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Call (Bert) Photograph Collection, 1914-1939, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Finding Aids

Albert Lincoln "Bert" Call, 1866-1963, was a professional photographer in Dexter, Maine, from 1887 to 1953. He started as an apprentice to A.G. Fassett and shortly thereafter purchased Fassett's studio. Call was a portrait photographer but was also known for his artistic photographs of the northern Maine woods. Call also served as the official photographer for the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad's publication, "In the Maine Woods," from 1915 to 1931.

The collection includes 3,376 photographs dating between 1914 and 1939 of outdoor scenes of mountains, lakes, woods and streams in the northern part of Maine. Included are shots from the …

West Peru. Maine Photograph Album, 20th Century, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Finding Aids

A photograph album by an unidentified compiler containing photographs taken in West Peru, Maine. Included are shots of people, businesses, houses, churches, the grist mill, toothpick factory, railroad station, schools, etc. Album is accompanied by a list identifying most photographs. Some photographs appear to be of members of the Woodsum family. Additional family names include Arnold, Kidder Goding, and Curtis.

Fish (William) Account Book, 1771-1808, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Finding Aids

Listings by date of accounts with various individuals and materials purchased or work done. Goods include bushels of barley or rye, pork, rum, coffee, etc. Work includes plowing, use of horses, mowing, etc. Also records sales of large volumes of salt, presumably used for fish processing.

Orono: Growing As A University Town, 1965-2015, Evan D. Richert Aicp, Sophia L. Wilson

Maine History

By 1965, the Town of Orono’s long history as a lumber town had faded and it had grown into a small university town. Demographically and socially, Orono today demonstrates many of the markers of a university town—from its occupational profile and residency of university employees and students to its growing knowledge-based economy and its evolving downtown of “third places.” But there are differences, too, from a typical university town—for example, in the relative physical isolation of the University of Maine from the rest of the town, and in Orono’s small population compared with the university’s enrollment. Opinions on the quality …

‘The Farmer’S Family Must Find Compensation In Something Less Tangible, Less Material’: Culture And Agriculture In Maine And New England, 1870-1905”, Cody P. Miller

Maine History

Following the Civil War, American agriculture changed dramatically, and New England was no exception. With new railroad systems, specialized crop markets, and chemical fertilizers, Maine and other New England farmers found themselves as part of an increasingly commercialized agricultural system. Farmers, urban pundits, and agricultural reformers all stressed the need to abandon small, mixed husbandry farming and instead they urged farmers to start treating agriculture like a business. In order to “progress,” one needed to increase acreage and adopt specialized cropping. While many farmers accepted this mantra, others resisted it and argued that there was a moral quality to agriculture …

Very Noble Suppers: Agriculture And Foodways In Late Colonial Falmouth, Charles P.M. Outwin

Maine History

During the American colonial period, Falmouth Neck (now Portland), Maine began its progression from a small fishing village to a vibrant hub of the region’s agriculture and trade. In this article, the author explains various aspects of this progression, particularly through a description of the ways food in the region made its way from farm (or ocean) to table. The author earned an MA in liberal studies from Wesleyan University in 1991 and a PhD in history from the University of Maine in 2009, writing a dissertation on the history of Falmouth from 1760-1775. He has published numerous works, including …

The Improved Acre: The Besse Farm As A Case Study In Landclearing, Abandonment, And Reforestation, Theresa Kerchner

Maine History

From the vantage of the twenty-first century, it seems remarkable that farmers, working with only hand tools and farm animals, converted over half of New England’s “primeval” forests to tillage and pasture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This period was marked by transitions as farmers responded to new markets, changing family values, and declining natural resources. These forces brought an end to agrarian expansion and caused New England’s iconic pastoral landscape to begin to revert to forestland. A case study based on the former Jabez Besse, Jr. farm in central upland Maine provides a link to New England’s agricultural …

Burnt Harvest: Penobscot People And Fire, James Eric Francis Sr.

Maine History

The scientific and ethnographic record confirms the fact that in southern New England, Indians used fire as a forest management tool, to facilitate travel and hunting, encourage useful grasses and berries, and to clear land for agriculture. Scholars have long suggested that agricultural practices, and hence these uses of fire, ended at the Saco or Kennebec, with Native people east of this divide less likely to systematically burn their forests. This article argues that Native people on the Penobscot River used fire, albeit in more limited ways, to transform the forest and create a natural environment more conducive to their …

From The Fair To The Laboratory: The Institutionalization Of Agricultural Science And Education In Maine, Thomas Reznick

Maine History

Up until the mid-nineteenth century, agricultural science and education in Maine were primarily local affairs. Meeting in farm clubs and attending agricultural fairs, the Maine farmer performed most research by trial and error and by meeting on common ground with other farmers to discuss what worked and what did not. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the farm clubs and county fairs waned and succumbed to the growing political influence of the Grange, which supported burgeoning agricultural scientific and educational institutions, such as the College of Agriculture and the Experiment Station. Through the auspices of the Grange, such institutions took the …

German Prisoners Of War In Maine, 1944-1946, Jules J. Arel

Maine History

Like many states during World War II, Maine faced a severe labor shortage at a time when wartime needs boosted production demands. Northern Maine farmers and paper makers used German prisoners of war to help meet these extraordinary demands. Despite early apprehensions among local people, the POW's, stationed in Houlton, remained unobtrusive. They responded well to the rigors of climate and work, and some of them formed lasting friendships with local residents.