THE TRADES: PUTTING A SKILL TO WORK

A close look at how certain jobs were done tells us a lot about the working day, and about what people wanted to buy and sell.

Coopers, Bradford (Allie Ryan)

This photograph of coopers was probably taken in the 1870s, perhaps in the Penobscot Valley at Bradford, where coopers made hundreds of thousands of barrels each year. In the days before plastic or corrugated cardboard, barrels were used as containers for shipping all kinds of goods.
      The barrel was invented long ago, probably in ancient Egypt. Although it takes a lot of skill to make a barrel, it could be built from common materials, and even when it was full, it could be moved easily by rolling it. Its disadvantage was that its shape kept it from being stowed compactly, like boxes, without wasted space.
      If you look at this photograph carefully, you'll see that the coopers are showing you just how barrels are put together, step by step, from left to right. Off to the far left a cooper is standing next to the barrel staves. These barrel staves had to be tapered at each end and hollowed slightly, and their long sides needed to be beveled so that the curves would fit tightly together. (If you look at the side of a planked boat, you'll see that barrel-making and boatbuilding have something in common). Before machines were developed to saw barrel parts, making staves was done with hand tools: a cooper's axe, drawknives, and a jointer (a long, sharp plane mounted on a stand). Several men in the photograph are holding cooper's axes, and the boss (with the bow tie) is sitting (carefully) on the sharp jointer.
      Barrels were used to hold everything from salted fish and pork to flour, sugar, apples, potatoes, sauerkraut, syrup, or rum. Plastic, glass, and corrugated cardboard have now replaced most of the barrels, crocks, jugs, wooden boxes, and baskets that were used in the past.

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Casks or barrels are still prized as containers. Years ago, barrels were used to ship everything from molasses to china. Although the advent of other strong, water-tight materials have replaced barrels in many instances, barrels continue to serve as containers for many items. The wood used for making barrels varies according to the barrel's use. Barrel making is largely mechanized today, although a few talented craftsmen continue to make barrels by hand.

Discussion:
1. Examine the photos in the exhibit and determine how many show barrels. What are some of the uses for barrels pictured?
2. Make a list of all the things for which barrels can be used?
3. Why were barrels such good containers for sea transportation?

Activities:
1. If it is possible to obtain a barrel hoop, have a hoop rolling contest (a Hula Hoop makes a good substitute).

Hauling New Casks at Warren, Early 1900s
(William A. Bessey, Matthews Museum of Maine Heritage )

George Wiley and his son Alford head for the coast or a railroad with two loads of new casks for the lime kilns. In 1893 a lime cask cold for about eighteen cents, about the price of a dozen eggs. Lime was made by heating limestone in big kilns, and was used in making mortar or cement. Because the lime was dry and clumpy, lime casks didn't have to be watertight or as carefully made as a hardwood barrel for liquids. However, lime was a dangerous cargo aboard ships. If it got wet, it would start to burn (this sounds strange, but it's true!), and you couldn't put the fire out with more water. You had to smother it.

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Discussion:
1. What does the condition of the road and the method of hauling these casks tell you about transporting goods to market?

Activities:
1. Look at the front wagonload of casks and calculate how many casks are on this wagon. At eighteen cents per casks, how much is the total delivery worth?
2. Research the lime industry in Maine. You can still see the remains of old lime kilns in Rockport, at the back of the parking lot at the harbor. Why would they locate the kilns near the water?
3. Develop a strategy for dealing with a lime fire. How would you put out this stubborn fire?

Cobbler, Canton (Maine Historic Preservation Commission)

This is Edward B. Childs, probably around 1900, repairing a pegged-soled boot. He claimed he could "shoe a horse, a yoke of oxen, a man, or a woman." Childs could make eleven pairs of shoes a day.

      Shoemaking in Maine began with the native Indians, who made shoes called moccasins. By 1852, moccasin shops in Bangor and other cities were shipping moccasins all over the world. These shoes were favored by loggers, trappers, and hunters working in the woods.

      Before the Civil War, men wore stiff cowhide boots that shrank to fit their feet. Young boys rarely wore shoes except in cold weather or when they had to dress up for church or school. Women wore leather slippers or cloth shoes with leather soles and elastic at the sides. No one's feet were very comfortable, though, since shoes were not made in different shapes for the right and left feet until 1890!

