Welcome to the home page of the Mount Desert Island Cultural History Project.
Purpose of this project: The purpose of this project is to present information about Mount Desert Island's cultural history (subject to the limitation described below) that will be of use to visitors as well as to serious researchers and students of history. Topics to be covered by this project are listed below, and links are provided for subjects about which research is underway. It is hoped that the web pages of this project will become as rich a storehouse of information and images as are the historical societies, libraries, and private collections that can be experienced only by visits to those sources. If you are interested in the island's natural history, you may wish to visit the Champlain Project.
Limitation of this project: This project is currently limited to the cultural history of the primarily European visitors to and settlers on Mount Desert Island, and their successors; that is, those who displaced the earlier Native American visitors and inhabitants. It is an attempt to describe the lives and activities of those who claimed ownership of the land and subsequently made Mount Desert Island their home.
How to contribute: If you have any material that can be scanned or photographed, please e-mail info@vfthomas.com, call 207-266-5748, or write to MDI Cultural History Project, c/o V. F. Thomas Co.; P. O. Box 400; Southwest Harbor, ME 04679. Also, your comments and suggestions for additional topics are encouraged.
Businesses and Professions - Some of the business categories on Mount Desert Island have been the same since the late 1800s—hotels, insurance, drug stores—but some have passed into extinction (livery stables, for example). A list of early businesses and professions, with links to their advertisements, reveal an interesting aspect of life on Mount Desert Island.
Cemeteries - There are nearly 100 cemeteries on Mount Desert Island. The locations in latitude and longitude as well as UTM coordinates are given, and a few images are shown. A link is provided to a page about the Evergreen Cemetery in Southwest Harbor. The plan is to have a comparable page for each cemetery.
Census Records - Every 10 years, beginning in 1790, there has been a census of people in the United States. These records for Bar Harbor (originally called Eden), Cranberry Isles, Mount Desert, Southwest Harbor, and Tremont are being transcribed. Three of the eventual nine volumes are now available for sale: 1790–1840, 1850, and 1860. The transcript of the 1870 census is in draft form and is being proofed, the 1880 census has been transcribed, and a transcription of the 1900 census is in progress. (Census data from 1890 are unavailable.) Corrections to the published census transcripts are posted on the web page linked to here.
Carriage Roads and Bridges
Cottages - The word cottage was (and still is) an understated reference to the large, expensive, and relatively lavish homes of primarily summer residents. As a result of changing demographics and economics of Mount Desert Island, some of these cottages now serve as lodging and/or eating facilities. Others were reduced to rubble by the fire of 1947. Some still stand and are pictured on the cottage web page.
Deeds - Although this page may be the least frequently visited, it contains the information that is fundamental to all the rest of the pages in this project. Land ownership in our society confers the right to build cottages, hotels and boarding houses, and public buildings; to set up markers, monuments, and memorials; and to develop trails and memorial paths.
Genealogy - Many people are working on the genealogy of Mount Desert Island families but do not have a means for sharing this information. This growing web page provides that venue.
Hotels, Boarding Houses, and Tourist Homes - The earliest visitors to Mount Desert Island were called rusticators, and they often stayed in the homes of local fishermen and farmers. As more and more visitors came to the island and as their needs and wants grew beyond what individuals could provide, the first hotels and boarding houses were established. Tourist homes were the forerunners of today's bed and breakfast establishments.
Houses and Outbuildings - Structures in this category differ from the cottages (see above) largely in size (smaller), cost (cheaper), duration (year-round rather than seasonal), and fame (what fame?) of their residents. Some of these "houses" exist now only as cellar holes.
Markers, Monuments, and Memorials - The "assurance" that some people have for immortality is the third step in the (long) transition from "there ought to be" (immortality) to "there must be" to "there is". However, in the case that there is no such thing, as well as for a plethora of other reasons, humans create a "temporary immortality" for themselves and others by producing markers, monuments, and memorials that will last "forever" (that is, longer than any one person's lifespan).
Quarries and Mines
Town Records - Town records provide insight into what was important to the residents of a town as well as telling about some of the important developments in the town's history and who was involved in those events.
Trails and Memorial Paths - Walking on a trail is but one method of getting from point A to point B. Although it is not the most expeditious, it is perhaps one of the most pleasurable. A memorial path, in addition to being a medium for a satisfying journey, fulfills two other roles: it assures at least temporary "immortality" (see "Markers, Monuments, and Memorials" above) for the trail's namesake(s) and, on a more practical level, it provides an incentive for contributions for its maintenance.