High School & Adult Level Books
Baker, Emerson et al. (eds.) American Beginnings. London and Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994. Includes chapters by different historians on early exploration, maps, and Native people.
Bourque, Bruce J. and Laureen A. Labar. Uncommon Threads: Wabanaki Textiles, Clothing, and Costume. Augusta, Maine: Maine State Museum in association with the University of Washington Press, Seattle, 2009. A high school/adult text with beautiful illustrations.
Bourque, Bruce J. Twelve Thousand Years: American Indians in Maine. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.
Bourque, Bruce J. Diversity and Complexity in Prehistoric Maritime Societies: A Gulf of Maine Perspective. New York: Plenum Press, 1995.
Brereton, John. Discoverie of the North Part of Virginia. New York: Da Capo Press, 1973. An exact copy, in Old English, of John Brereton’s account of his voyage to the New World in 1602.
Diamond, Jared M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. Interesting and readable account of early societies, agriculture, domestic animals, and disease.
Duncan, Roger F. Coastal Maine: A Maritime History. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1992. Chapters on early exploration, settlement, and conflicts.
Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy. Indian Place Names of the Penobscot Valley and the Maine Coast. Orono, ME: University of Maine, 1974. Geographic names and local histories.
Francis, David A. and Robert M. Leavitt. A Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Dictionary Peskotomuhkati Wolastoqewi Latuwewakon. Orono: University of Maine Press, 2008. See www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Maliseet/dictionary/ for an online version, as well as ordering information.
Gray, Edward G. and Norman Fiering (eds.) The Language Encounter in the Americas, 1492-1800: A Collection of Essays. New York: Bergahn Books, 2000. Papers on Indian languages from a 1996 conference at the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, RI. Includes topics relevant to our module: “Interpreters snatched from the shore,” “Use of pidgins and jargons,” and “Mi’kmaq writing.”
Judd, Richard W., Edwin A. Churchill, and Joel W. Eastman. Maine: The Pine Tree State from Prehistory to the Present. Orono, Maine: University of Maine Press, 1995. This book is very readable and has good information on early Maine history and Native American tribal divisions.
Kevitt, Chester B. General Solomon Lovell and the Penobscot Expedition, 1779. Weymouth, MA: Kevitt, 1976. Excerpts from journals, letters, and documents about this military event.
Morey, David. The Voyage of the Archangell: James Rosier’s Account of the Waymouth Voyage of 1605. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House, 2005. An annotated account of Waymouth’s exploration of Maine’s midcoast, his discovery of a beautiful river that generated a controversy of identification years later, and his interactions with Native people.
Paine, Lincoln P. Down East: A Maritime History of Maine. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House, 2000. A relatively brief history of Maine’s maritime past.
Platt, David (ed). One Land, Two Worlds: Proceedings of a Symposium to Celebrate the 400th Anniversary of George Waymouth’s Voyage to New England. Rockland, ME: Island Institute, 2005. Symposium held in Rockport, Maine, June 11, 2005. Contents: “A Nation Above All Others: Empire and Race in the Waymouth Celebration of 1905,” Richard D’Abate; “The World Around Waymouth,” Neil Rolde; “A Wabanaki Perspective,” Donald Soctomah; “June 1605: When the Creation of America Began,” Matt Simmons; “A Race for the American Coast: the Waymouth Voyage Revisited,” David Morey; and “Time Capsules: the Ecology of Mid-Coast Maine in 1605,” Philip Conkling. References included. Available from Penobscot Marine Museum and Island Institute.
Rolde, Neil. Maine: A Narrative History. Gardiner, ME: Harpswell Press, 1990.
Shay, Florence Nicola. History of the Penobscot Tribe of Indians. Privately printed.
Winship, George Parker. Sailors’ Narratives of Voyages along the New England Coast, 1524-1624. New York: B. Franklin, 1968. Reprint of 1905 edition.
Woods, Geraldine. Science of the Early Americas. New York: Franklin Watts, 1999. Scientific accomplishments of various Native groups.