The Bar Harbor Blue Book and Mount Desert Guide. 1881

A rare issue of the Bar Harbor Blue Book illustrated with three mounted photographs. Includes routes to and from, tables, and individual chapters on Topography and History; Literature on Mount Desert; Laws concerning Carriages; Bar Harbor and Boating, Walks, Hotels, and more. Folding maps of Bar Harbor and Mount Desert are included as well. The Bar Harbor map is followed by the "Blue Book" section-a society directory listing residents, each numbered and located on the map. This is one of a small number of copies of this work that were illustrated with three original photographs. They are domed half-stereoviews and are likely the work of Bryant Bradley (1838-1890), originally from Cornish, Maine, who lived and worked in Bar Harbor in the 1870s and '80s. Similar half stereoviews known to be Bradley's work illustrate various editions of Clara Barnes Martin's Mount Desert on the Coast of Maine. The subjects of the photos included here are: "Witch Hollow Brook" (waterfall), "Duck Brook" (rustic bridge over the rushing brook), and a view of Bar Harbor from Frenchman's Bay.

A rare and especially appealing issue of this interesting guidebook.

REFERENCES: Not in Williamson; Thompson, Edward V. Important Maine Maps, Books, Prints and Ephemera. Orono, 2003, #273.

CONDITION: Good, damp-stain along upper fore-edge of cover with small patch of color rubbed away, a few minor marks to back-cover; contents clean, photo contrast excellent; maps good, a few short separations along folds.