I just blogged over on the Maine Genealogy Network about Eben E. Smith—one of only 11 Union soldiers to survive an amputation at the hip joint. (Images somewhat NSFW.)
Monday, 25 January 2010
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Google News Archive now has digitized copies of Lewiston newspapers going back to 1861. Here are the links to search the Lewiston Daily Sun (1890-1989), the Lewiston Evening Journal (later the Lewiston Journal) (1861-1989), the Lewiston Saturday Journal (1870-1929), and the Lewiston Sun-Journal (2005-2006). Or just use this link to search all the Lewiston papers.
Update: I have found that copies of the Sun Journal from 1989 to 2008 are available by adding [source:"Sun Journal" source:"Google"] to the query.Search other Lewiston papers by adding [source:"Lewiston" source:"Google"] to the query.
Update: Searching has been made more difficult, but you can also browse these newspapers:
Update: I have found that copies of the Sun Journal from 1989 to 2008 are available by adding [source:"Sun Journal" source:"Google"] to the query.Search other Lewiston papers by adding [source:"Lewiston" source:"Google"] to the query.
Update: Searching has been made more difficult, but you can also browse these newspapers:
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Seth Sturtevant of Sumner and Hartford served at Valley Forge, and for more than two years as a member of General George Washington's Life Guard. He sat down in about 1847 to write about his experiences:
Gen. Washington divided his men into parties of twelve, and ordered each party to build a hut for its own accommodation. These rude structures, sixteen feet long and fourteen feet wide, with walls six and a half feet high, were built of logs and lined with clay with rough chimneys. The officers' quarters were like these but a little larger. The weather became bitterly cold and the sufferings almost beyond endurance. Both Washington and Congress were powerless to provide new clothing. Our bare feet were through our worn-out shoes, nearly naked from the tattered remains of our only pair of stockings, our breeches hanging in strings, our faces thin from hunger, and a forsaken look on all. The horses died of starvation, and the men harnessed themselves to sleds and hauled their wood and scanty provisions.Seth noted at the end of his account, "I write this statement of my life at the age of 87 years. With the few dates kept while in the service it has been written from memory and without the aid of glasses."
YouTube user iomene has uploaded a great collection of 16mm films made by Chester Chase of Whitefield around 1950. Chase even attempted some aerial photography.
On a hazy summer day in the 1950's Chet Chase found a new opportunity to use his 16mm movie camera. Hank Markow offered to take Chet, Mike McCormick and Hack Olsen up for a spin around the skies of Whitefield. The little, 4 place, single engine plane must have found some "bumpy air" on that summer day, for it seems the camera is somewhat less than steady. Nevertheless, these remarkable images provide a new view of our town at a time when any moving pictures - let alone those from the sky - were rare.
Sunday, 3 January 2010
I totally missed the fifth annual Sardine and Maple Leaf Drop in Eastport on New Year's Eve.
Fortunately, there's YouTube. The good stuff starts at 1:10.The first drop will be the Canadian maple leaf, to honor Eastport’s Canadian neighbors. The giant sardine will be dropped at midnight — a nod to the area’s historic sardine fishing and canning past. [Link]
In 1973-1974, Alex MacPhail walked across the country, from Maine to Oregon, taking photographs along the way. The book he planned—"an intimate portrait of America that would coincide with the Bicentennial"—was never published, but he did publish his photographs on a blog in 2008.
Lewis Hine's photographs of Lewiston millworkers, taken in April 1909, may be found here.
I started my walk in Brunswick, ME, towards the end of August and spent a lot of time in and around Lewiston, ME, fascinated by the mills and the city. I was graciously granted permission to shoot in some of the mills like Bates which was a bit of luck because no photographers had been allowed in Bates, at least, since Lewis Hines took pictures there for his book deploring child labor in the late 1800s.
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