Making Paper- Trees


Spruce stand, MacMahan Island, 1957

Spruce stand, MacMahan Island, 1957
Item 100557   info
Westport Island History Committee

Pictured is a typical spruce stand (25-35 cords per acres) on MacMahan Island before a managed clear cutting operation. The lumber was cut by Westport Island sawmill owner, Edwin Cromwell under the supervision of Pejepscot Paper Company forester Linwood Rideout.

The year-plus operation combined clear-cut patches and a fire lane spanning the width of the island. Cromwell's loggers stayed on the island a week at a time, going home to Westport on the weekends.

The harvested lumber was boomed to Westport Island across Goose Rocks passage at the mouth of the Sheepscot River and transported to the paper company in Topsham for processing.

Thinning in white pine stand on farm, Sagadahoc County, 1938

Thinning in white pine stand on farm, Sagadahoc County, 1938
Item 101037   info
National Archives at Boston

The U.S. Forest Service documented the thinning of a white pine stand on a farm. Thinning, or the selective removal of trees, is conducted to improve the growth rate and health of the remaining stand of trees.

N.M. Francis and his wife in a canoe, ca. 1912

N.M. Francis and his wife in a canoe, ca. 1912
Item 80716   info
Abbe Museum

This image is of N.M. Francis and his wife in a birchbark canoe. Birchbark canoes were the primary means of travel for the Wabanaki for thousands of years, and the traditional craft of making them has been revitalized in recent years.

According to William A. Haviland in Down East Maine, for the Wabanaki, the canoe was the equivalent of today's pickup truck. Because of this, birchbark canoes greatly ranged in both length and weight depending on where and what they were used for.

Model birchbark canoe, 1936

Model birchbark canoe, 1936
Item 23498   info
Hudson Museum, Univ. of Maine

Passamaquoddy Indian Sebattis Tomah, son of well-known birchbark artist Tomah Joseph, made this canoe and decorated it with motifs common to his father's work.

Miniature canoe, ca. 1893

Miniature canoe, ca. 1893
Item 80755   info
Abbe Museum

While this, turn of the century, etched model canoe is not signed, the animals and plants depicted on it are virtually identical to those on log carriers made by Joe Nicholas that are in the Abbe Museum's collection.

Since the 19th century there have been several Joe Nicholas' in the Passamaquoddy community. It is unknown which Joe Nicholas may have done this work. However, often work that is most likely to be by Nicholas can be found attributed to, the more famous Passamaquoddy birchbark artist, Tomah Joseph.

Wabanaki encampment, Bar Harbor, ca. 1887

Wabanaki encampment, Bar Harbor, ca. 1887
Item 80702   info
Maine Historic Preservation Commission

Tents behind Ells’ Store in the Bar Harbor Indian encampment when it was situated along Eddy Brook between the shore and Eden Street, from around 1887.

Wabanaki Indians (especially Passamaquoddies and Penobscots) came to Mount Desert Island seeking relief from the confines of reservation life, along with the economic opportunities presented by a popular resort. For them, the island was a familiar place long frequented by their ancestors for fishing, hunting, and gathering. No longer able to survive solely on the old lifeways, Wabanakis began to market their traditional arts, crafts, and canoeing skills to rusticators who visited their tented encampments. At its peak, in 1885, Bar Harbor’s summer Indian village at the foot of Holland Avenue was home to 250 Wabanakis.

The location of the Bar Harbor Indian encampment shifted over the years in response to real estate development and the Village Improvement Society’s concerns about the safety and sanitation of the makeshift village. The greatest number of images of the encampment were made when it was situated shoreside at the foot of Bridge Street, just east of the bar.

Act of Parliament, Portland, 1711

Act of Parliament, Portland, 1711
Item 100325   info
Tate House Museum

In 1711 Great Britain passed legislation that would forever change relations between the colonies and the Crown. The Act of Parliament ensured the "Preservation of White and other Pine Trees growing in Her Majesties Colonies of New Hampshire, the Massachusets-Bay, and Province of Main, Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantation, the Narraganset Country, or Kings-Province, and Connecticut in New-England, and New-York, and New-Jersey, in America, for the Masting Her Majesties Navy."

A published document of this type announced the new law to townspeople.

The 1711 Act, among other legislation, enabled the Crown to establish a political and economic monopoly of the mast industry, one of the region’s most lucrative natural resources. These laws became known as the Broad Arrow policies.

Eventually, Britain amended the act to also allow mast agents to procure suitable pines on private property. This became the source for bitter dispute in the years leading up to the American Revolution.

