Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

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  MF046 Eastport History / Hugh French Collection

  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine

  In 1979-1980 Hugh French received a National Endowment for the Humanities "Youth Grant" to curate an exhibit on the history of the Eastport, Maine, waterfront, 1890-1920. Edward D. “Sandy” Ives of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History (now Maine Folklife Center) at the University of Maine acted as academic sponsor for this project. French subsequently worked with SALT, a documentary program in Portland, Maine, and founded the Tides Institute in Eastport, Maine.

  This collection includes twenty-eight interviews with thirteen Eastport residents, plus manuscript material collected as part of French’s research. In addition to the general history of Eastport, major topics discussed include the sardine industry and community holiday celebrations.

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  MF047 “Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project”

  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine

  A series of thirteen interviews, totaling twenty-four hours of recordings, conducted in 1973-1974 by David Taylor under contract for the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine, with fishermen from the Penobscot Bay region. Themes include equipment used and techniques; fisheries locations, species, and extent; dangers and satisfactions of the fisherman’s life; industry economics; family and community networks. Includes some photographs.

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  MF049 Penobscot River Commercial Fisheries Project / David Taylor

  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine

  This collection consists of a series of interviews conducted by David Taylor with eight fishermen about the commercial fisheries of the Penobscot River in Maine. Taylor interviewed men who fished for smelt, salmon, sturgeon, alewives, eels, and cod; also an eel wholesaler. Methods discussed include net fishing; weir fishing; and winter fishing. Towns discussed include Winterport; Frankfort; and Bangor.

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  MF050 Popular Music of Newfoundland Project Recording Dubs / Michael Taft & Shelley Posen

  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine

  Dubs of tapes on deposit at the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archives. Newfoundland Popular Music Project, sponsored by a grant from the Canadian Folk Music Society. RESTRICTED. Rights controlled by the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archives.

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  MF052 “Remnants of Our Lives: Maine Women and Traditional Textile Arts” Project & Exhibit

  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine

  "Remnants of Our Lives: Maine Women and Traditional Textile Arts" was an exhibition, sponsored and curated by the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History in collaboration with the Hudson Museum, the University of Maine's anthropology museum within the Maine Center for the Arts. The exhibition celebrated the skills, talent, and creativity of fifteen Maine women, representing the state's diversity of folklife communities, through a selection of textile objects, narrative texts based on oral history interviews with the artists, photographs, and interpretive panels.

  The exhibit focused on the theme of rites of passage, a motif which resonates through all of the narratives that were collected during the field research phase of the project; the textiles were presented as aesthetic expressions of life status changes. The project's advisory panel included University of Maine faculty, outside professionals associated with textiles and folk arts, as well as two traditional artists who contributed to the selection process.

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  MF053 Ricker College Student Folklore Papers

  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine

  Papers written by students enrolled in a folklore class at Ricker College (Houlton, Maine) taught by Gifford Stevens. Topics include jokes, home remedies, proverbs, ghost stories, games, folktales, superstitions, graffiti, and children's folklore.

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  MF055 American Thread Company / Russell Carey

  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine

  A collection of fourteen series deposited by University of Maine graduate student, Russell Carey between March, 1992 and November, 1993. The collection features videotaped and or audio interviews with workers at the American Thread Company's wooden spool mill in Milo, Maine, and contributed to research for Carey's Master's thesis entitled, "3,750,000,000 Perfect Wooden Spools" (University of Maine, 1994). The collective oral history of the mill's workers documents conditions, issues, history, occupational lore, and people's feelings about the mill from the 1930s through the 1960s.

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  MF056 Skinner Settlement Project

  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine

  A series of interviews about farm life in Maine at the turn of the twentieth century, conducted by students in Oral History and Folklore: Fieldwork in the fall of 1974. The interviewees discuss life at the Skinner Settlement in East Corinth, Maine; including house layouts, furnishings; farm buildings; machinery; clothing; and social customs.

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  MF057 History of the University of Maine Oral History Project / David Smith

  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine

  A series of interviews conducted by Shirley Tardiff for David C. Smith, a professor of history at the University of Maine, in 1971, about the history of the University of Maine in Orono. See Smith's book, The First Century: A History of the University of Maine, 1865-1965.

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  MF058 "Suthin" Project, 1976

  Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine

  Ten interviews totaling 23 hours conducted for a course at University of Maine taught by Edward D. "Sandy" Ives in 1976 about a pulpwood operation at Little Musquash Lake run by Grover Morrison. This project included the publication of Northeast Folklore: "Suthin," XVIII. These interviews were the basis of "Suthin:" It's the Opposite of Nothin': An Oral History of Grover Morrison's Wood's Operation at Little Musquash Lake, 1945-1947 (Northeast Folklore XVIII: 1977 ). Collection includes the text of the poem, "Suthin'"; other poems; information about daily work in the woods and with the portable sawmill; life in the woods camp; and notes, letters, sketches, and journals from the class's field trip to Little Musquash Lake.