Mount Desert Island

Annually, Mount Desert Island attracts over three million visitors to Acadia National Park, where lofty mountains, balsam-scented forests, and Maine's granite-lined coast enchant all. Almost bisecting the island is Somes Sound, a Norwegian-style fiord with three villages, Somesville, Southwest Harbor, and Northeast Harbor, nestled around its shores. In the 1850s, about two thousand residents made this pristine area their home, living off the sea and land with few visitors. By World War I, Mount Desert Island had become a destination for summer tourists. Mount Desert Island, with more than two hundred photographs selected from eleven collections, illustrates the transition of Somesville, Southwest Harbor, and Northeast Harbor as they evolved from isolated fishing and shipbuilding hamlets to meccas for Victorian summer visitors, a Who's Who of academia and theology. These images, some of them dating back to the Civil War era, bring to life the people, places, and events that form the history of these communities. From dignitary visits, such as that of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to carefree buckboard rides, Mount Desert Island demonstrates the broad range of rustic experiences and the complex lives of islanders as they forged their living in a changing economy. Both new and old visitors will recognize many of the images, though some will surprise all as they show places that no longer exist.