old marble headstones, white house in distance

Island Journal

The Secret Soul of an Island Shoe

PHotos By Peter Ralston Its sole gouged with holes, the leather top cracked and ripped, the shoe, a woman’s, had been hidden in the west wall of an upstairs bedroom in our Gotts Island house. Nestled behind the plaster, it had endured Maine winters when the winds howled out of… SEE MORE

aerial view of Schoodic Peninsula, Maine

Island Journal

The Schoodic Story

Schoodic Point and its acres of pristine shoreline and deep woodlands dodged a bullet more than a century ago when plans by John Godfrey Moore to develop the pristine property were derailed by his premature death. Moore, the son of a Steuben sea captain, made his fortune in the telegraph… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Taking Stock of a Downeast River

Five degrees above zero and the wind peels northwest. Sky and river both black dark. Headlights shine in the small parking lot. The wind howls, rocks the truck. Out there in the headlight shine lies a slick mud bank and a river of churning brown water. Bobby Beal’s at the… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Othered: Displaced from Malaga

Daniel Minter uses his art as a tool for dialogue with his community. He is the co-founder and creative visionary of the Portland Freedom Trail, a system of granite and bronze markers that constitutes a permanent walking trail highlighting the people, places, and events associated with the anti-slavery movement in… SEE MORE

N.C. Wyeth painting of Black Rock, Monhegan Island, Maine

Island Journal

Maine Islands: Paintings From the Farnsworth Collection

Maine Islands Paintings From the Farnsworth Collection The Farnsworth Art Museum’s collection of approximately 15,000 works focuses on American art from the 18th century to the present, with a special emphasis on artists who have lived or worked in Maine. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the state has been both host… SEE MORE

old photo of hurricane damage shot from above

Island Journal

Is Maine Still Hurricane-Proof?

Is Maine Still Hurricane-Proof? By NANCY GRIFFIN The role weather plays in Maine life is as important as the sun rising–and far more likely to be talked about. On the coast, and especially on islands where life revolves around boats and ferries, knowing the weather in advance and preparing for… SEE MORE

aerial shot of dinghy floating along rocky coastline

Island Journal

Widow’s Island

Widow’s Island: A Curious Tale of Quarantine and Convalescence Yellow fever, mental illness, and war wounds treated on island off North Haven. By Carl Little Photos by WILLIAM TreVASKIS Back in the 1970s when I lived on Long Island, New York, I had occasion to take the ferry from Orient… SEE MORE

History

Island Journal

The Alluring and Enduring Maine Coast

The Alluring and Enduring Maine Coast Historic images from the Penobscot Marine Museum By Lisa Mossel Vietze The Penobscot Marine Museum’s photographic collection is vast — overwhelmingly vast . . . . . . Lucky for me, I had the privilege of working with Kevin Johnson, the museum’s photo archivist,… SEE MORE

Island Journal

The Summer of ’43, When Quakers Landed on Vinalhaven

The Summer of ’43, When Quakers Landed on Vinalhaven While World War II raged, urban teens visited a Maine island to work. BY HARRY GRATWICK By 1943, the World War seemed endless. The news carried stories of victories and defeats, liberation and slaughter. In February of that year, the German… SEE MORE

History

Woman sketching on a hill overlooking ocean

Island Journal

The Legacy of Ireland’s Great Blasket Island

A Community Unraveled: The Legacy of Ireland’s Great Blasket Island STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATHLEEN WALSH BUCHANAN The Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland, is a landscape of spare and emotive beauty. It is a rugged place of stone-walled fields climbing mountainsides to the limits of tillable land, where the… SEE MORE