IMAGE: "Mount Desert Island and neighboring coast of Maine." Des Barres, Joseph F. W. (Joseph Frederick Wallet). Map. London: J.F.W. Des Barres, 1776. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library
TEXT: "History of the State of Maine; From Its First Discovery, A. D. 1602, to the Separation, A. D. 1820, Inclusive." Williamson, William D., (1832). Maine History Documents. 34. P. 90
There is a 150-year gap between the first European outpost on MDI in 1613 and the arrival of settlers from New England in 1762. How do historians explain this time in between, and why did settlement happen relatively late in the colonial era? Placing the island in a regional context is important as the effects of colonial wars, government policies, migration patterns, and other factors play a significant role in early island European and Euro-American history as we trace what happened-or did not happen-and why.
Dr. Patrick Callaway is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Maine and the Collections Manager at the MDI Historical Society. He earned his Ph.D. in Canadian-American history at the University of Maine, and was a Fulbright exchange student to Dalhousie University in Halifax. His research focuses on the economic connections between the United States and British North America in the late 1700s-early 1800s.