Bottle with King George's broad arrow mark, ca. 1812

Bottle with King George's broad arrow mark, ca. 1812
Item 26698   info
Maine Historical Society

This medicine bottle is marked with the broad arrow seal used to designate the property of King George (1660-1727) and the Royal Navy. The King's agents used the same seal to mark and identify white pine trees to be used for English ship masts.

The bottle was found on the Brig Boxer, which was involved in the September 1813 battle with the USS Enterprise off Monhegan Island during the War of 1812. The USS Enterprise won the battle, and both captains were killed.

Benning Wentworth grant for cutting white pines, Portsmouth, 1744

Benning Wentworth grant for cutting white pines, Portsmouth, 1744
Item 25386   info
Maine Historical Society

Benning Wentworth (1696-1770), Royal Governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1767, granted permission to Peter Staple and Toby to cut and haul white pine trees from Berwick township in Maine for the use of the King for masts, yards and bowsprits.

Jonathan Bayley letter to Joseph Hights, 1770

Jonathan Bayley letter to Joseph Hights, 1770
Item 10539   info
Maine Historical Society

Jonathan Bayley of Falmouth writes to Joseph Hights of Gorham, offering to cut trees that have been reserved for the king because they are in danger of falling due to nearby trees having been removed.

Mast shave, Warren, ca. 1856

Mast shave, Warren, ca. 1856
Item 15628   info
Davistown Museum

A mastshave is a large and heavy variety of the Carpenter's Drawing knife with a straight, flat blade used for trimming masts and spars.

James Mallet, who made this shave, worked in Warren from 1856-1871.

It is signed “MALLET CAST STEEL WARRANTED WARREN ME”

Size: 22 1/2” long, 15 3/4” blade.

Benning Wentworth grant for cutting white pines, Portsmouth, 1744

Benning Wentworth grant for cutting white pines, Portsmouth, 1744
Item 25386   info
Maine Historical Society

Benning Wentworth (1696-1770), Royal Governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1767, granted permission to Peter Staple and Toby to cut and haul white pine trees from Berwick township in Maine for the use of the King for masts, yards and bowsprits.

Receipt for mast supplies, Falmouth, 1770

Receipt for mast supplies, Falmouth, 1770
Item 25390   info
Maine Historical Society

Samuel Freeman signed a receipt to John Johnson Jr. for supplies for the mast business. An order for Johnson's work was signed by Edmund Wendell Esq.

Agreement for masts, bowsprits and yards, 1769

Agreement for masts, bowsprits and yards, 1769
Item 25391   info
Maine Historical Society

Edmund Wendell of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, signed an agreement with John Johnson, James Johnson, David Small, William Lamb, William Porterfield, Jesse Partridge and William Webb of Falmouth and Richard Mayberry of Windham to supply masts, bowsprits and yards.

The agreement sets the price Wendell will pay for the items and specifies that the wood "shall be found fit for his Majesty's use."

Pepperrell letter concerning ship damages, 1747

Pepperrell letter concerning ship damages, 1747
Item 22511   info
Maine Historical Society

William Pepperrell of Kittery wrote to Peregrine Thomas Hopson who was a British officer at Louisbourg, reporting on the damage from a violent storm to ships that had been involved in Pepperrell's successful battle against the French at Louisbourg.

Thomas Westbrook letter to William Pepperrell about ship masts, York, 1734

Thomas Westbrook letter to William Pepperrell about ship masts, York, 1734
Item 25387   info
Maine Historical Society

Thomas Westbrook of York, the King's mast agent charged with growing the colonial logging industry, wrote to William Pepperell mentioning the possibility of war with the Wabanaki Confederacy, and asking whether Pepperell wanted him to charter a vessel and ship a load of small masts.

Despite attempts at diplomacy and petitions by Wabanaki leaders to cease new settlements and forts in their Homelands, the English continued to colonize Maine, leading to a nearly continuous series of wars involving English, French, and Wabanaki Nations from 1675 to 1763. Wabanaki leader Polin led a 17 year-long dispute over the great dam that Thomas Westbrook was building, which blocked the vital fish runs on the Presumpscot River and compromised planting grounds.

Henry Clinton letter on Penobscot River fort, 1779

Henry Clinton letter on Penobscot River fort, 1779
Item 7475   info
Maine Historical Society

British General Sir Henry Clinton wrote this letter, probably to Brigadier General Frances McLean, on April 13, 1779 instructing him to send a detachment of troops to the Penobscot River area and erect a fort.

McLean was in charge of ground forces at Castine where the British hoped to establish a loyalist colony and where they built Fort George.

The letter is a transcribed copy from the original, which is at the Public Records Office and Royal Institution of Great Britain. Joseph Williamson of Belfast, Maine, had documents relating to the Penobscot Expedition transcribed between 1894 and 1902.

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