Waldo County Through Eastern's Eye

"Waldo County Through Eastern's Eye," an exhibit of black and white photographs taken 75 to 100 years ago, will be on display in the Allen & Sally Fernald Gallery at the University of Maine's Hutchinson Center in Belfast. The free exhibit will run from January 6 through April 30, 2011. A reception with free refreshments will be held January 27, 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Depicting old town and country scenes throughout Waldo County, the exhibit shows a fraction of the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company collection owned by Penobscot Marine Museum. Eastern was a postcard publisher founded in Belfast in 1909 and active through the early 1950s.

According to Kevin Johnson, the museum's photography archivist, the Eastern collection is the largest single photographic collection in Maine, consisting of nearly 50,000 images of Maine and the rest of New England and upstate New York. Most of the photos are on glass-plate negatives. The museum is raising funds to acquire more of Eastern's negatives, and plans to have a searchable database of the images online in 2011. Photo prints are available from the museum, with proceeds from their sale going to expand the collection.

Research for the exhibit was conducted by individuals and historical societies from virtually every Waldo County community. The exhibit will be open Monday through Friday, 7:45a.m.-9:45p.m. and Saturday, 8:00 a.m. -3:00 p.m., at the Hutchinson Center, 80 Belmont Ave., Belfast. Call 207-338-8000 for more information.