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Journal Cover And Table Of Contents, Maine Historical Society

Maine History

Cover, Editors and Editorial Board, and Table of Contents with Authors' Names

Letter From The Mhs Director, Steve Bromage

Maine History

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Gregory Gaines

Maine History

No abstract provided.

John Holmes And The Shifting Partisan Politics Of Slavery In Early Maine, Matthew Mason

Maine History

The longevity and shifting partisan allegiances of the political career of John Holmes illuminate many of the issues animating Maine politics in the broad statehood era. None of these issues dogged Holmes or revealed the intersection of Maine and national politics better than that of slavery. His seemingly endless political flexibility makes Holmes an unusually good barometer of the mainstream position in Maine on slavery and related issues across this broad period. Matthew Mason is a professor of history at Brigham Young University. He is the author of books including Slavery and Politics in the Early American Republic(2006) and …

Two Narratives About A Nineteenth-Century African American Settlement In Rural Maine, Christopher Marshall

Maine History

African Americans lived in the central Maine townships of Troy and Burnham in the nineteenth century, and a region there is said to contain their abandoned settlement. This is a study of two local narratives about the settlement. Older residents maintain an oral tradition largely based on field evidence, while in-migrants tell a very different story linked to national meanings and events. Using oral histories, documentary research, and archaeological survey work, our research has uncovered much of the story of the African American presence in these towns. While bearers of each narrative tradition feel theirs is an accurate historical account …

With A Little Help From My Friends: Jewish Mutual Assistance In Nineteenth-Century Maine, David M. Freidenreich, Kristin Esdale

Maine History

Jews in 19th-century Maine relied on familial, ethnic, and, to a lesser degree, institutional networks of mutual assistance to survive and thrive. These Jews, who commonly worked as merchants of clothing and other dry goods, counted on family members to get them through hard times and hired fellow Jews to peddle their wares in the countryside. Jewish peddlers and merchants regularly borrowed or loaned cash and goods on credit within a small, tightly knit community that extended across Maine and as far as Boston and New York. Commercial networks also reinforced familial ties as children and in-laws entered the family …

Photo Essay: State Of Mind: Becoming Maine, Maine Historical Society

Maine History

The separation from Massachusetts in 1820 had different meanings and implications for residents grounded in geography, culture, race, and economic standing. Understanding that the history of how Maine became a state is rooted in the stories of people, State of Mind: Becoming Maine focuses on four distinct communities—Wabanaki, Acadien French, Black, and English-speaking people all who have deep ties to the land now known as Maine. While multitudes of distinct cultural communities have, and continue to call Maine home, the Wabanaki have cared for this land for millennia. The French, Black, and English-speaking people have resided here since the early …

Reclaiming Maine's Archive And History In The Atlantic World, 1822-1876, Derek Kane O'Leary

Maine History

This essay analyzes the attempt by influential Mainers during the half-century after Maine’s founding as a state to argue for the historical significance of two earlier founding moments: the early seventeenth-century Popham Colony and the purported medieval Norse voyages of discovery to Maine’s coast. By documenting and promoting a narrative of the new state that comprised these moments, they hoped to demonstrate the significance of Maine’s archives and history within those of the nation. In particular, these Mainers could use these founding moments to push against the centrality of Massachusetts within the region’s and the nation’s history. The latter part …

The Maine Press Association Takes A Stand: Promoting Professional Identity In The Nineteenth Century, Stephen Banning

Maine History

This research sought to examine the Maine Press Association in relation to its motivations, particularly in reference to whether the association members saw themselves as professionals. The only other nineteenth century press association which has been examined for evidence of professional aspirations is the Missouri Press Association, in which it has been found that members were actively seeking to professionalize, modeling themselves after the traditional professions of doctors, lawyers and the clergy. References to journalists as professionals are present at an early point in the Maine Press Association’s history, and the number of references increase within a few years after …

Publicity And Tourism: The Maine State Government's Response To The Great Depression, Jennifer Munson

Maine History

During the Great Depression, Maine joined the rest of the nation in economic crisis. While the Depression affected the entire state in some way, the tourism industry took a harsh blow. The deteriorating economy led the Maine State Government to attempt counteracting the ramifications of the Depression. In response to the Depression, the Maine State Government increased advertising and publicity to promote tourism. This response included several publications that today give readers a glimpse into the history of the tourism industry during a difficult time.