      Early shoemakers traveled from farm to farm, or house to house, making shoes as needed. The first shoe factories often distributed shoe parts to farm families, who put the parts together to make finished footwear and earn some extra money. This practice continued until the end of the century. Many people continued to make or fix their shoes at home, using cobbler kits from the hardware store and know-how passed down from generation to generation.

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Today we tend to take the shoes we wear for granted. In 1860, who would have dreamed that Americans would wear shoes endorsed by sports figures, let alone pay over $100 for one pair. The Penobscot Indians made moccasins by hand and as late as the 1970s were still beading by hand. Paid for piecework, the Penobscots were skilled hand-sewers, often working at home as well as in the shoe factories along the Penobscot River.
      Cobblers such as Mr. Childs are rare today. The craft of making and/or repairing shoes by hand has pretty much disappeared except for exclusive hand-made shoes costing hundreds of dollars per pair. Labor saving devices replaced hand-sewers, making shoes inexpensive, especially those imported from third world countries. Synthetic materials have replaced leather as shoe making material, also reducing the cost of production. Today, rather than repairing shoes, Americans replace them with new ones.

Discussion:
1. How could people know which foot to wear a shoe on if there was no right or left?
2. What materials are now available for shoe making?
3. What other materials besides leather did Maine produce for shoe-making?

Activities:
1. Take inventory of your home. How many pairs of shoes are owned by your family? Categorize them by type. Create a chart that shows what type of shoes each person owns. Also check and note the country where the shoes were manufactured.
2. Create a graph for the class to see which type of shoes is most popular.
3. Create a graph for the class showing where most of the shoes were made.
4. If you can locate one, invite a cobbler to school (or maybe someone's grandfather who remembers how to repair shoes) learn more about cobbling.
5. Visit a shoe store in town and determine where most of the shoes being sold are made.
6. Research: Try to find a Maine boot- or shoe-making company.
      How many did you find?
7. L. L. Bean began his business by selling boots. Are these boots still manufactured in Maine?

Captain Cottle, the Cobbler, Isle au Haut, Late 1890s
(Isle au Haut Historical Society)

Captain Cottle was a frequent visitor to Isle au Haut, blowing in with a fair breeze. He earned his living going from place to place, doing odd jobs of cobbling. His sailing scow's house was painted blue, with yellow signs, and his dog's name was Snips.

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Captain Cottle was probably a welcome visitor along the coast and at the islands. Shoes were in short supply and needed frequent mending is they were to last, especially since most folks only owned one pair at a time. Children often went barefoot in the summertime to preserve their shoes for cold weather, and shoes that could be repaired were passed down to younger brothers or sisters.

Discussion:
1. Look carefully at the picture. What device does Captain Cottle have mounted on his boat?
2. Why do you think he named his dog Snips?
3. Besides fixing shoes, what other things might a cobbler repair or make to order?

Shoe Shop in Warren, 1894 (Warren Historical Society)

Women sew shoe uppers in the "stitch room." The shoes they made were sold as far away as London and Australia.
      Many workers enjoyed shoe-shop work because it was social. New workers quickly learned to bring their lunch in a tight bucket, since shoe shops were alive with leather-eating roaches.

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Many women have worked in the Maine shoe factories. Stitching uppers was tedious work, but not as labor-intensive as minding a weaving loom. Many factories paid for "piece work" rather than by the hour, therefore the faster a worker stitched the more money earned.
      Can you imagine find a "visitor" in your sandwich? Lunch "pails" or "buckets" were the early versions of metal lunchboxes or insulated bags used today.
      Notice the sewing machines used to stitch the shoes. Sewers quickly learned to keep their fingers away from the sharp needles, which could easily stitch through a finger.

Discussion:
1. Check your shoes. Do they have sewed or glued "uppers"?
2. How did these machines change the shoe industry?
3. Why do you think this was a job which employed women?

