Maine’s coastal communities, beginning in 1875, directly benefited from the sardine industry. The sardine canneries, which dotted the coast from Eastport to Portland, including Belfast, employed hundreds of women, more than the number of men fishing for herring, which were marketed as sardines.
Changes in American eating habits, competition for herring as bait, and federal quota restrictions led to the closing of Maine’s last sardine cannery in 2010.
This class, using photo, primary source materials, sardine fishing and cannery tools and materials from the Penobscot Marine Museum Collections, provides the historical context to the boom, bust, and revitalization cycle of the sardine towns of Maine.
The class project will be to sift through personal histories of the economic, cultural, and social impact of the sardine industry’s collapse and what has filled its void, in order to find key quotes that epitomize the industry’s impact on its host communities.
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Instructor: Cipperly Good
Cipperly Good is the Richard Saltonstall Jr. Curator of Maritime History at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport. She cares for, preserves, and provides access to the object, archive, and library collections; she also is the registrar and exhibit designer and has been at PMM since 2010.
Ms. Good holds a Bachelor’s degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where she double majored in History and American Studies. She holds a Masters of Arts in Museum Studies, with a concentration in American History, from The George Washington University. She is a frequent instructor at Belfast Senior College.
Image courtesy of Penobscot Marine Museum, Kosti Ruohomaa Collection, LB2017.19.25962
