With support from a Women In Curriculum summer research grant, Pauleena MacDougall, Associate Director of the
Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine assisted by Amy Stevens, graduate student in history conducted
a series of oral histories with women who work or used to work in the pulp and paper industry.
Georgia Pacific in Old Town and Eastern Fine Paper in Brewer papermills recently closed.
Other mills along the Penobscot River where women worked include Katahdin Paper Company (formerly Great Northern)
in Millinocket; Lincoln paper and tissue LLC in Lincoln, and International Paper Co,. in Bucksport.
The women interviewed talked about why they went to work in the paper industry, how they learned their jobs,
how they felt about their work, the challenges they faced as women workers in a male-dominated industry,
including issues of sexual harrassment and what has happened to them since they were laid off in the case of
Brewer and Old Town.
The website includes historical information as well, including photographs, timeline, bibliography, map,
floorplan, glossary and interpretive essays including description of our method and a historical sketch.
The project began May 1, 2006 and was completed September 30, 2006.
This web site has been created in order to facilitate use by students in a variety of classes.
The site includes transcripts and audio recordings of the interviews.
Photos of the workplace and the women interviewed have also been included.
A grant from the Women-in-Curriculum program supported library research, oral history research, the preparation
of materials and the development of this web site.
It is accessible to faculty and students on campus and to the public as well.
