Maritime Communities

Chetkowski, Emily. Mabel Takes the Ferry. Heritage Printing and Publishing, 1995. 2001. A nice story of contemporary Islesboro, including the ferry Margaret Chase Smith. Based on a true story. Ages 4-8.

Cooney, Barbara. Island Boy. NewYork: Puffin Books, 1991. A story of growing up on a Maine island in the 19th century. Ages 4-8.

Kalman, Bobbie. Historic Community Series. Crabtree Publications, 1993-1997. Many titles available on: Nineteenth century girls and women; the Victorian home; Schoolyard games; Home crafts. Elementary school level.

Olson, Arielle North. Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter. Boston: Little, Brown, 1987. Fiction, middle school.

Rylant, Cynthia. Lighthouse Family: The Storm. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2002. Story of a cat, a dog, and some mice living in a lighthouse. Elementary school, fiction.

Battick, John F. The Searsport "Thirty-six": Seafaring Wives of a Maine Community in 1880, in American Neptune, Journal of the Peabody Museum of Salem. Summer 1984 issue.

Black, Col. Frederick Frasier. Searsport Sea Captains. Searsport, ME: Penobscot Marine Museum, 1989. Biographical information on the many sea captains who came from Searsport, their vessels, and their families.

Eastman, Joel W. A History of Sears Island. Searsport, ME: Searsport Historical Society, 1976. The history of a large island within the town limits of Searsport.

Hill, Ruth Ann. Discovering Old Bar Harbor and Acadia. Camden, ME: Down East books, 1996. Local history and historic photographs.

Honey, Mark. Abigail & Sarah Hawes of Castine, Navigators & Educators. Privately published, 1996.

Lunt, Dean L. Hauling by Hand: The Life and Times of a Maine Island. Frenchboro, ME: Islandport Press, 1999. The story of past and present life on Long Island, one of only 14 Maine islands still supporting a year-round community.

McLane, Charles B. Islands of the Mid Maine Coast. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House and Rockland, ME: Island Institute, 2000. A four-volume history of Maine's islands and island communities.

Platt, David D.(ed.) Penobscot: The Forest, River and Bay. Rockland, ME: Island Institute, 1996. Provides baselines for communities on the Penobscot River and Bay from the 19th century to compare with today. Looks at ecology, industry, transportation, energy, and generally changing patterns.

Thomaston Historical Society. Tall Ships, White Houses and Elms: Thomaston, Maine, 1868-1923. History and photographs of this maritime town.

Bunting, William H. A Day's Work. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House; Portland, ME: Maine Preservation, 1997, 2000. History of life in Maine, with historic photographs.

Colcord, Joanna C. Sea Language Comes Ashore. New York: Cornell Maritime Press, 1945. A dictionary of sea terms that are used on shore. Includes the origins of some words and expressions.

Taylor, Alan. Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760-1820. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990.

Woodward, Colin. The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier. New York: Viking, 2004. Maine life and history.

FICTION 

McLane, Charles B. Red, Right, Returning. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House; Rockland, ME: Island Institute, 2004. A novel set on a Penobscot Bay Island after World War II.


NINETEENTH CENTURY DOMESTIC LIFE

Albee, Parker Bishop. Letters from Sea, 1882-1901: Joanna and Lincoln Colcord's Seafaring Childhood.
Gardiner, Maine: Tilbury House, 1999. The story of two Searsport children who were born at sea and spent a great deal of their childhood on their father's vessel. The letters were the result of part of the family staying at home in Searsport. The Museum has an exhibit about the lives and travels of the Colcords.

Butler, Joyce. "Family & Community Life," in 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.
Fournier, Constance Anne. "Home Folks: Maritime Couples of Penobscot Bay Sustain Family and Community Ashore and at Sea," in Weiner, Marli F. (ed.), Of Place and Gender: Women in Maine History. Orono, Maine: University of Maine Press, 2005.

Green, Harvey. The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983. HS/Adult. Very detailed source for information on family structure, domestic life, customs, gender roles, child-rearing, and social climate in the latter part of the 19th century.

Griffin, Ralph H. Jr. (ed.). Letters of a New England Coaster, 1868-1872. [No publisher], 1968. The correspondence of Captain Joseph Griffin of Stockton, Maine, much of it between himself and his wife. There is a very interesting segment from a period when he was in a Cuban jail and she was alone on board his schooner.

Heininger, Mary Lynn Stevens et al. A Century of Childhood: 1820-1920. Rochester, NY: The Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, 1984. Children's lives in the Northeast and society's ideas about child-raising.

Larcom, Lucy. A New England Girlhood. New York: Corinth Books, 1961. A memoir of life in mid-19th century Massachusetts.

Montgomery Ward. Catalogue and Buyers Guide, 1894-95, No. 56 (fall and winter). New York: Bounty Books, 1969. Good source of information about what people used in everyday life at the end of the 19th century.

Montgomery Ward. Catalogue and Buyers Guide, 1895, No. 57 (spring and summer). New York: Dover Publications, 1969.

Murphy, Kevin D. Colonial Revival Maine. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004. The architecture of Maine.

Oliver, Sandra L. Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and their Food, at Sea and Ashore, in the Nineteenth Century. Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1995. A history of food in coastal New England, including acquisition, preservation and preparation traditions and recipes.

Sears, Roebuck & Co. The 1897 Sears Roebuck Catalogue. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1976.

Sears, Roebuck & Co. The 1902 Edition of the Sears Roebuck Catalogue. New York: Bounty Books 1969.
Wasson, George. Sailing Days on the Penobscot: The River and Bay as They Were in the Old Days. Salem, Mass.: Marine Research Society, 1932.

A Century of Summers. Color/45 min. 1987. Not Rated. A look at the relationships among the summer and native residents of Hancock, Maine.

Modern Times in Maine and America, 1890-1930. Color and B&W/30 min. Not Rated. Maine's role in early 20th century America.

An Oral Historian's Work. Color/33 min. 1987 Not Rated. Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. Professor Ives explains and demonstrates how to conduct an oral history project, including interviewing techniques, research, transcripts, equipment, and other information.

Vinalhaven. Color/44 min. Not Rated. The story of Vinalhaven Island's past and present day people.

Way Down East. Color-tinted/49 min. 1920 Not Rated. The story of a family's hardships Down East.