[Earliest Maine Films]

Date1902 – 1920

Can DescriptionsSubmaster, created 11/27/1991. // NHF compilation of archival footage from three collections, 'short pieces from the days when motion picture was young.' // The five segments are: 1. Drawing a Lobster Pot (1902, 15 sec.), Library of Congress Paper Print Collection, acc.0133: 'One man can be seen inspecting a cratelike device known as a lobster pot from a two-man rowboat. The film is too short to permit further discussion.' Early Motion Pictures, Kemp Niver. 2. Trout Fishing, Rangeley Lakes (1906, 9 min.), Library of Congress Paper Print Collection, acc.0133: Dated October 1906. Made for the New England Forest, Fish and Game Assoc. 'The subject is a trip to a fishing camp by train, boat and pack route. All the necessary operations to prepare guests for their stay at a then well-advertised fishing camp are shown. Catching and netting trout...' Includes steamboat. 3. Canoeing in Maine (1906, 9 min.), Museum of Modern Art Collection, acc.0661: Actuality. Horse drawn carriage and wagon carrying canoes down carriage road through woods as men walk behind. Shot of river bank and logs floating in water. Carriage and wagon pull up, four men set up four canoes and leave shore. Cut to lake with high bluff in background Mt. Kineo) and approaching steamboat, blowing steam and docking. Boats are Twilight and Margarita. MCU of boat, LS of men loading canoes onto it. Boat pulls away. Boat reaches another dock and canoes unloaded back on wagon. Canoeing in lake and river, poor camera work. Men fish from canoe. In one view, a mountain is visible in background. Men and steamboat approach big group of logs and begin to gather them. 4. Logging in Maine (1906, 13 min.), Library of Congress Paper Print Collection, acc.0133: Dated June 1 and 3, 1906. 'The subject is the movement of cut timber from the forest to the mill. The few scenes that make up the film are of loggers performing the various operations necessary to prevent logs from jamming together. The men keep them headed with the flow of water toward the lake on which the mill is located. The activities of approximately a dozen men were photographed.' (Niver description.) Film includes long lake scenes of men walking on logs with pick poles; one man lies down on log in water. Also short scenes of batteaus (river boats) and men working on a dam sluiceway. 5. The How and Why of Spuds (1920, 13 min.), National Archives Collection, acc.0137: Potato farming in northern Maine including families working in fields, horse-pulled plows, cutting potatoes into chunks for planting and harvesting.