Cutting Last Blocks, Island Falls
(Patten Lumberman's Museum)

Here's a business that is no longer required by the Nikes and New Balance and Reeboks we put on our feet today. Shoes used to be assembled over wooden last blocks-pieces of hardwood carved to the shape of feet, in all their various sizes, and in right and left shapes by 1900. Rock maple was hard and resisted splitting, and it was the favored wood for last blocks. It's also heavy, so most last-block cutting operations were located near a railroad.
      There were many jobs to be done while on a last-block operation such as this one near Island Falls in 1910. The choppers cut and retrieved the maple. The hardest workers were the "bark pounders," who knocked the bark off the logs. The barked logs were cut into precisely measured sections by a horse- or an engine-powered drag saw. The sawed sections were rolled out to a circle of chippers by two men called rousers. The chipper held his ax where he wanted to make a split, and the rouser hit it with his maul. The rouser moved from chipper to chipper in the circle. The splitter roughly shaped the blocks with a specially made hatchet.
      On average, a chipper could make 400 blocks a day, working from dawn to dusk. Most men worked very long hours and made about a dollar a day, plus board. Maine last-block companies used to ship hundreds of thousands of last blocks each year, but changes in shoe manufacturing have now made them obsolete. Have you ever seen a wooden shoe last in an antique store or museum and wondered what that wooden foot was used for?

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Much of the shoe manufacturing business that provided employment in Maine from the early 1900s well into the 1960s no longer exists. However, if you live in or near a town where such a factory operated you probably have seen boxes of maple lasts at flea markets, yard sales, or stored in attics or basments. These hardwood shoe molds were an important product from the Maine woods.

Discussion:
1. Why were so many lasts needed as the shoe industry grew?
2. When shoes were totally hand made, no lasts were used. Why?
3. What types of materials were used to make shoes? How has that changed?
4. Why has much of the shoe industry moved away from Maine?
5. How many shoe factories still exists in Maine?

Activities:
1. Research a Maine shoe manufacturer. If the business still exists, how has it changed since its beginnings? Your research might include: writing a letter to the firm requesting information about the history of the business; photos; field trip to the factory; inviting a representative to school; interviewing workers and/or former workers. From the information, the class could create a display showing the history of the firm.
2. Take a survey: How many pairs of shoes do you own; how many in your household? Graph your household shoes by type or cost or materials or place of manufacture. Create a class graph showing this information. One graph might show only the place of manufacture. How many shoes are from the United States? How many are from other countries? Which countries?
3. Try to locate a cobbler. Invite him/her to school to talk about how shoes are repaired and which shoes cannot be repaired.

Pattern Makers, Portland (Maine State Museum)

These men are pattern makers in the early 1890s at the Portland Stove Foundry, where cast-iron furnaces, ranges, and parlor heaters were made. Men who worked as pattern makers were extremely skilled craftsmen. Working from drawings, they carved exact wooden patterns for each piece that went into making a cast-iron stove. As you can see from the photograph, these stove parts were quite ornate.
      When the wooden patterns had been made, it was then time to make the actual stove parts. In a special frame, very fine, sticky molding sand called "green sand" was tamped around the pattern on one side to receive an exact impression of that side-it picked up every detail. Then a top was placed over the frame and the whole thing was carefully flipped over so that the same thing could be done on the other side. Next, the two sides of the frame were very carefully separated so that the wooden pattern could be removed without disturbing the sand. Then the two halves were put back together, and molten metal was poured through a special opening into the space where the pattern had been, to make the casting. If you have items in your home that are made out of cast metal, you can sometimes find a mark on them where the two halves of the mold came together.
      Other Maine stove foundries were located at Biddeford, Auburn, Waterville, and Bangor. The Portland Stove Foundry continued operation until the 1970s.

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The intricate patterns carved by the pattern makers are true works of art. Before central heating, most parlors held an ornate wood stove. Even the potbellied stoves found in train stations or general stores had molded trimmings or words.

Discussion:
1. Do some homes today have these pretty stoves? Do you think they are made the same way?

Activity:
1. Take an inventory of items in the classroom, or at home, that are cast out of metal.
2. Students can design a casting project, using modeling clay to take an impression of an object, figuring out a mold design so that it can be taken apart to releast the casting without breaking, using plaster of paris instead of molten metal, and finding a release agent that will keep the plaster of paris from sticking to the mold.

A Waterville-Area Foundry, Probably in the 1890s
(Maine Historic Preservation Commission)

There is a pile of green sand at the feet of the man with the shovel on the far left. The clamped wooden frames each contain a hollow sand mold, waiting for a pour of molten iron.

