LOVELL — The Lovell Historical Society and the Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library are sponsoring an afternoon presentation of early Lovell images.

Kevin Johnson, photo archivist for the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine will present “Lovell, Maine: The Postcard View; Selections from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company” at 4 p.m. on Sunday, November 3, at the Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library. The slide show and talk will consist of the story of the postcard company, followed by a viewing of some of Lovell’s earliest images.

The Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company was founded in 1909 in Belfast, Maine by Rudolph Herman Cassens. Cassens’ goal was to photograph small towns and rural areas from Maine to California, producing “real photo” postcards that would be valued for promoting tourism. Cassens did not fulfill his dream of photographing the entire country, but his company did produce over 50,000 glass plate negatives of New England and Upstate New York between 1909 and 1947. The collection is full of historic businesses, family homes and local landmarks.

The images are fascinating on many levels. They take viewers back in time to when the roads were still dirt, horse drawn carriages outnumbered cars, and elms lined the streets. The collection is now part of the archives of the Penobscot Marine Museum and continues to grow as more negatives that “escaped” from the collection are located and acquired.

Their Photo Archive of more than 130,0000 thousand images is available on the museum’s website at PenobscotMaineMuseum.org. Most of the postcards are also a part of the Lovell Historical Society’s image collection, which can be found at lovellhistoricalsociety@org.

The presentation will begin at 4 p.m., Sunday, November 3, in the King Community Room at the Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library. Attendance is free and refreshments will follow.

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