William Morgan: Looking lithographically at proud 19th Century Maine

As part of its celebration of the 200th anniversary of Maine statehood, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art last winter held an exhibition of lithographs of 19th-Century town views in the Pine Tree State. Since then, the college and Brandeis University Press have published a handsome oversize book, Maine's Lithographic Landscapes: Town and City Views, 1830-1870.

What it says above:

“View of Portland, Me./Taken from Cape Elizabeth before the great conflagration of July 4th 1866

“Tinted lithograph from a photograph taken by Edward F. Smith and published by B.B. Russell & Co., Boston. 1866. ‘‘

The author is Maine State Historian Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., who was the state's historic-preservation officer for nearly five decades. The modest and scholarly Shettleworth may well know more about the state's architecture and other art than anyone else. Devoting his life to documenting everything Maine, he has written and lectured prodigiously on every aspect of Maine's built environment, and also written studies of female fly fisherman, photographers, painters, and parks.

“Augusta, Me., 1854.

Drawn by Franklin B. Ladd. Tinted lithograph by F. Heppenheimer, New York.’’

In a bit of Maine understatement, the co-director of the Bowdoin Museum, Frank H. Goodyear Jr., writes, "In Nineteenth Century America, the printed city view enjoyed wide popularity." As Shettleworth notes, the prints helped "forge the young state's identity” and served as "expressions of pride of place’’. During the period under review many towns and cities across America were memorialized in printed images drawn by artists famous and unknown.

Still, Maine was still a small state in the back of beyond. (its population was under 300,000 at the time it separated from Massachusetts, in 1820.) Thus, what the book’s creators call the "first comprehensive record of urban prints during the first fifty years of statehood" is somewhat limited: There are a total of 26 views of 11 places. Those are augmented by a score or more images of the often somber Bowdoin campus, including a painting, old photos, and two Wedgwood plates. Groundbreaking as the book is, viewing the exhibition itself would probably be more satisfying.

That said, Maine's Lithographic Landscapes is a handsome production. The Bowdoin Museum has a history of elegant catalogs, and this co-operative venture with Brandeis demonstrates that press's growing role as a publisher of New England studies. I am not sure that anyone looks at colophons (publisher’s emblems) anymore, so it is worth noting that the book was designed by the eminent book designer, Sara Eisenman.

Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., Maine's Lithographic Landscapes, Brandeis University Press, 2020, 144 pages, $50.

William Morgan is a Providence-based architectural historian, photographer and essayist. His latest book is Snowbound: Dwelling in Winter.
 

Stronger than erosion

Long Wharf, in Boston, in the 19th century.

“Wharves with their warehouses sagging

     On wooden slats, windows steamed up

            And beaded with rain – it’s wonder

Weather doesn’t wash them away….’’

---From “Here,’’ by Betsy Sholl (born 1945(), a former poet laureate of Maine, where she lives in Portland

Susan K. Williams Smith: Trump doesn't want 'law and order'

Federal agents in Portland, Ore., during recent demonstrations there

Via OtherWords.org

Federal troops may be standing down in Portland, Ore., for now. But Donald Trump has also dispatched federal agents to Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City, Mo., and Albuquerque, N.M.

Trump claimed that his orders are intended to “restore law and order.” But this isn’t about restoring peace to our communities.

For generations, Black families, communities, and businesses have been terrorized by violent police officers and white vigilantes without consequence. Trump’s call for “law and order” is a political dog whistle to enable and excuse this systemic abuse.

Trump doesn’t want law or order. He’s calling for federal agents to sow chaos and disorder to intimidate our communities by any means necessary.

The militarized agents that Trump deployed in Portland, where protests against police brutality have endured for two straight months, were clearly meant to achieve just that. Those heavily armed, body armored, and camouflaged troops patrolled the city in unmarked cars, launched dangerous munitions at unarmed protesters, and detained many others.

Trump has meanwhile claimed that Democratic lawmakers and activists are engaging in an “anti-cop crusade” to abolish all police departments.

In reality, most of these campaigns are simply calling to remove some money from police budgets and put it toward underfunded schools and community support services long denied to Black and brown communities — like job training, mental health care, and low-income housing.

Centuries of discrimination, oppression, and violence against Black people have caused too many of us to live in poverty. And for too long, corrupt, violent, and racist police officers have capitalized on minor crimes of poverty to harass, arrest, and kill us.

George Floyd allegedly used counterfeit money. Eric Garner sold loose cigarettes. Alton Sterling sold DVDs out of a gas station. Police officers targeted these men and killed them for these minor offenses.

And now that people around America are standing up against police violence and racial injustice, Trump is trying to stifle our power to serve his political ends.