Book Reviews, Sean Cox, Eileen Hagerman, George Kotlik, Thomas Peace, Hannah Schmidt, Eric Toups

Maine History

Reviews of the following books: Historic Acadia National Park, The Stories Behind One of America's Great Treasures by Catherine Schmitt; Without Benefit of Insects: The Story of Edith M. Patch of the University of Maine by Elizabeth Gibbs; French and Indian Wars in Maine by Michael Dekker; Wabanaki Homeland and the New State of Maine: The 1820 Journal and Plans of Survey of Joseph Treat edited by Micah Pawling; The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright by Ann M. Little; Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War by Lisa Books

End Matter

Maine History

Legacy Message

Journal Cover And Table Of Contents, Maine Historical Society

Maine History

Cover, Editors, Editorial Board and Table of Contents with authors' names.

Letter From Mhs Director, Steve Bromage

Maine History

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Mary T. Freeman

Maine History

No abstract provided.

"Beyond Being A War For The Union, This Is A Ware For Civilization": Nelson Dingley Jr.'S Emancipation War On Slavery 1861-1863, Eben Miller

Maine History

When the Civil War began in April 1861, the Union entered the conflict committed to suppressing secession and securing the republic. On the Maine home front, Nelson Dingley Jr., editor of the Lewiston Daily Evening Journal and Republican member of the state legislature, contended that this would require the adoption of measures to weaken slavery, from protecting and even arming

runaway slaves to the emancipation of enslaved peoples. This article examines how Dingley championed emancipationist measures in the Journal during the early stages of the Civil War, situating his voice among fellow Mainers—clergy members, soldiers, elected officials—who likewise espoused the …

Gettysburg: The Topography That Saved The United States, Benjamin Wyman

Maine History

Many scholars have analyzed the Battle of Gettysburg and the factors that determined its outcome. This work argues that the topographical features on the extreme

left flank of the Union army, which the Union troops held on July 2, were the primary factors in a Federal victory at Gettysburg. Focusing on the second day of the battle and the terrain the two armies fought over on the left flank of the Union army, this article combines an analysis

of topography and leadership in what would prove to be a pivotal Confederate defeat at the high tide of the Civil War. …

Color Sergeant Andrew J. Tozier, 20 Maine Medal Of Honor Winner, James A. Christian

Maine History

Sergeant Andrew Jackson Tozier’s seizing of an abandoned rifle to defend the 20th Maine’s national flag at his lone, advanced position would earn him a Medal of Honor. As Tozier left no personal diary, or personal letters written during the war, scholars must instead turn to archival military records, published regimental histories, contemporary newspaper accounts, and the diaries and letters of Tozier’s regimental comrades. Using these sources, the article herein sketches a portrait of the man General Joshua Chamberlain lauded as “an example of all that was excellent as a soldier.” More broadly, perhaps, it depicts the experiences of a …

Photo Essay: Holding Up The Sky: Wabanaki People, Culture, History & Art, Tilly Laskey

Maine History

Holding up the Sky is on view at Maine Historical Society through February 1, 2019. The exhibition gallery is located at 489 Congress St. in Portland. Please visit MaineHistory.org for hours and ticket information.

Book Reviews, William David Berry, H. H. Price

Maine History

Reviews of the following books: Maine Labor in the Age of Decentralization and Global Markets 1955-2005 by Charles A. Scontras; Still Mill: Stories and Songs of Making Paper in Bucksport, Maine 1930-2014 edited by Patricia Smith Ranzoni.

