Champlain Society

An adventurous, curious, and scientifically-minded group of Harvard students spent several summers cataloging, exploring, and enjoying Mount Desert Island. This group of young men created a foundation of scientific research that continues today. They called themselves the Champlain Society after Samuel Champlain. The Maine Memory Network presents the Mount Desert Island Historical Society’s collection of Champlain Society scanned and transcribed logbooks, records, and photographs.

CHEBACCO reproductions of logbooks

Chebacco Volume XXII is a little different than our regular publication. Rather than a series of articles written by a variety of authors about regional history, the journal reproduces the first three logbooks written by the Champlain Society, a group of students from Harvard who spent summers on Mount Desert Island documenting its natural history. Written between 1880-1883, the logbooks are annotated by Catherine Schmitt and include original photographs taken by the students.

View the full PDF of Chebacco XXII - Summers of Science and Wonder: The Champlain Society Logbooks 1880-1182

SECONDARY RESOURCES

Youth as Conservation Catalysts by Catherine Schmitt in Island Journal, June 2, 2014.

Eliot, Borderlands, and Historiography by Paige Melin, Chebacco, volume XVII, 2016.

Creation of the Champlain Society by Catherine Schmitt for Maine Memory Network, 2013.

Visionary Science of the “Harvard Barbarians” by Catherine Schmitt, Chebacco, volume XV, 2014.

The Changing Flora of Mount Desert Island by Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie, Chebacco, volume XVI, 2015.

Influenced by Nature by Catherine Schmitt, Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors, Issue 129, April/May 2014.

Flora of Mount Desert Island, Maine by Edward L. Rand and John Redfield, Cambridge: University Press, 1894.

Historic Acadia National Park: The Stories Behind One of America’s Great Treasures  by Catherine Schmitt, Rowan and Littlefied, 2016.