John Martin Online Exhibit
Click here to explore the online exhibit on the Maine Memory Network
John Martin (1823-1904) was the author and artist of an extraordinary journal and three scrapbooks that look back on his early years in Ellsworth and Hampden, and continue with contemporary descriptions of his life and times in Bangor, Katahdin Iron Works, and elsewhere in the area from 1864 to 1899.
The Maine State Museum and Maine Historical Society jointly acquired the journal and scrapbooks in order to preserve them and make them available to researchers, scholars, and all interested people.
Check this wonderful historical resource “Representing every particular:” John Martin’s Reflections, Illustrations, and Commentary. There, John Martin enlivens the ordinary and personalizes the extraordinary through exceptional visual and narrative details regarding national figures, local buildings, gardening, crime, streetcars, Native Americans, the Civil War, parades, ice-skating, furnishings, religion, fashion, businesses, industry, entertainments, and hundreds of other subjects.
Now, for the first time, thanks to recent Maine State Museum grant funding from the Delmas Foundation, extensive research and website development work by Candace Kanes, efforts of volunteer proofreaders, and research and administrative assistance by Maine State Museum staff, the John Martin journal and scrapbooks are available on the Maine Memory Network.
