Eastport, Maine - Sardine Canning & Child Labor

A blog reader recently sent me a link pertaining to the history of the sardine canning industry at Eastport, Maine. Eastport was once a bustling port and many New Brunswick roots connect via Maine towns such as Eastport, Lubec and Calais. In addition, Eastport was always a "rival" town for the sardine industry when compared to my home town of Blacks Harbour, which is now the only sardine cannery in North America (for how much longer, I am not sure). But the website www.morningsonmaplestreet.com offers more than a glimpse on the town's bygone industry, it always shines some light on a society norm for the earlier part of the last century: child labor. Joe Manning, the creator of the website, has used the photography collection of Lewis Hine (1874-1940), a famed photography from Maine, to help tell the story of the children in Hine's photos. Mr. Manning takes on the task to learn more on those children and brings back an intriguing stories and wonderful piece of history. Mr. Manning's work not only gives us insight into the history of child labor in our own community but also help provide snippets of family history for the descendants of those subjects that were in front of Mr. Hine's lens all those years ago. I particularly enjoyed the story on Minnie Thomas. Be sure to take a stroll over to www.morningsonmaplestreet.com

Newspaper Archives Online

I am sure that if you are reading this blog, you have spent more than a couple of hours scanning newspaper microfilm reels. You may be so details as to keep your own list of favorite newspaper microfilm reels, the dates they cover and where you can access them in a hurry! Up until the last decade, scanning old newspaper likely required spinning a reel or two at a library or archives.  Now a private Seattle-based company is providing access to hundreds of “small town” newspapers from across America. Small Town Papers (http://www.smalltownpapers.com) is leading the way to having many small, independent newspapers archived online. While the over 250 newspaper are from various parts of US (sorry no Canadian content yet), there is one particular newspaper section that may be of interest to those researching in New Brunswick, more specifically Charlotte County: “The Quoddy Times” which is still alive and well and still published in Eastport, Washington Co., Maine, can be found at http://qdy.stparchive.com/ There are a couple of great things about this website… it is free (ok, so you have a few nagging survey questions) and it is searchable. I must note however that their collection only represents a small portion of the Quoddy Times publication history as it only covers 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1975. Check it out!