Maine Perspective Front Page
New Book Offers Photographic Trip Down UMaine's Memory Lane
The first 75 years of the University of Maine are illustrated in a new pictorial history compiled by UMaine alumni Bob Briggs and Debra Wright.
The University of Maine contains more than 200 archival photos from Fogler Library's Special Collections and the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. It is produced by Arcadia Publishing, which features the Images of America series, chronicling the history of more than 600 communities in black and white photos.
One of the books in the Images of America series, Around Hallowell, was written by Briggs, a bookstore owner in Gardiner and correspondent for the Kennebec Journal for six years.
Briggs and Wright, his cousin, began work on the UMaine book last January. In Special Collections, they sorted through thousands of historical photos, winnowing out those that best represented the years 1865-1940 in five categories: beginnings, student life, campus views, sports, and events and organizations.
"Our goal was to get some of those beautiful old photos from the library out where people can see them," says Wright, who graduated from UMaine with a degree in English. "It was like making discoveries in grandmother's attic."
Wright has been a UMaine employee for the past 14 years, most recently in the MaineCard office. Despite the years spent at her alma mater, Wright says this project heightened her knowledge of UMaine history and the people who helped build it.
"I walk around campus now and look at the buildings differently, knowing more about the people for whom they're named," she says. "I have a lot more respect and admiration for the campus. The history gives the University buildings character."
Briggs and Wright took advantage of existing resources, including History of the Maine State College and the University of Maine by former UMaine's first president Merritt Fernald; The First Century: A History of the University of Maine, 1865-1965 by UMaine history professor David Smith; and University of Maine: A Sports History, by Jennifer Cratty, Jessica Carpenter and Shannan Danforth. Information about the photos also came from archived copies of Prism and Maine Campus.
"I hope this book provides for students something I didn't have," says Briggs, a member of the Class of '80 who first learned of UMaine's extensive, high-quality photo archives when he returned to campus as an alumnus one Homecoming weekend. "My years at the University were happy ones. But in retrospect, I wish I had known more of the history of the University than I do now. I would have appreciated my experience more."
The book is dedicated to Fernald, whom Briggs describes as a hero. The book's introduction is by Gov. Angus King.