In 1985, Down East Books of Camden, Me. published a book called WALDO COUNTY - The Way It Was by Frank E. Claes, formerly of Camden, Me,, and residing in Orland, Me. at the time that the book came out. At that time, Down East published 1062 books.

The book included each of the towns of Waldo County, as it was in 1859, including Appleton, Camden, Hope, North Haven, Rockport, and Vinalhaven.

Claes, a very accomplished photographer, had opened a portrait studio in Camden in 1950. He also copied and made negatives for people, as well as for Historical Societies, Museums, and libraries. He was from the old school, keeping a copy of the negatives of the photos, so that people went back to him for copies. He specialized in reproducing copies of Maritime history, including photos of many ships. He said that he held the largest collection of Maritime negatives of anyone in the State.

He wanted to have a book published of his Maritime photos, but had Down East Books do first, WALDO COUNTY - The Way It Was. In the book, Claes had used the brief history of each town in the county from A Gazetteer of the State of Maine, to which he added a copy of the map of each town, taken from the 1859 Schoolhouse map, which showed the location of each house, factory, sawmill, schoolhouse, businesses, etc., including their names.

About that time, several photographers were doing the same, taking photos of each town separately, including famed Belfast photographer, Walter Dickey, and Leland Overlock of Warren. But the other photographers did not have the foresight to do a book such as Claes did.

Claes had photos of the Maritime and coastal area of Waldo County, but he did not have photos of the inland towns. That was where Jackie Watts, of Lincolnville, and her cousin, Isabel Morse Maresh, of Belmont entered the picture.

Jackie had talked with Michael Kinnicutt of Down East Books, and had heard of the lack of photos to publish the book. Jackie had been founder of The Lincolnville Historical Society, and instrumental in publishing for the historical society, four historical booklets of old family photos and history. Between projects, the light bulbs went on in Jackie’s head, as she drove out to Belmont to discuss the project with Isabel.

So, on Saturday, March 31, 1984, the two cousins started on a project across the length and breadth of Waldo County, on the back roads, and rural villages, to the old farmhouses, across the area, a tour which took them twelve hundred and forty-six miles, over three months. They also made many telephone calls, and inquired of numerous elder folks, as to where the old photographs of Waldo County might be found.

Jackie and Isabel had done some self-publishing of local town records, Camden-Rockport Births Deaths and Marriages, and Lincolnville Births, Deaths and Marriages , and two booklets called Scrapbooks of the Camden-Rockport area, using newspaper clippings from every ten years of the Camden Herald, with permission from the owner, in payment for taking the old Camden Heralds to and from Bangor to have them microfilmed. They worked under the name of J & I History Press.

The town records of those towns were allowed to be photocopied, and the books were actual copies of the Town records, often with transcriptions, and local photographs.

Jackie and Isabel had purchased a Kodak Ektagraph Camera, which came with two stands for the camera, a large and a small stand with photo lenses, which used 126 film. Photos could then be copied in the home of the person owning the photos, so that they were not out of their possession.

So many people were willing to let Jackie and Isabel into their homes, where they opened their albums and scrapbooks. Often times, they would let them take the scrapbooks home to photocopy. Isabel had purchased a commercial photocopier in 1982. When the amount of photocopying became more than the copier would handle, they purchased a much-larger commercial wet ink refurbished copier. Isabel put more than 40,000 copies on the copier in the first month, wearing out the drum, which was under warranty. The Copier salesman called it a “Horror story!”

Jackie and Isabel would drive into a town, ask for the Town office, library if the town had one, elderly people, store, or any place that would direct them to photos. They would be told who to approach, and suggested who not to approach. In one instance, they went to the home of one of the persons they were warned not to approach. They were welcomed into the house, and a large collection of old photos, and postcard photos of the Town were brought out, and graciously allowed to be copied.

They copied literally hundreds with the Ektagraph, sometimes on slides. At some point the flash on the camera wore out, and could not be replaced as it had become obsolete. That did not slow them down, as they could still copy photos on a clear, sunny day. They used many, many films as well as batteries. They would get the photos developed. They would take the negatives to Fred Davis’ Little Letterpress in North Searsport, and have excellent prints made of many of the photos.

They found old glass negatives, some of which were given to them, many postcards by Eastern Illustrating Co., of Belfast. The found photos done by Cunningham brothers, especially Frank Cunningham [also known as F. W..], met his son, who owned stacks of the glass negatives, and his daughter, Lelia, who gave the women some cameo original photos of some of the postcards done by her father.

In the three months that the two cousins were on the road, two and three days a week, they visited Morrill, Lincolnville, Camden, Belfast, Northport, Liberty, S. Liberty, Belmont, Washington, Burnham, Unity, Swanville, Waldo, as well as libraries, and the Fogler Library at the University of Maine. They also visited sites in Augusta. They drove to Orland to visit Frank Claes himself.

The cousins submitted one hundred and twenty photos and negatives to Down East Books for WALDO COUNTY - The Way It Was, of which sixty-one were used in the book. It was the only work that the women did that they got paid for. With the money earned from the project, they purchased Belfast photographer, Walter Dickey’s photographic and developing equipment, and negatives. They did not get all of the negatives, as they were stored in various places.

While working together, they put together a slide show of Knox County. They also put together a slide show of Waldo County, inserting several of Walter Dickey’s nature photo slides to add color. This slide show was shown at historical societies, a nursing home, a Grange group, and libraries.

If any lesson was learned from traveling to the outermost borders, and the length and breadth of Waldo County, it was that there is a treasure-trove of photos and snapshots of the past in private collections, albums, scrapbooks, attics, sheds, garages and barns. They had found only a drop in the proverbial ocean.

Their advice was to consider having private photo collections copied in several ways for future generations to enjoy. Consider having them scanned and put onto CD’s. Put copies in a safe place, allow any relatives or descendants to share the photos of ancestor’s and their homes, also to give a copy to the local historical society and libraries.