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The foundry was another difficult place to work. Since there was no electricity for air conditioning, temperatures inside the foundry were very hot. Skill was needed to create molds as well as to pour the molten iron or other metal.
      Again we see wood as a necessary part of manufacturing, both for frames and molds, as well as casks in which to transport the green sand aboard ships.

Discussion:
1. Look around your classroom. Are there any articles which might have been cast at a foundry?
2. Check at home. Are there article at home which might have been cast at a foundry?
3. How do you think this work has changed?
4. What labor-saving devices could be (or are) used today?

Activities:
1. Research a company or foundry that pours molten metal into molds. How do they heat the metal? What are they making?
2. Check the cupboards at home. Look for a "cast" iron skillet or other cooking pot. How do you think "cast-iron" pots or pans are made?
3. Research Waterville area history and learn about the immigration of French-speaking people from Canada. Why did they come to Maine? Did they stay? Explain your conclusions.
      Resource Franco-American Center at the University of Maine, Orono. Quiet Presence by Dyke Hendrickson (Guy Gannett Publishing) is an excellent resource about the migration of French Canadians into the Waterville/Lewiston Area.

Dunn Edge Tool Company, Oakland
(Maine Historic Preservation Commission)

Oakland was once the largest producer of axes and scythes in the United States and possibly in the world. It was also a leading consumer of grindstones! One of its three tool manufacturers, the Dunn Edge Tool Company, made what seems to be the world's largest scythe, a thirteen-foot monster designed to cut lily pads in Lily Pond. Rockport, so that the pond would continue to produce its prized blue-tinted ice in the wintertime. Other businesses in Oakland at the turn of the century were a woolen mill, foundry and machine shop, agricultural tool and threshing machine manufacturer, carriage and chairmaking shops, and a sawmill. Are any of these businesses still there? It's easy to understand why scythes are no longer in great demand: mowers and weed-whackers!

Water-Powered Triphammers, Oakland
(Maine State Museum)

These giant hammers were used to shape hot metal into scythes and axe and hatchet heads. A visitor to Oakland in 1883 described the sound of the triphammers as one approached the village as being like "the pattering of hail upon a tin roof." Inside the factory, it must have been deafening.

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The Dunn Edge Tool Company must have been a noisy place to work as pieces of steel bar were heated and then hammered into shape. The huge, water-powered trip hammers must have made a tremendous din. It's strange that none of the employees in the picture hold scythes or axes, though several grindstones can be seen.

Discussion:
1. Who do you suppose were the leading buyers of scythes? Axes?
2. Why have scythes become obsolete?
3. What famous symbol holds a scythe?
4. Besides the blades and ax heads, what material was needed for handles for axes and scythes?
5. Before tool factories, who made axes and scythes?

Activity:
1. Look at tools in a hardware store, or at home. Can you tell which ones have been "forged (heated and hammered into shape) and which ones have been cast in a foundry?

Brickmaking, Newcastle (Maine State Museum)

These men at Bryant's brickyard, probably in the 1890s, have removed their hats before posing for this photograph. Why do you think the men are barefoot? (They didn't just take their shoes off for this photo.)
      The basic recipe for making bricks was: 1) Find a place with a good deposit of clay soil; 2) Scrape and dry the clay; 3) Mix the clay with water; 4) Using molds or forms, shape the "green" bricks; 5) Place the bricks on a flat surface to harden, sprinkling them with sand to protect them from the sun; 6) Build the bricks into a multi-arched kiln, forming their own furnace; 7) Burn fires in the arches for a week or so to harden the bricks.
      The Hobbs mud machine was horsepowered when this photo was taken. You can see how its shaft is attached to the horse's collar. The "machine" used turning knives to mix the clay with water, and then emptied the clay into a press box holding a six-brick mold. The men are holding some of these molds in the photograph.
      Brickmaking was hard work. The "pit man" kept the box filled with clay, kept the water box full, and lobbed clay at the old horse whenever it lagged. The tender shoveled up to four tons of wet clay per hour, while the two "strikers" molded and carried away the bricks. At a brickyard in Brewer, three men working for six hours produced 13,000 bricks, weighing 78,000 pounds. For this they would have been paid $40-60 per month, plus room and board.
      Why do you think brickmaking was only done in good weather?

