Unobskey scrapbook, Calais, 1920-1950
Item 102728 info
Maine Historical Society
The Unobskeys were in business from 1911 to the late 1970s. By 1958, they were the largest taxpayer and employer in Calais, and are credited with reviving the economy of the town.
The scrapbook, made from a repurposed clothing sample book, details the Unobskey’s retail, recreational, political, and civic accomplishments. It also documents their commitment to Jewish heritage in their adopted home of Calais. Arthur Unobskey’s work with the Passamaquoddy Tidal power project, and bringing President Franklin Roosevelt to Calais for the “President’s Birthday Ball” in 1941, occupy much of the scrapbook.
Some of the remembrances include reports of events leading up to, and during, World War II. The Holocaust and freedom to practice Judaism as Americans was never far from the Unobskey’s psyche. In 2009, Sidney Unobskey recalled,
“When I was three and a half, the Nazis arrived in Snovsk, the home of my grandparents. In January of 1942, they took out ‘a few dozen’ Jewish children and shot them. Some were probably my age. Some were probably my cousins.”
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