Working Waterfront

A radio reporter’s bad static

Where Gillian Burnes got the name “Coralie Threlfell” for the narrator of her novel, Soft Features, I don’t know. But it rings exactly true for a public radio reporter. SEE MORE

Gregory Dunham’s Eaton’s Boatyard, 2015; watercolor, 15 inches by 22½ inches (now in a private collection).

Working Waterfront

Gregory Dunham paints Eaton’s Boatyard

In 1980, inspired by friend and mentor, the famed lithographer Stow Wengenroth (1906-1978), painter Gregory Dunham and his wife-to-be Pat McGrath decided to go on a “pilgrimage” to some of the Maine towns the artist had frequented in his lifetime. From their home in Rockport, Mass., they drove straight to… SEE MORE

And aerial view of South Portland’s Cushing’s Point Shipyard which was in full production during World War II. PHOTO: MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

A working waterfront transformed by war

Maine can claim a lot of superlatives in terms of national shipbuilding. With about 20,000 vessels under its belt, Maine surpassed the output of states with major industrialized metropolitan areas for most of its history. Many of the shipyards and boatyards today have been the site of active shipbuilding for decades, if not a century or more, with their own claims to fame in innovation, size, or speed. In contrast there are also builders of significance that lasted a surprisingly limited amount of time and had a huge impact, like the yard pictured here. SEE MORE

A copy of "Monhegan Stories," courtesy Monhegan Museum of Art & History.

Working Waterfront

A Monhegan media montage, circa 1900

A story of romance. A list of plants. A mash-up of fact and fiction about Monhegan Island’s people and places circa 1900. These and more are what is within a handmade, leather-bound book that is now part of the Monhegan Museum of Art & History’s collection. The book of about… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Beyond the illusion

The Midcoast By Adam White (Random House Books, 2022) Review by Tina Cohen Adam White’s debut novel, The Midcoast, is set in Damariscotta, a town familiar to him from his childhood. This is contemporary Maine, with a close-up look at several families, including Andrew’s, who is the book’s narrator, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Remembering, reviving the musical ‘Islands’

Essay by Barney Hallowell//Photos by Amanda LaBell I wasn’t sure we could do it, or even should do it. Resurrecting Islands, the musical written by the late John Wulp of Vinalhaven and Cindy (now Cid) Bullens for its 20th anniversary had been on Waterman Community Center’s radar almost since its… SEE MORE

New and returning Island Fellows gathered for training recently in St. George. Front row, from left: Paige Atkinson, Hallie Lartius, Brianna Cunliffe, Melanie Nash, and Mia Colloredo-Mansfeld. Back row, from left: Kawai Marin, Katie Liberman, Olivia Lenfesty, Olivia Jolley, and Kaylin Wu. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

Island Fellows program welcomes new recruits

Since 1999, the Island Institute’s Island Fellows program has placed 145 college graduates in Maine’s coastal and island communities for two-year fellowships. Fellows are placed at host sites, including schools, nonprofit organizations, historical societies, libraries, and other areas to complete community-developed projects in areas such as town planning, education, marine… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The perils of love and lobstering

Maiden Cove: A Novel By Roy Knight (2020) Review by Dana Wilde Roy Knight grew up just about a stone’s throw from Maiden Cove, right on the channel into Portland Harbor between Cape Elizabeth and Cushing Island. As a teenager in the mid-1960s, he learned lobstering in that channel from… SEE MORE

A photograph composed and made by Carroll Thayer Berry shows a soon-to-vanish method of herring harvesting. PHOTO: PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

Harvesting the ‘fish that feeds all’

In this month’s image, Harlan Hurd sits in his dory wearing a ball cap and a heavy flannel jacket which is covered in fish scales. His son, Karl, stands at the other end of the dory wearing a jeff cap and an apron over his own flannel coat. They watch… SEE MORE

Eastport celebrates the Fourth of July in 2018.

Working Waterfront

Eastport, Lubec banking on the arts

At the end of June, I was lucky enough to visit Eastport and Lubec. I’ve been meaning to return since my first visit in 1996. Remembering hidden artist studios, downtown galleries, and a dynamic working waterfront drew me to plan a trip. As director of Archipelago, the Island Institute’s Rockland… SEE MORE