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Many of the cities and towns in Maine, as well as in other states, have brick buildings built in the 1800s. Bryant's Brickyard in Newcastle produced many bricks from light-colored clay, which turned red when baked. In earlier times, the clay for bricks was mixed by having oxen tramp through it. The invention of the Hobbs mud machine helped mechanize brick-making and made the whole process more efficient. Again we see men using horse-power to help with their daily work.

Discussion:
1. Why do you think the men are barefoot? (Remember that shoes were not as easy to obtain as they are today.)
2. Why were the bricks sprinkled with sand when they set them out to dry?
3. If the output for 22 brickyards was 11,000,000 bricks, what was the average yield per brick yard?
4. The pit box tender shoveled up to four tons of wet clay per hour for six hours. How much clay did he shovel in one day?

Activities:
1. Take a walk around your town. How many brick buildings are there? Visit your historical society and check the age of several of the buildings.
2. Research how are bricks made today? Are any bricks still made in Maine?
3. Invite a mason to school to talk about building with bricks.

The Schooner, Omaha, of Bucksport
(Captains Douglas K. and Linda Lee)

She is probably leaving Boston before a summer sou'wester, after delivering a cargo of brick from the Penobscot, likely in the 1890s. She is likely returning with a cargo of feed grain.
      A cargo of brick was often topped with baled hay or empty fish barrels. Brick was moved by brigade, tossed man to man. Four bricks were tossed at the same time, two to a hand, and caught as four. Men working brick fell into a rhythm and could-indeed, daily did-continue all day.
      Starting about 1760, Boston was the chief market for Maine bricks. Clay around Boston was of poor quality and not found near the surface. Maine clay was conveniently located, worked well, burned to a beautiful color, and could be cheaply burned and transported. In 1885 Maine brickyards exported 50 million bricks, mostly in small schooners like this one, and used 43 million bricks at home.

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Activities:
1. If a schooner could hold 30,000 bricks per load, how may schooners were needed to transport bricks to Boston in 1885, when Maine exported 50 million bricks?
2. Using brick-sized pieces of wood (foam blocks would be safer, but too light to toss efficiently), try passing bricks the way they were loaded on board ship. See if students can pass four bricks without dropping them. (Try two teams and see who could finish first.)
3. Take a walk through your town. See how many brick buildings are still standing. Estimate how many bricks it would take to build one of the buildings.
4. Try to determine where the bricks for one of these buildings were made. You might have to make a good guess, or old photos or your historical society might have the answer.

Paving-Block Cutters, North Jay
(Maine Historic Preservation Commission)

In 1895 there were 153 active granite quarries in Maine, but today the people restoring the Maine State House are having trouble getting Maine granite to use for repairs! Maine's granite quarries produced granite for buildings and roads, bridges and walls. Granite paving blocks from Maine went to St. Louis, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and elsewhere, but the greatest market was New York City. This quarry in North Jay, shown in the 1890s, produced as many as one million paving blocks a year!
      The widespread use of paving blocks for city streets didn't come until after the Civil War. In Maine, Bangor had no paved streets until 1882, and Rockland's notoriously muddy Main Street, supposedly once navigated by a rowboat, was not paved until the 1890s.
      As you might imagine, cutting paving blocks was hard work. You had to be strong enough to use a 26-pound hammer all day, and you had to know how to "read" a stone so that your hammer blows would break it in the right places.

Stone Columns on Vinalhaven (Jay Historical Society)

These polished granite columns at the Bodwell Granite Company's shipping wharf on Vinalhaven Island were going to be sent to Chicago to be used in building a courthouse. They would travel by ship to Portland, and then by train to Chicago. Granite was used for many large buildings. Do you know what granite looks like? Have you seen it used in old buildings? The development of concrete and steel framing for buildings, and macadam for roads, spelled the end of the granite industry.

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Are there any old quarries in your area? Can you imagine a time when Maine had 153 working granite quarries? It seems impossible, yet is true. Maine provided paving stones for much of the East Coast and even beyond. If you look closely at the paving block photo, you can see a block and tackle rig. Does this remind you of the stone-wall-building device? Horse-power is also in evidence, a team pulling a cart load of blocks.

