The inside cover includes Bertie’s hand-written name.

Working Waterfront

Dear diary: 140-year-old journal returns home

Bertie married Fred Hatch and moved to East Boston, where she had three children: Grace, Robert, and Seth Parker. Fred passed away around 1895 due to “phthisis pulmonalis,” known today as tuberculosis. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Education, Native status, domestic violence

High quality education To the editor: I read Kim Hamilton’s “From the Sea Up” column in the October issue, “Rewriting the storyline of island schools” (a great title), with much interest. I wholeheartedly agree with her observation that “Schools play an undeniable role in the ecosystem of a thriving island… SEE MORE

Matthew Powell, left, and George Trinovitch own and operate the Pentagöet Inn in Castine. PHOTO: COURTESY PENTAGÖET INN

Working Waterfront

Welcoming tourists, joining the community

The lodging trade group Hospitality Maine named Powell and Trinovitch its innkeepers of the year for 2023. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The year of the working waterfront

When Island Institute began publishing this newspaper, The Working Waterfront, 30 years ago, we picked our name with intention. We wanted to cover local, critical, and the sometimes hidden yet prescient stories that spoke to the economy, politics, and culture on Maine’s islands and coasts. No other mental image quite… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The sad tale of a religious charlatan

He must have been charismatic. He must have been passionate. And he must have been persuasive. The open question is whether or not his faith was sincere. The late 19th century was an era now known by religious scholars as the Third Great Awakening, a period when Christians expected the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Navigating 2024

What challenges will 2024 bring to the Maine coast, and how will leaders respond? SEE MORE

Swan's Island summer scene. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

History in the flesh

Reflections is written by Island Institute Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. The steamboat went away during World War II. Randy was five. Now, at 87 years old, he has more… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Community connections often rely on internet

It’s not your grandmother simply knowing how to hop on Facebook to swap recipes, it’s her being able to create a health profile and schedule... SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A circuitous Mayflower connection

This is a remarkably coincidental and clearly destined love story resulting from the very diverse and circuitous travels of nine descendant generations of two Mayflower passengers, emerging, finally, 300 years later, in parallel. The Mayflower arrived in what is now Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod on Nov. 11, 1620. On board… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Incandescent yellows and shades of brown

At our October book group meeting, before our discussion of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, one of the members who attended from Pennsylvania via Zoom asked us, “What is the island like right now?” Several people mentioned the rain we’ve had every weekend, and we all compared temperatures from our… SEE MORE