THIS CIVIL WAR RECRUITING POSTER REFLECTS A CALL FOR THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND VOLUNTEERS ISSUED BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1862. THE CALL INSPIRED JAMES SLOAN GIBBONS TO WRITE A POEM WHICH WAS SET TO A STEPHEN FOSTER TUNE. BY THE TIME THIS POSTER APPEARED, MAINERS WERE ALREADY SINGING:

We are coming, Father Abraham,
three hundred thousand more,
From Mississippi's winding stream
and from New England's shore;
We leave our plows and workshops,
our wives and children dear.
With hearts too full for utterance,
with but a silent tear;
We dare not look behind us,
but steadfastly before,
We are coming, Father Abraham,
with three hundred thousand more.

Chorus: We are coming,
coming our union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham,
with three hundred thousand more.

AN 1841 PETITION BY GEORGE WOODCOCK OF SIDNEY TO CHANGE HIS NAME FROM WOODCOCK TO WOODMAN, SIMPLY BECAUSE HIS BROTHERS HAD DONE SO.

THIS SCENE IS ACTUALLY A POSTCARD SHOWING THE SENDER AND HIS 'STAGE TEAM' GETTING READY TO LEAVE FROM BETHEL. IT WAS MAILED IN DECEMBER, 1914 TO THE DOCTORS AT THE WESTERN MAINE TUBERCULOSIS SANATORIUM. THE STAGE DRIVER HAD BEEN A PATIENT THERE, AND HE WANTED EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT HE WAS DOING WELL AND FEELING FINE.

SOME LADIES, SOME MUSICIANS AND SOME CATS GATHER ROUND THE WOODSTOVE FOR A COZY EVENING IN THE PARLOR. From a glass plate negative made by George W. French around 1899. (The ceiling is not falling down; rather, the photographic emulsion has lifted from the glass plate in several places.)