Discussion:
1. How did Maine's seacoast geography help to distribute Maine granite to far away places?
2. Besides strength, what skill was critical for a paving block cutter?
3. Why was sand used as a polishing agent for the pillars?

Activities:
1. List some of the uses for granite.
2. Take a walk around your town. Notice where granite is used. Be watchful--some old brick buildings may have granite sills, cornerstones, or lintels.
3. Men had to be very strong to swing a twenty-six-pound hammer. Tie a twenty-six pound weight to the end of a handle and try and swinging it. Be sure you pick a safe place for this, with other students out of the way.
4. Divide the class into teams. Assign each team a state or city such as Maine, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, etc. Choose a famous granite building or monument within each location. Try to determine if the granite used for the building or monument originated in Maine.
5. Invite a person who works with granite--perhaps from a company that makes tombstones or kitchen counters--to come to class and talk about his/her work, the polishing, engraving, etc.

Stonecarvers Work on "Faith" at the Hallowell Granite Works
(Maine Historic Preservation Commission)

  "Faith" was a thirty-six-foot statue, one of a series of five, commissioned by the National Monument in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The stones that constituted "Faith" weighed 400 tons in the rough. Mostly Spaniards and Italians were hired to carve the statues. Theoretically, one wrong stroke of the hammer could ruin a statue, but the carvers filled in any mistakes with a homemade filler compound.

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Activities:
1. Are there statues in your town? Research where the stone came from, and where the statues were made.

Sardine Cutters, Eastport (National Archives)

In 1907 at least 200 children, half under the age of fourteen, were employed in Eastport and Lubec factories, primarily as cutters. This photo, taken about 1880, shows cutters using large knives to quickly and carefully cut the heads off of herring, leaving the guts attached, and then cut off the tails. Cutters were paid by piecework. Daily pay tickets could be redeemed at the factory office on Saturday, or on any day at the local candy counters and grocery stores.
      While Maine law prohibited the employment of children under fourteen in factories, no age restrictions applied for factories dealing in perishable goods. Many families depended on their children's seasonal income at fish- and vegetable-canning factories. Cutting fish or husking corn for several hours a day could hardly be compared with long days spent in coal mines or cotton mills.

Packing Sardines, Eastport (National Archives)

Women pack sardines in an Eastport factory, about 1880. The pipes over the tables are for gas lighting. One visitor wrote: "Never having seen this delicacy prepared for the market, I obtained leave to inspect one of the factories; and if what I saw there be a fair sample...then I can truthfully say that the desire to taste these toothsome little fishes again was then and there eradicated."

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Canning sardines or herring occupied many hands in Maine at the turn of the twentieth century. Like corn husking, sardine packing employed mostly women and children. Some packers used scissors to snip heads and tails rather than knives. In some communities where sardine canneries were located, the local fairs would hold sardine-packing contests rewarding the fastest packers. The contest was a sight to behold, the women's fingers moving so quickly they were almost a blur.

Discussion:
1. Notice the containers in the photos. Do they look familiar?
2. Count the number of children working in the photo of the sardine cutters.

Activities:
1. Divide the class into teams. Assign one research question to each team.
      A. Are sardines still harvested off the coast of Maine?
      B. Are there any sardine canneries left in Maine?
      C. What is the difference between cottonseed oil and olive oil?
      D. How are cans made today? Are the same materials used?
      E. Are sardine/herring as plentiful as they were in 1890-1920?
2. Have a sardine-tasting party. Try sardines in oil, mustard sauce, tomato based sauces - whatever the grocery store offers. Bon appetit!

Fish Grinders on Vinalhaven
(Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society)

Grinding refuse fish at the Vinal Haven Glue Company had to be as awful a job as sorting dirty rags all day.

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Can you imagine shoveling fish into grinders all day? The odor must have made this job equally unpleasant as sorting rags. Fish scales used to be used as the "glitter" in some make-up. Today most make-up has replaced fish scales with a synthetic.

Activities:
1. Collect several different types of glue. Check the labels. Do any include fish as an ingredient?
2. Can you think on any other use for ground-up fish?

