From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
Damariscotta Lake, Jefferson, ME. 28
Image of a picturesque part of Damariscotta Lake, overlooking an open meadow in the foreground across a small bay to a long wooded bar that narrows to just a beach in one place. Beyond it is more lake, bounded in the distance by a high shoreline with scatterd woods and farms. This image was originally made by one of the the Cunningham brothers, Frank and Bert, who had a studio in nearby Washington, Maine, "...brothers (who) formed a creative and business partnership for a while around the turn of the century, traversing a familiar sweep of a few hundred miles of countryside by horse and buggy to capture whatever scenes of daily life-- work, home, clebration, recreation-- appealed to their customers. Their glass plates,which sometimes began as unique, commissioned images, were often used subsequently to print postcards and cabinet cards for a wider market. At this time, photography remained a fairly technical skill; photographs were still enticing and special objects to most people." [source: PMM Cunningham Brothers Collection, pmm.org] This scenic image is one of the Cunningham's that was made into a postcard by the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company during a time when city dwellers were beginning to look to the unspoiled regions of northern New England for temporary respite from urban life.
