Category: Acadia History & Art

Many a painter has been compelled to take up the brush in off-island places.

An Interview with Dr. Bonnie Newsom.

Archaeologists bring Indigenous meaning and purpose to their science.

The work and words of three year-round painter-islanders— Ellen Church of Bass Harbor, Robert Pollien of Town Hill, and Emily Bracale of Bar Harbor—help make the argument for turning to the sketchbook and easel when the snows arrive. These are their stories.

Mariah Reading creates impressionist paintings on trash to educate on the harms of pollution and climate change.

Margaret Stupka, a trained botanist working in Acadia; Zoë Smiarowski is a recent National Park Service intern on women’s history.

This spring, Acadia’s hiking trails were listed in the national register, recognizing their national historic significance and ties to the history of MDI and Acadia National Park.

With this feature, we continue our series recognizing women of Acadia, both past and present. Here we present two sisters of the Gilded Age juxtaposed with a modern-day scientist. Their stories highlight how women’s roles have changed, yet remind us of the influence summers in Acadia can have on the trajectory of one’s life—and those of others.

WINTER IS MY FAVORITE SEASON IN MAINE. The world is stripped to its barest essentials—nature’s palette is reduced to black, white, and gray; sounds are muted; animals leave traces of their activity in the snow long after they’ve left.

While exploring Acadia National Park during the pandemic winter of 2020/2021, I stumbled upon a number of spectacular artifacts from the Mount Desert Island Fire of 1947 – relic tree stumps that have decayed into fascinating ghost like shapes resembling creatures from a science fiction movie.