We must reject Trump’s concept of “law and order” and reimagine public safety by investing in our well-being instead of hefty police budgets. What could it mean for all people to have equal protection under the law and the resources to support healthy, thriving communities?

We can start by restoring law and order in our police departments themselves.

We would all benefit from strict standards on the use of force, and from police officers who value protecting our communities over violence and access to power. We would all benefit from robust police training in conflict management and de-escalation, and from community oversight mechanisms ensuring that police officers are held accountable for wrongdoing.

The national reckoning on racial injustice and police violence is long overdue. Black people in this country have been in crisis since we were first brought here as slaves in the 1600s. We don’t need militarized police departments, ready to shoot us at the slightest change of the wind. We need to be treated as human beings, with dignity and respect.

We need police to stop targeting, arresting, and killing us for minor offenses like selling cigarettes or driving with a broken taillight or bad muffler. We need to know that our bodies are not seen as simply fodder for the prison industrial complex.

Trump’s notion of “law and order” is detrimental and divisive for all of us. Let’s create a new version of law and order defined by public safety, accountability, and thriving communities.

The Rev. Dr. Susan K. Williams Smith is an ordained minister and director of Crazy Faith Ministries, in Columbus, Ohio. She serves on People For the American Way Foundation’s African American Ministers In Action.

Heavier Boston

Moulton Street in the Old Port section of Portland

Photo by Bd2media

“I had loved Portland {Maine}. It was a clean city, with weather so delicate that at night you had to look at the streetlights to tell whether it was raining or snowing. Everything was heavier near Boston: air, accents, women.”

― Elizabeth McCracken, American writer and editor,  in her short-story anthology Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry

House walls instead

“The Peaceful Use of Walls” #2 (encaustic on panel), by Willa Vennema. She lives most of the year in Portland but summers with her family on Swan’s Island, south of Mount Desert Island, where most of Acadia National Park is.

She says:

“My most recent series of work is entitled ‘The Peaceful Use of Walls.’ This series was in response to the controversy over President Trump’s desire to build a multibillion-dollar wall on our boarder with Mexico. I do not believe a huge wall is the answer to our immigration problems. This series depicts a hopeful, nurturing and peaceful alternative for the use of walls—houses.’’

She’s a member of New England Wax.

See her video by hitting this link.

Boost for Maine's innovation economy

Collage of Portland scenes from Wikipedia

The New England Council’s (newenglandcoincil.com) comments on  Northeastern University’s plan to use a $100 million gift to open a new research institute in Portland:

“The new center, named the Roux Institute after its benefactors David and Barbara Roux, will focus on the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the digital and life sciences. Citing the Boston-based university as ‘an elite university that’s not elitist,’ Roux selected Northeastern after a two-year search for the right fit to lead the institute. The new campus will offer graduate degrees and certificate programs in order to help create a tech hub in the largest city in Maine. Additionally, the Roux Institute will feature partnerships with leading employers in Maine and across the country. The move highlights Northeastern’s continuing expansion, with regional campuses in Charlotte, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and London already established by the university in recent years.

“‘The Roux Institute at Northeastern University brings a new vision, critical investment and proven research capacity to the Portland region,’ said Dannel Malloy, University of Maine system chancellor. ‘It can be a game-changer for Maine’s participation in the innovation economy and create new opportunities for Maine’s students and entrepreneurs.’’’

“Because Northeastern’s new campus will offer only graduate programs, it won’t be directly competing with many of Maine’s higher education institutions, according to Malloy. The new venture can, however, provide both school systems with a potential new influx of students and opportunities for joint programs and fellowships between them, Malloy said. A rural state with an aging population, Maine has subsequently been facing enrollment challenges in higher education; the Roux Institute is a bet that the new Portland research institute can change that.

“‘The impact of the Roux Institute will reverberate across the region for generations to come. It will serve as a national model for expanding growth and innovation, and reducing inequality,’ Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun said.’’

Dreams from before

“Three Vestiges’’ (triptych, encaustic mixed media), by Otty Merrill, who has homes in Tenants Harbor and Portland. Maine.

She says in her bio in newenglandwax.com

“My artwork tells a story that often begins with an image, a memory or an impression. Though I am surrounded by a magnificent landscapes on the Maine coast, and special light that has drawn artists to the coast for centuries, my visions and subject matter originates in kind of interior solitude. From places and people I remember or see in old photographs.

“Though my medium has changed from time to time, my style and approach is consistent and I hope, distinctive. I started my art career in pottery, then silkscreen and when I discovered the process of working with encaustic wax, about 20 years ago, that medium has dominated my senses. I often use photographs and found objects to translate my message. I love color, texture and added elements like metal, wood or a special, and often humble fragments…old tin, script, lost objects.’’

