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Full-Text Articles in History

Marine Sciences At The University Of Maine, 1960-2015, Catherine Schmitt, Shelby Hartin Jun 2016

Marine Sciences At The University Of Maine, 1960-2015, Catherine Schmitt, Shelby Hartin

Maine History

The development of marine science research, teaching, and service at the University of Maine formally began in 1965, when Ira Darling and Clare Shane Darling transferred their 127-acre farm and woodlot on the Damariscotta River in South Bristol to the University. Their express purpose was to establish a marine laboratory. The gift fulfilled the decades old desire by University of Maine scientists and administrators to do just that. UMaine quickly began hiring faculty, starting research projects, building structures, developing courses, and creating ties to state and federal agencies. The transition from farm to world-class facility and laboratory was gradual, with …


Old Roots And New Shoots: How Locals And Back-To-The-Landers Remade Maine's Local Food Economy, Eileen Hagerman Jun 2015

Old Roots And New Shoots: How Locals And Back-To-The-Landers Remade Maine's Local Food Economy, Eileen Hagerman

Maine History

Back-to-the-landers who relocated to Maine in large numbers during the 1970s often lacked traditional rural skills and encountered a variety of agricultural challenges related to the state’s harsh climate and poor soils. Many who remained on the land often did so, at least initially, because they received support from elderly neighbors who still practiced low-input, small-scale farming. These neighbors tended to freely share their knowledge and skills and, in return, often benefited from the young newcomers’ assistance with laborious on-farm tasks. The newcomers worked with their local allies to form organizations, share knowledge, and coordinate marketing efforts tailored to meet …


Radical Teaching: Scott And Helen Nearing’S Impact On Maine’S Natural Food Revival, Erik Gray Jul 2014

Radical Teaching: Scott And Helen Nearing’S Impact On Maine’S Natural Food Revival, Erik Gray

Maine History

Though today sustainable living and locally-sourced food receive increased attention nationwide, these ideas have been important in Maine for several decades. A key part of the state’s agricultural history is a tradition of self-sustaining homesteads. While subsistence farming and self-sufficiency was often a necessity on Maine’s northeastern frontier, homesteading has remained a lifestyle chosen by many of the state’s residents to this day. In this article, the author discusses the legacy of Scott and Helen Nearing, focusing particularly on the couple’s contributions to the “back to the land” movement in Maine and beyond. The author earned a B.A. in History …


Dirigo In The Arctic: Donald B. Macmillan, Harrison J. Hunt, And The Crocker Land Expedition, 1913-1917, Charles H. Lagerbom Jun 2012

Dirigo In The Arctic: Donald B. Macmillan, Harrison J. Hunt, And The Crocker Land Expedition, 1913-1917, Charles H. Lagerbom

Maine History

The polar careers of three Maine men intersected in the far reaches of the northern Arctic Ocean at a specific geographic spot on the globe: 83° North Latitude, 100° West Longitude. Called Crocker Land, it had been sighted by polar explorer and Maine resident Robert E. Peary on June 24, 1906. In 1913, Mainer Donald B. MacMillan organized the Crocker Land expedition to explore this land that Peary had sighted. Another Mainer, Harrison J. Hunt, signed on as doctor for MacMillan’s venture in 1913. Crocker Land tied them all together, but only one of the three actually stood where it …


An Enduring Technology: The Horse Logging Tradition In Maine, James E. Passanisi Dec 2009

An Enduring Technology: The Horse Logging Tradition In Maine, James E. Passanisi

Maine History

No abstract provided.


Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant: A Technological Utopia In Retrospect, Howard P. Segal Apr 2009

Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant: A Technological Utopia In Retrospect, Howard P. Segal

Maine History

The Maine Yankee nuclear power plant, built in 1968 and closed in 1996, provides a revealing case study of the rise and fall of the nuclear power industry in the United States. At its inception, the plant generated a great outpouring of optimistic superlatives promising electricity “too cheap to meter” and a solution to Maine’s longstanding energy problems. Its promoters envisioned a technological utopia for Maine communities based on cheap and efficient energy, and based on these promising prospects, the town of Wiscasset welcomed the plant. This article traces the changes in public thinking that led to statewide referenda on …


Research Note: The Hazardous Search For Ancestors, Gordon W. Stuart Jan 2007

Research Note: The Hazardous Search For Ancestors, Gordon W. Stuart

Maine History

The following is an account of the search for an old family cemetery and the events that impacted the farm on which it was located over a 250 year period. Gordon Stuart, who recorded these events as a way of illustrating the perils and triumphs of genealogical research, is a retired hydrologist with national experience in water quality issues on forest and agriculture land. He volunteers with a lake association, a river watch group, and participates in woodlot education programs in Southern Maine.


“A Last Chance For Wilderness”: Defining The Allagash Wilderness Waterway, 1959-1966, Richard W. Judd Mar 2001

“A Last Chance For Wilderness”: Defining The Allagash Wilderness Waterway, 1959-1966, Richard W. Judd

Maine History

Seen in national perspective, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway is arguably Maine's most dramatic environmental accomplishment. The waterway resulted from an extended debate over several mutually exclusive proposals for the north Maine woods— dams to flood it; national parks to preserve it; and recreational schemes to transform it into a Coney Island of the North. In the mid-1960s, a coalition of landowners and conservationists cobbled together a preservation plan that conformed to the 1968 Federal Wild and Scenic River Act but pioneered several unique features that gave the wilderness idea a decidedly “eastern” twist. As a result, the waterway became a …


Scripting Maine’S Environmentalist Majority: The “Theater Of Oil,” 1968-1975, Christopher S. Beach Mar 2001

Scripting Maine’S Environmentalist Majority: The “Theater Of Oil,” 1968-1975, Christopher S. Beach

Maine History

Christopher Beach argues that Maine's contemporary environmental movement was created in the late 1960s when oil companies seeking sites for new refineries and tanker ports saw the Maine coast as ideally situated for expansion: close to southern New England and the mid-Atlantic coast, but relatively undeveloped and in need of economic re-energizing or so they thought. Hearings and conflict among fishers, state and local officials and politicians, residents (seasonal and permanent) and environmentalists created a long-term debate that in turn spawned a new understanding of Maine as a pastoral landscape for the modern world. Christopher Beach received his J.D. from …


Colonial Astronomers In Search Of The Longitude Of New England, Richard F. Rothschild Apr 1983

Colonial Astronomers In Search Of The Longitude Of New England, Richard F. Rothschild

Maine History

This article deals with aspects of progress made between 1755 and 1785 to identify the longitude of New England and the reasons for the failure of the Harvard-American Academy of Arts and Sciences expedition to Penobscot to see the totality of the solar eclipse of October 27 1780.