Loading herring onto a Schooner-Rigged Sardine Carrier at Castine, Possibly 1907
(Maine Historic Preservation Commission)

The man kneeling in the center is adding salt to the fish as they slide down a scale-spattered shoot into the hold. The salt helped preserve the fish.

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Loading herring looks like a slippery business, akin to grinding fish, perhaps.

Discussion:
1. Think about the difficulty of fishing at night in order for the canneries to have fish ready to can at dawn.
2. Why does salt help preserve foods?
3. What other foods are preserved with salt?
4. What labor-saving devices changed the nature of herring fishing?
5. What is the difference between seining and trapping fish in weirs?
6. How are herring prepared for sale in today's super markets?

Activity:
1. Research how herring scales were used to make artificial pearls for jewelry.
2. Read The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell, or The Pearl by John Steinbeck. How did a single pearl change a community?

Sorting Lobsters on the Wharf at Rockland
(Maine Historic Preservation Commission)

Can you believe that early indentured servants in Maine went on strike to protest eating lobster? Lobsters were abundant in colonial times in coastal communities and sold for about two cents per pound, providing cheap food for the servants. When lobster graduated to its present state as a luxury food, demand often exceeded supply. Lobsters harvested in the Gulf of Maine are among the best tasting in the world because of the minerals present in the water as well as the water's extremely cold temperatures. Today, lobstermen have many rules and regulations which govern their catches. Lobsters the size of those in the pictures are no longer legal harvest.

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Discussion:
1. How are lobsters harvested?
2. Has lobstering changed since this 1913 photo was taken?
3. What equipment is necessary to harvest lobsters?
4. Canning lobsters of all sizes used to be a big business in Maine, but in the late 1800s lobster shortages caused this business to decline. Why do you think a "berried" or egg-bearing lobster must be returned to the water nowadays?

Activities:
1. Invite a lobsterman to school to talk about his/her work.
2. Find out the legal size for lobsters.
3. What kinds of legislation are in place to prevent over-fishing?
4. Have a lobster fest.
5. Invite a person from the Department of Marine Fisheries to your class to talk about lobstering.
6. Make a lobster buoy that is exclusively yours. Why do you think a lobster buoy must clearly indicate its owner?
7. Create a lobster cookbook with favorite lobster recipes.

Shipwrights in Thomaston, 1900
(Captains Douglas K. and Linda Lee)

Many ship timbers were shipped to Maine ship builders from Virginia. During the Civil War, operations shifted to Delaware. Eventually more wood for ships was harvested in northern Maine and Canada.

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Discussion:
1. Why was wood for ships not obtained in Virginia during the Civil War?
2. Why was hardwood preferred for building ships?

Toothpick Factory, Strong
(Maine Historic Preservation Commission)

Workers at Charles Forster's toothpick factory in 1897. Mr. Forster first saw natives using wooden toothpicks on a trip to South America, and he sent a sample box home to his wife in Strong, who showed them around. Before that time, people used goose quills for toothpicks. Soon Mr. Foster had orders for more, especially from hotels. He set up a factory in Strong, and machinery was developed to peel blocks of wood into long, thin ribbons-an eight-inch block of wood could produce a ribbon ninety feet in length. These ribbons were cut into toothpicks, which were moved by pitchfork into the sun to dry like hay, and then sorted and packed by hand.
      One year, Mr. Forster sold 30,000 cases of 250,000 toothpicks each. Can you do the math? He was said to make three-fifths of all the wooden toothpicks made in the United States.
      Mr. Forster used about a thousand cords of birch and poplar a year for his toothpicks, but other companies in the area also made wooden specialty items. J. W. Porter in Strong made white-birch clothespins, maple croquet sets, and ash baseball bats. (Willow was the favorite wood for bats, but in those days the supply was limited due to competition from manufacturers of articifical legs.) Other companies nearby made chairs, desks, sleighs, carts, wagons, wheelbarrows, spools, and other goods from hardwood.
      Forster Manufacturing is still making toothpicks today and is the world's largest producer of toothpicks.

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If you've ever dropped a box of toothpicks and had to pick them all up, it makes you wonder about the days when toothpicks were all packed in little boxes by hand! The toothpick industry in Maine is another example of Yankee ingenuity. Labor-saving devices were quickly developed to aid in the manufacture and packing of toothpicks. What a sight it must have been to see a pile of toothpicks (as large as a haycock) drying in the sun. I wonder what happened if it rained?