Tenants Harbor lighthouse was purchased in 1978 by Andrew Wyeth, the painter. His painter son Jamie now owns it.

The town of St. George, of which Tenants Harbor is the leading village, is indicated in red.

Warm memories; grow very old in Portland

“That Summer Day’’ (encaustic and photo transfer), by Kimberly Curry

Ms. Curry says she uses her home state of Maine as her muse, as well as her travels around the world, and is inspired by the the beauty (and its opposites) in ordinary things.

Her style ranges from seascapes of Maine that capture a point in time to following a concept in a loose abstract way.

She lives in hip Portland, whose excellent health care, physical beauty, exciting working waterfront, famous food sector and strong cultural and educational resources for older people put it on Parade magazine’s list of seven places in America to “Live Here and Live to 100’’.

Downtown Portland

— Photo by Autocracy

Farmers market on Monument Square

Portland waterfront with warm-season cruise ships

Old townhouses in Portland

Portland mulls building higher on its waterfront

The Portland waterfront. It’s a favorite port for cruise ships plying waters between New York, the Maritime Provinces and Quebec in the summer and fall.

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

City planners in Portland, Maine, have come up with some interesting ideas for adapting that city’s waterfront, much of it a real “working waterfront’’ (fishing boats, etc.), to rising seas. Their proposed Coastal Resiliency Overlay Zone would, The Portland Press Herald reports, let developers “build taller buildings in those areas if they prove the additional height is being used to prepare for sea-level rise and storm surges associated with a changing climate.’’

Design of such buildings would include “the elevation of the first floor above highest adjacent grade building design that allows for future modification of the ground elevation.’’ And in some cases, “the new rules would allow developers to build an extra floor.’’

Of course, some people whose view of the water might be limited by higher buildings would complain, but Portland’s planners are just being realistic. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) projects that some now low-lying areas of Portland might be under a under a foot of water at normal high tide in 2100, but 6 to 10 feet underwater when high tide and storm surge combine, probably during a Nor’easter.

To read the Press Herald story, please hit this link.

To look at NOAA’s “Sea Level Rise Viewer’’ please hit this link. 

Watery Portland from above



Love letter to Portland

Cruise ships in Portland. Below, Portland art walk (photo by Bd2media

Often I think of the beautiful town 

      That is seated by the sea; 

Often in thought go up and down 

The pleasant streets of that dear old town, 

      And my youth comes back to me. 

            And a verse of a Lapland song 

            Is haunting my memory still: 

      "A boy's will is the wind's will, 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

I can see the shadowy lines of its trees, 

      And catch, in sudden gleams, 

The sheen of the far-surrounding seas, 

And islands that were the Hesperides 

      Of all my boyish dreams. 

            And the burden of that old song, 

            It murmurs and whispers still: 

      "A boy's will is the wind's will, 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

I remember the black wharves and the slips, 

      And the sea-tides tossing free; 

And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, 

And the beauty and mystery of the ships, 

      And the magic of the sea. 

            And the voice of that wayward song 

            Is singing and saying still: 

      "A boy's will is the wind's will, 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

I remember the bulwarks by the shore, 

      And the fort upon the hill; 

The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar, 

The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er, 

      And the bugle wild and shrill. 

            And the music of that old song 

            Throbs in my memory still: 

      "A boy's will is the wind's will, 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

I remember the sea-fight far away, 

      How it thundered o'er the tide! 

And the dead captains, as they lay 

In their graves, o'erlooking the tranquil bay, 

      Where they in battle died. 

            And the sound of that mournful song 

            Goes through me with a thrill: 

      "A boy's will is the wind's will, 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

I can see the breezy dome of groves, 

      The shadows of Deering's Woods; 

And the friendships old and the early loves 

Come back with a Sabbath sound, as of doves 

      In quiet neighborhoods. 

            And the verse of that sweet old song, 

            It flutters and murmurs still: 

      "A boy's will is the wind's will, 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

I remember the gleams and glooms that dart 

      Across the school-boy's brain; 

The song and the silence in the heart, 

That in part are prophecies, and in part 

      Are longings wild and vain. 

            And the voice of that fitful song 

            Sings on, and is never still: 

      "A boy's will is the wind's will, 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

There are things of which I may not speak; 

      There are dreams that cannot die; 

There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak, 

And bring a pallor into the cheek, 

      And a mist before the eye. 

