New Book Releases

Gardiner's manufacturing and transportation advantages during the first half of the 20th century created one of the strongest local economies in the state. The city seal, adopted in 1849 when Gardiner became a city, flawlessly depicts the characteristics that shaped the community. Featured prominently on the seal is a river with falls to power manufacturing. A vessel represents transportation and trade, while an idealized city in the background reveals prosperous factories and commercial buildings. At the top is a lofty church tower, representative of the many churches in the city. Gardiner features many never-before-published postcards from the collections of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

From 1631 to the present, Old Orchard Beach has had a singularly rich history among New England's summer communities.

Old Orchard was originally a small seacoast farming community nestled on the shore of Saco Bay. When the railroad came in 1873, the coast exploded into one of the grandest Victorian settings in Maine. It boasted famous religious camp meetings, transatlantic flights, big bands, big fires, harness racing, and automobile racing on the beach. The Kennedy family, Bette Davis, Fred Allen, Rosa and Carmen Ponselle, Pierre Trudeau, and Charles Lindbergh all rejuvenated themselves in this community. Old Orchard Beach is still a vacation mecca, and residents and visitors alike will find enjoyment and education within these pages.

Author Daniel E. Blaney was born in Old Orchard Beach and still lives in the house he was born in. He has been a member of the Old Orchard Beach Historical Society since 1970 and has served as its president, vice president, trustee, and historian.

By 1898, when the production of picture postcards began, Bar Harbor had become one of America's leading summer resorts and second only to Newport, Rhode Island, in wealth and social standing. For the next six decades, the postcard recorded the transformation of this coastal island community into a middle class tourist destination. Grand hotels, seaside mansions, and elegant gardens made way for roadside cabins and motels catering to automobile travelers. Bar Harbor features many never-before-published postcards from the collections of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, the Bar Harbor Historical Society, and the Penobscot Marine Museum.

Retired from publishing The New England Homestead in 1899, George Storrs Graves took up photography and soon began to print his best pictures on postcards. Captured in this exciting collection are images of Maine's scenic coastline as it appeared early in the 20th century, through the eyes of a successful
businessman and talented photographer. Graves recognized that people wanted to see their hometowns in print, and he photographed everything from cottage-rimmed shorelines to commercial establishments. He and his wife spent summer months on the coast of Maine, at Small Point in Phippsburg and near West Harpswell. He traveled by foot, small
ship, and steamship to both popular and little-known locales along the coast; his pictures depict the sea
in all of its moods. The images in this collection were taken c. 1907 to 1914 and include areas from
Cape Elizabeth to Monhegan. Resorts that flourished during the summer months are depicted, including a one-time resort at Popham Beach. View early fishing vessels and the scenery of Casco Bay, including unusual shots of the Harpswell shoreline, in this previously unpublished collection of the postcards of
George S. Graves.

Built in 1754 on the eastern bank of the Kennebec River, Fort Western became one of the first permanent settlements in what would eventually become Augusta and, in 1827, the capital of Maine. Through innovations in publishing by Gannett & Morse and Vickery & Hill, textiles by the Edwards Manufacturing Company, and lumber production along the Kennebec, Augusta thrived and prospered. Water Street flourished into the business and cultural center of the city, while Green and Winthrop Streets became some of the area's most opulent residential neighborhoods. A trolley system and the Maine Central Railroad station tied Augusta to surrounding communities and allowed visitors to come from far and wide and spend many a night at the famed Augusta House.