Discussion:
1. Why are toothpicks still so popular?
2. What are some other uses for toothpicks (besides picking teeth) can you think of?
3. Why were things like toothpicks, spools, chairs, dowels, and other hardwood items made in Western Maine?

Activities:
1. Write a letter to the Forster Manufacturing Company. Brainstorm what information you would like to know - for example - what wood is used today? How many toothpicks are produced per year? How many types of toothpicks does the company make (flat, round, etc.)
2. If you live within a reasonable distance, arrange a visit to the factory or to another factory manufacturing wood products.
3. Create a toothpick sculpture.
4. Research why large areas of western Maine ended up with birch forests instead of softwoods. What manufacturers in western Maine still use a lot of birch wood?

Moosehead Woolen Mill at East Wilton
(Maine Historic Preservation Commission)

Workers at the Moosehead woolen mill in East Wilton, likely in the 1880s. Other businesses nearby were Hiram Holt's "Lightning" hay-knife manufactory and another farm equipment manufacturer, sawmills and grist mills, the Ranger Brother's veneer mill, a corn shop, a coffin and furniture factory, a carriage shop, a canning factory, a can shop, Bass's shoe shop, a harness shop, and a tannery.

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East Wilton was a manufacturing town well before the turn of the twentieth century. Manufactured cloth gradually replaced the woven goods made by women in their homes. Many women followed the work to the factories.

Discussion:
1. What raw product is needed for the production of wool?
2. Are there many sheep farms in Maine today?
3. What other product is made from wool?
4. What is the difference between a weaver and a spinner?
5. Where is woolen cloth made today?

Activities:
1. Invite a weaver to school to demonstrate weaving techniques.
2. Invite a spinner to school to demonstrate how to draw fibers into yarn. Learn about the peculiar qualities of wool fiber.
3. Learn to knit and/or weave.

The Fourdrinier Paper Machine, Rumford Falls
(Maine Historic Preservation Commission)

When paper was made from rags, the wet pulp made from ground-up rags was dipped from a vat into sieves and distributed evenly over fine-screen mesh. After draining, the film of pulp was removed to a cloth, then pressed and dried. If you've ever made your own recycled paper, the process is similar.)
      The installation of the new Fourdrinier "monster" machine at Rumford Falls was considered a paper-making triumph. The largest paper-making machine in the country, made paper out of cheap wood pump, producing 500-600 feet of paper per minute: "That which is to become paper in the course of a minute or so, comes into one end of the great machine in the form of a liquid hardly thicker than watery gruel.... This thin paste commences to whirl around rollers and over the slippery bottoms of slick troughs, and then whizzes around the calendars.... In and on its goes and then at last, magically transformed in its headlong rush through the machine, it pours out at the end of the apparatus perfected paper...presto!"

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Papermaking remains one of Maine's key industries, with mills still operating from Westbrook to Madawaska. A wide variety of paper goods is produced in Maine from writing paper to paper plates, to brown paper bags.
      Different processes are also used. You can usually tell when you get close to sulfite mill. The air is redolent of sulfur, a smell which would compete easily with fish grinding for worse stink.

Discussion:
1. List some of the many uses for paper.
2. What type of paper can be recycled?
3. What goods can be produced from recycled paper?
4. What Maine resource is gobbled up by the paper industry?

Activities:
1. Write to an operating paper mill. Request information about their operation, such as what type of process does the mill use; how many employees; what product does the mill produce, etc.?
2. Make paper as a class project. (Paper from Crabtree Publishing is an excellent resource from the Craft Workshop series.)
3. Research the chemicals used in paper making, such as sulfur, caustic soda (which can cause serious burns on contact) hypochlorate of lime, etc. How do these chemicals affect the environment?
4. Research the rate at which Maine's forests are supplying wood for the paper industry. Are there any laws which control the cutting of trees for the paper industry? Do Maine forests need the protection of the law? Why or why not?
5. Invite a professional forester to school to speak to the class about cutting forests for paper.
6. If you live within a reasonable distance from a paper mill, write to the mill and request a tour or a visit from a person who can explain the papermaking process.