New Book Releases

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.

The Blaine House in Augusta is one of Maine's most notable homes. In 1862, three decades after the house was built by Capt. James Hall in the early 1830s, James and Harriet Blaine moved in. The home became the setting for one of the most meteoric careers in American politics, during which James Blaine served as Speaker of the US House of Representatives, US senator, secretary of state, and Republican candidate for president in 1884. After the deaths of her parents, the Blaines' daughter Harriet Blaine Beale gave the house to the state in 1919. Since 1920, it has served as the official residence of the state's governors and their families. As a symbol of state government, it ranks with the Maine State House. The house has been a National Historic Landmark since 1964. Architecturally, it reflects a combination of Federal, Victorian, and Colonial Revival styles. Today, the Blaine House functions as a social showcase for Maine, a working office, and family living quarters.

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Author James Claflin combines an extensively researched text with this exquisite collection of previously unpublished images to tell the story of an area heavily dependent on its coastal commerce.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.

Built and furnished between 1858 and 1860, Victoria Mansion was remarkable from the day it was created. It stands today as the final unaltered and fully intact example of the work of three of 19th-century America's towering creative talents, architect Henry Austin, interior designer Gustave Herter, and decorative painter Giuseppe Guidicini. This collection of photographs, most of which are published here for the first time, documents the building's beginnings as a lavish private residence for the Morse and Libby families, its decline and near loss during the early 20th century, and its resurgence and restoration since becoming a museum in 1941. Now welcoming tens of thousands of visitors each year, Victoria Mansion survives as a beautifully preserved document of the highest achievements in American art and architecture on the eve of the Civil War.