            And the words of that fatal song 

            Come over me like a chill: 

      "A boy's will is the wind's will, 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

Strange to me now are the forms I meet 

      When I visit the dear old town; 

But the native air is pure and sweet, 

And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street, 

      As they balance up and down, 

            Are singing the beautiful song, 

            Are sighing and whispering still: 

      "A boy's will is the wind's will, 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair, 

      And with joy that is almost pain 

My heart goes back to wander there, 

And among the dreams of the days that were, 

      I find my lost youth again. 

            And the strange and beautiful song, 

            The groves are repeating it still: 

      "A boy's will is the wind's will, 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

“My Lost Youth,’’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882). The poem is about, among other things, his hometown, Portland, Maine, which in the past couple of decades has become a very popular and hip place for tourists to visit, as well as for Millennials to move to. There are lots of working artists there.

Portland’s Longfellow Square (named for the artist) soon after the turn of the 20th Century.

'You'll be gone too'

On the Portland waterfront.

"Wharves with their warehouses sagging   

       on wooden slats, windows steamed up

           and beaded with rain -- it's  a wonder

weather doesn't wash them away. In time,

    they seem to say, you'll be gone too,

        your belongings left on a quay for the taking....''

From "Here,'' by Betsy Sholl, who lives in Portland and is a former Maine poet laureate.

Wex, a fast-growing Maine tech company, to build new headquarters in Portland

This from the New England Council (nec.com):

 "WEX is one step closer to building a new global headquarters in Portland, ME, after the City Council’s Economic Development Committee approved Wex’s bid.

"Wex, a Maine-based international technology company, currently has 800 of its 2,700 employees in Maine and will add an additional 500 with the completion of their new building.  The new global headquarters will not only be of use to Wex as a recruiting tool, but it will also be of great value to the city of Portland. The proposed building would be 100,000 square feet and four stories with 10,000 square feet of retail space.  The City Council is expected to finalize the deal on August 21st.

'''We’re looking forward to hearing from the public regarding the committee’s selected development proposal and our purchase and sale agreement,' City Councilor David Brenerman, chair of the city’s Economic Development Committee, said in a written statement. “This is truly an exciting opportunity to attract the world headquarters of a major Maine-based international business that will bring almost 500 new high-quality jobs to Portland’s eastern waterfront.”

"The New England Council congratulates WEX on its continued growth and success.''

His magical Portland

(This is a tribute to Portland, Maine)

"Often I think of the beautiful town
That is seated by the sea; 
Often in thought go up and down
The pleasant streets of that dear old town, 
And my youth comes back to me. 
And a verse of a Lapland song
Is haunting my memory still: 
'A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'

"I can see the shadowy lines of its trees, 
And catch, in sudden gleams, 
The sheen of the far-surrounding seas, 
And islands that were the Hersperides
Of all my boyish dreams. 
And the burden of that old song, 
It murmurs and whispers still: 
'A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'

"I remember the black wharves and the slips, 
And the sea-tides tossing free; 
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, 
And the beauty and mystery of the ships, 
And the magic of the sea. 
And the voice of that wayward song
Is singing and saying still: 
'A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'

"I remember the bulwarks by the shore, 
And the fort upon the hill; 
The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar, 
The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er, 
And the bugle wild and shrill. 
And the music of that old song
Throbs in my memory still: 
'A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'

"I remember the sea-fight far away, 
How it thundered o'er the tide! 
And the dead captains, as they lay
In their graves, o'erlooking the tranquil bay, 
Where they in battle died. 
And the sound of that mournful song
Goes through me with a thrill: 
'A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'

"I can see the breezy dome of groves, 
The shadows of Deering's Woods; 
And the friendships old and the early loves
Come back with a sabbath sound, as of doves
In quiet neighborhoods. 
And the verse of that sweet old song, 
It flutters and murmurs still: 
'A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'

"I remember the gleams and glooms that dart
Across the school-boy's brain; 
The song and the silence in the heart, 
That in part are prophecies, and in part
Are longings wild and vain. 
And the voice of that fitful song
Sings on, and is never still: 
'A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'

There are things of which I may not speak; 
There are dreams that cannot die; 
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak, 
And bring a pallor into the cheek, 
And a mist before the eye. 
And the words of that fatal song
Come over me like a chill: 
'A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'

Strange to me now are the forms I meet
When I visit the dear old town; 
But the native air is pure and sweet, 
And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street, 
As they balance up and down, 
Are singing the beautiful song, 
Are sighing and whispering still: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair, 
And with joy that is almost pain
My heart goes back to wander there, 
And among the dreams of the days that were, 
I find my lost youth again. 
And the strange and beautiful song, 
The groves are repeating it still: 
'A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82), "My Lost Youth''