American & First Peoples, and Acadian communities. The social mobility of the frontier went hand-in-hand with a pioneer pride and spirit that remains today.

The typical farm life of a Mainer pre-1910 is told through the photographs of Nettie Cummings Maxim.

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.

In this unique pictorial history, discover the early days of Gorham and the residents who established the community's traditions and quality of life.

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.

Monhegan Island, Maine has historically attracted a number of different visitors and workers, each with their own unique reasons for being there.

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.

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.