Three years after publishing her annotated and updated edition of a historic 1881 atlas of Hancock County, Penobscot mapmaker Jane Crosen has released a second atlas, also from 1881 — this time, of Washington County.
“Colby’s Atlas of Washington County, 1881: Coastwise Geographic Edition,” out this month via Maine Mapmaker and Waterbird Press, takes more than 100 maps of regions, towns and villages throughout Washington County created by Maine cartographer George Colby, and presents them in a way that is understandable to 21st century readers.
In the early 1880s, Colby created atlases of five Maine counties, including Hancock, Washington, Aroostook, Cumberland and Androscoggin, utilizing then-new U.S. Geographic Survey maps alongside detailed on-the-ground surveying and information from town offices. In addition to mapping the geography of the areas, the atlases also include valuable information on local families, businesses and long-gone landmarks.
As with the Hancock County atlas, Crosen has called this a “coastwise” edition, noting the fact that for people living in these coastal communities in that era, proximity to the sea dictated nearly every aspect of their lives.
“Everything ties back to the sea,” she said. “Rivers, streams, railroads, roads — everything had to eventually make it to ports and harbors. It was a coastal economy.”
Crosen has worked as a mapmaker and editor for more than 40 years, getting her start in 1979 working on the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer for DeLorme Publishing, and later working for WoodenBoat Magazine. Since then, she has drawn more than 30 maps of various regions of the state, which she has sold as prints, posters and on other merchandise for decades — they remain popular gifts for Maine-lovers.
Since 2019, Crosen has turned her focus to Colby’s atlases, which were scanned at a high resolution by the Maine State Archives. But while updating the Hancock County atlas was a relatively straightforward process that took about six months in total, Crosen said the Washington County project took nearly three years to complete. For starters, the Washington County maps are in a different aspect ratio from the Hancock County ones, meaning the layout of the book would have to be completely different.
That created lots of extra space in the published edition, which Crosen chose to fill with historic photos, excerpts from writings from period sources, and extensively researched captions providing context about the era in which the maps were made. Over the course of several years, she connected with historical societies and historians throughout the county and the state, collecting photos and information.
“It was the adventure of a lifetime, and I met so many fascinating and helpful people along the way,” Crosen said. “It was a real quest to try to illustrate these maps with photos and quotes that really helped to tell the story.”
Also unique for this project is the fact that Washington County is the ancestral homeland of the Passamaquoddy people, meaning most of the English language place names in the atlas have an original name in the native language. Crosen worked with Passamaquoddy tribal historian Donald Soctomah to include a language guide and other important details about those places, to provide further context for the maps.
There are also English place names that have changed over the years, though Crosen said that was much more common in Hancock County than in Washington County. A few names that have changed altogether include Jackson Brook, which is now the town of Brookton; Longfellow’s or Shorey’s Island, which is now Roque Island; Little Falls River, which is now Hobart Stream near Dennysville; and West and East Magurrewock Lakes, which are now Nash and Howard Lakes.
The end result is an atlas that is useful not just as a way to figure out where things are in Washington County, but also as an important document about a specific period in time in Maine history. Few of the businesses that were operating nearly 150 years ago are still there today, but some buildings and street names remain, and many people who have deep roots Down East will see familiar families on these maps.
“Colby’s Atlas of Washington County, 1881: Coastwise Geographic Edition” is available at mainemapmaker.com and in select retail shops in Washington and Hancock counties.
