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 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.
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.
Census Records
Carriage Roads and Bridges
Deeds - Although this page may be the least frequently visited, it really 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.
Hotels and Boarding Houses - 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.
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).
Public Buildings
Roads
Town Records
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.