WAYNE — The Wayne Historical Society will offer a program on “Wayne, Maine: The Postcard View” on Sunday, July 14.
Kevin Johnson, photo archivist for the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, will present “Wayne, Maine: The Postcard View; Selections from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company” at 3 p.m. at the Cary Memorial Library, 17 Old Winthrop Road. The slide show and talk will consist of the story of the postcard company as well as historical views of Wayne and neighboring towns.
The Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company was founded in 1909 in Belfast by Rudolph Herman Cassens. Cassens’ goal was to photograph small towns and rural areas from Maine to California, producing “real photo” postcards that would be valued for promoting tourism. His company produced over 50,000 glass plate negatives of New England and upstate New York between 1909 and 1947. The collection is full of historic businesses, family homes and local landmarks.
The images take viewers back in time to when the roads were still dirt, horse-drawn carriages outnumbered cars, coastlines were undeveloped and elms lined the streets.
The collection is now part of the archives of the Penobscot Marine Museum and continues to grow as more negatives that “escaped” from the collection are located and acquired. The Museum Photo Archive offers more than 100,000 images on the museum’s website: www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org.
Johnson’s talk will be preceded by the annual Wayne Historical Society business meeting at 2:30 p.m., followed by the presentation at 3.
The library is handicapped accessible and all are invited to attend the free program. For more information, call 207-685-3612 or visit http://www.cary-memorial.lib.me.us/.
Postcard from archivist Kevin Johnson.
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