End Matter

Maine History

No abstract provided.

Yankees On The Western Front: New England In France During World War I, Steven Alboum

Maine History

On April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared that the United States would enter World War 1 on the side of the Allies, a move that would mobilize the American army and propel the 26th National Guard Division onto the world stage. Originally comprised only of boys from the New England states, most of whom had barely left home and had never fired a rifle in combat, this brave unit was put to the test on the Western Front against the Kaiser’s army, an enemy who had been at war for three years. The 26th was the first American military …

Book Reviews, Matthel Costello, Sean Cox, Laura Cowan, Dale Potts

Maine History

Reviews of the following books: Unearthed: Storied Artifacts and Remarkable Predecessors of the Saint Joseph’s College Campus by Steven L. Bridge; Creating Acadia National Park: The Biography of George Bucknam Dorr by Ronald H. Epp; The Human Shore: Seacoasts in Historyby John R. Gillis; Orion on the Dunes: A Biography of Henry Beston by Daniel G. Payne.

From The Collections Of The Maine Historical Society, Jamie Kingman Rice

Maine History

Discussion of the Maine Historical Society's pamphlet collection.

Maine’S Marines: The Search For Remembrance Of The Great War, J. Michael Miller

Maine History

Of the 32,083 Maine men who served in World War I, approximately twenty-four did so as enlistees in the United States Marine Corps. While Maine marines at that time represented only a small percentage of servicemen, they participated in some of the most significant battles in the war, battles that boosted the morale of the Allied forces in Europe, bolstered military recruitment efforts in the United States, and, by many estimates, helped turn the tide of the war. In the following article, author J. Michael Miller offers a remembrance of some of these marines by naming them and providing an …

Journal Cover And Table Of Contents, Maine Historical Society

Maine History

Cover, Editors and Editorial Board and Table of Contents with author's names

Editor's Note, Eileen Hagerman

Maine History

Overview of the contents of this issue of Maine History by its Editor.

How Maine Viewed The War, 1914–1917 (1940 Reprint), Edwin Costrell

Maine History

Originally published in 1940, as the United States once more evaluated possible involvement in global conflict, How Maine Viewed the War, 1914– 1917 looks backward to Maine on the eve of World War I. Author Edwin Stanley Costrell (1913–2010), through a study of newspaper coverage of the years 1914 to 1917, provides a thought-provoking account of a Maine people wrestling with ambivalence over US involvement in the Great War; of a citizenry seeking to reconcile ethnic diversity with national unity; and of a nation divided over pacifism, militarism, isolationism, and internationalism and increasingly moving toward war with Germany. Costrell was …

“There Are Folks Comin’ After Us That Will Need Trees”: Progressive Era Conservation, The Woods Tradition, And Maine Writer Holman Francis Day, Dale E. Potts

Maine History

Throughout his novels, Maine author Holman Francis Day maintained the importance of both the conservation of timber and the cultural conservation of Maine’s rural communities. Day wrote his novels in a Progressive Era climate permeated by a wise-use ideology. The point for Day, however, was not whether resources should be used, but by whom; his approach emphasized Maine’s resources for Maine’s people and industry. As a writer of fiction, Day balanced the needs of the people of Maine with a concern for the natural resources that made the state unique. Dale Potts is an Assistant Professor of History at South …

Wood Pulp And The Emergence Of A New Industrial Landscape In Maine, 1880 To 1930, John Clark, Deryck Holdwworth

Maine History

Between the 1880s and 1930s, investors developed over seventy pulp and paper mill sites to exploit the woods and inland waters of Maine. Authors John Clark and Deryck Holdsworth tracked the changing historical geographies of papermaking in Maine during this period through an analysis of data from Lockwood’s Directory, the industry’s leading monitor of investment. They also mapped mill sites, noting their changing capacity and shifts in product types as consumer needs evolved. Their work shows how the development of a railroad network helped facilitate a shift from smaller mills at coastal sites to larger mills at inland settings, which …