Public
Presentation
Press Release –
May 2007
On June 14 at 6:30 pm at the Brewer Middle School Auditorium 5 Somerset Street in Brewer, the Maine Folklife Center will present their newly completed DVD entitled “The Writing on the Wall: Stories and Pictures from the Eastern Fine Paper Mill” and the students from the Brewer Middle School will present the results of their Save Our History project: "Mill Town - The Eastern Fine Paper Company and Brewer, Maine," a 20 minute documentary produced by student Sonia Biswas, with assistants Anthony Jackson, Jacob Joy, Rowan Bost, Wyatt Tulloss, and Olivia Cohen.
The DVD project, funded by the Maine Humanities Council, is a collaboration of the Maine Folklife Center, photographer Bill Kuykendall of the University of Maine’s New Media Department, and the City of Brewer. The DVD represents the culmination of more than two years of research into the history and culture of Brewer’s Eastern Fine Paper mill, which closed in January 2004. The Save Our History project compiles historic video footage with recent interviews with former employees, a historian and retailers and city officials.
“The Writing on the Wall”
was conceptualized by Dr. Pauleena MacDougall, Associate Director of the Maine
Folklife Center, in 2004, following a tour of the abandoned Brewer mill. “A few months
after the mill closed, I toured the mill with engineer Richie Smith, Brewer's
[then] Economic Development director Drew Sachs and photographer Bill
Kuykendall,” MacDougall said. “We were
especially intrigued with the signs, pictures and graffiti on the walls of the
mill. As I began planning the oral history project, I seized upon the phrase
‘the writing on the wall’ as a title for the project, partly because of the
pictures and partly because many former Eastern employees said they ‘could see
the writing on the wall,’ fearing that the mill would soon close.”
The purpose of the ongoing oral history project is to interview men and women formerly employed at Eastern Fine Paper to learn more about Maine’s pulp and paper industry in general, and the lives and culture of Eastern Fine Paper mill workers, specifically. Information gathered from these oral histories, coupled with historic and contemporary photographs of the mill, documents, drawings, and other materials, comprise the DVD and, MacDougall hopes, will become the basis of an exhibit in the future. The goal of the DVD and larger oral history project is to document the culture and history of the paper industry and its role in the community. Designed by Adam Kuykendall, the DVD includes:
· map of the mill
· historical timeline
· historic photographs, circa 1900 thru 2004
· photographs of the mill’s interior following its closure
· more than 30 typed interview transcripts
· video footage from several meetings with former Eastern employees
· audio interview with David Morrison, third generation papermaker at Eastern
· glossary of terms
The presentation is free and open to the public. Students from Brewer Middle School will be on hand to talk about their experiences of learning about the paper mill and its role in the community. Copies of the DVD will be available, and refreshments served. MacDougall and Stevens said, “We welcome everyone—former Eastern employees, students, parents, family, friends, neighbors—to come and show their support for local history and the hundreds of men and women from Eastern who, during the last century, produced some of the finest paper in the country.” For more information, please contact the Maine Folklife Center, (207) 581-1891 or the Brewer Middle School 989-8640.