Introduction by John R. Stilgoe
Historic New England (distributed by Tilbury House, Publishers) 2006
Deluxe paperback with flaps.
144 pp. $29.95
A Fine Piece of Historical Scrapbooking
An indefatigable historian of the Northeast, W. H. Bunting of Whitefield, Maine, has contributed considerably to our knowledge and appreciation of seacoast subjects through such books as Steamers, Schooners, Cutters, and Sloops and An Eye for the Coast: The Maritime and Monhegan Photographs of Eric Hudson (co-authored with Earle Shettleworth).
This time around, Bunting draws on the collection of Historic New England (a part of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, or SPNEA) in Boston to present a lively and multi-dimensional visual cruise along the New England coastline, starting in Maine and ending in Connecticut. Nearly every page features a vintage black-and-white photograph surrounded by complementary photos and colorful bits and pieces of advertising and ephemera of the time. It’s altogether a fine piece of historical scrapbooking (designed by Julia Sedykh).
The first spread features a photo of a lobster canning factory in Mount Desert taken by E. L. Allen around 1870. Providing context for this image are reproductions of the cover of the book The Lobster Catchers by James Otis; two advertising labels for lobster packing companies; and a postcard of Mount Katahdin. Why the latter, you ask? Turns out that Percival Baxter, founder of Baxter Park, was “a scion of the family that owned the Portland Packing Company, the industry leader,” Bunting reports.
Historic New England boasts “one of the world’s outstanding collections of historic maritime photographs.” Bunting has selected some exceptional ones, from a marvelous image of the Castine Ferry about to cross the Bagaduce River, ca. 1896, by A. H. Folsom, to a spectacular panorama view of Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard taken by Baldwin Coolidge in 1894.
The photographers include a number of the most renowned of the time, most notably Nathaniel Stebbins, who is represented by more than a dozen exceptional portraits of sailing vessels. Whether it was an exotic gundalow sailing off Dover, New Hampshire, or the schooner-yacht Constellation that sailed out of Marblehead, Stebbins was a master at capturing sails against a sky. Bunting adds to our appreciation of these photos by explaining that gundalow was a variation on gondala, a type of scow, and Constellation was crewed by a group of Norwegians, who returned home every winter after the sailing season was over.
Bunting packs a lot into his concise texts. Writing about a striking 1880s portrait of York lobsterman George Donnell by Emma L. Coleman, the historian explains the difference in social status between “shore” and “vessel” fishermen (the average annual earnings of the former in 1879 were reported not to exceed $100). He also notes that this type of vernacular photography was a response to increased industrialism and urbanization. People were already waxing nostalgic for a time and way of life quickly passing by.
A market for 19th century New England seems to grow every year, perhaps in proportion to how far we move from the simple existence of our forebears. A new recording of Whittier’s famous poem “Snowbound,” read in dramatic fashion by Michael Maglaras, and the slew of programs organized by the Maine Historical Society to mark the bicentennial of Longfellow’s birth this year are just a few indications of the passion that exists for the past.
Bunting’s book should satisfy anyone with a desire for well-reproduced glimpses of other times, when codfish cured outside houses in Provincetown and boys launched handsome replicas of sailboats in an estuary in Manchester, Mass. This is one trip down memory lane not to be missed.
Carl Little’s latest book is Paintings of Maine: A New Collection (Down East Books).