Does technology change the way people work in Maine?

Summary:  In this lesson, you will look at primary sources from different time periods to investigate how technology has impacted industry.

Share whatever information from this introduction you feel will help provide context for your students before they investigate the primary sources.

The Lesson

1. Present as much as desired from the introductory information below to your students to give them context for the lesson. Depending on reading level, they could read the introduction as a homework assignment, or you could go over it together as a class.
2. Students choose (or the teacher assigns) one or more of the primary sources to work with.
3. The primary source can be projected/viewed on a big screen by the full class, or printed, so each student has their own copy.
4. This is a mystery-solving activity – students should not know details about the sources in advance. Without first seeing the source label information, students practice their observation and analysis skills. They only see the source, and have to use their skills to pull out information about it. 
   • Option 1 – Open inquiry
     • The teacher leads a full-class discussion using the prompts “What do you see?” and “What do you wonder?” The class should be encouraged to look at tiny details and pull out clues from each source. This can also work as a whiteboard or post-it note activity, with students writing their own comments in response to the sources.
   • Option 2 – Guided worksheets
     • Students complete an Analysis Worksheet  for each source. They can make educated guesses using whatever information they find in the sources. Note – This can be completed as a class, individually, or in small groups.
5. Present the source label information (the “answers”) to the students. Were you surprised by anything you learned? Have you found more connections between the different sources?
6. Repeat with as many sources as desired.
7. Discuss all the sources together. What sources did you work with? What did you learn from them? What questions do you have? How do the different sources connect to the theme, or to each other?
8. Optional: use the recommended activity prompts and reflection questions for further discussion.

Evolution of Technology

Throughout history, people have constantly tried to make industry more efficient. This means you can do more work with less effort. Technology is one way to become more efficient. For example, moving things on a truck is faster than on a horse and wagon. Machines can also make industry easier and safer for workers. For example, it may save them from hard physical labor in dangerous places.

There are also some downsides to new technology. New machinery may be dangerous to workers. Also, workers in many industries have lost their jobs because machines have replaced them. 

Even with modern technology, many jobs in Maine industries still rely on manual labor, or on a combination of manual labor and machinery. Manual labor means doing hard work by hand, instead of with machines or animals.  

This primary source set highlights how industry workers interact with machinery that has advanced over time. 

Additional Industry Information:

Blueberry Harvesting

What are wild blueberries? Have you ever eaten a wild blueberry? They are usually smaller than the kind you buy at the grocery store. Wild blueberries aren’t just tasty – they have a very special history! They only grow in Maine, Quebec, and the Maritime provinces. They were first grown and harvested (picked or gathered) by Wabanaki people. There are now around 480 wild blueberry farms in Maine, mostly in Washington and Hancock counties.

The best time to harvest blueberries is late July through mid-September. At first, wild blueberries were hand-picked. Then the blueberry rake was invented to speed things up. Today, most berries are harvested with machines.

Who harvests berries? Every year, people travel to Maine for seasonal work in the blueberry harvest. For the First People of the Canadian Wabanaki, the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet tribes, crossing into Maine every August is an important part of their traditional work and culture.  

Indigenous peoples are not the only ones who travel to Maine to pick blueberries. Every year, many families travel to Maine for a few weeks. They live in camps while they work. They speak many languages and have different backgrounds. Migrant families travel to Maine from other countries. They also come from states like Florida and Mississippi. Some people travel from other parts of Maine, such as the Latino community and the Passamaquoddy communities in Washington County.

Today, the Passamaquoddy Wild Blueberry Company is the largest Native American-owned wild blueberry farm in the world. Instead of using machines, they hand-rake blueberries. They are carrying on important traditions of gathering resources from the earth.

Why are blueberries an industry? For many years, blueberry fields were public and open to anyone. English settlers in the 1600s picked blueberries. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the land was purchased and turned into privately owned farms. This happened as blueberry harvesting became a commercial industry – a way for people to make money.

Blueberries can be canned, frozen, or sold fresh. Canning started in the 1800s. By the 1950s, there were 21 canning factories in the state. At this time, Maine produced more blueberries than any other state. In 1929, farmers started freezing berries.

Although they grow wild, blueberries grow better with help from humans. Wabanaki people were the first to care for blueberry plants by burning the fields. This kills pests and helps the plants grow better. Commercial farmers only pick half of the plants each year, and either cut or burn the plants after harvest. The second half is left alone to be harvested next year. 

Maine Granite Quarries

Quarrying is the process of removing rock, sand, gravel, or other minerals from the ground. They can then be used to produce materials for construction or other uses. Granite quarrying was an important industry in Maine from the early 1800s, hitting a high point in 1901. At one point, the state had at least 170 quarries that employed more than 3,500 workers. 

Maine granite can be found in buildings and monuments all over the eastern United States, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Washington Monument, Grant’s Tomb, and the Smithsonian Museum. Granite cut from quarries in Hallowell, Maine, between 1829 and 1831 was used to construct the Maine State Capitol Building. 

Quarries were located along the Maine coast to help transport  this bulky product. Oxen were used to haul the granite blocks on large wagons to waiting ships. Granite was quarried using steam drills, wedges, and hammers to break slabs and shape the granite blocks. Derricks, a type of crane, were used to move the heavy blocks out of the quarry onto huge oxen or horse-drawn wagons. Modern quarries use power equipment to handle many of these tasks today. 

Granite work is dangerous, involving dynamite blasts, quarry cave-ins, and lung disease caused by fine rock dust. Quarrymen, stone cutters, and carvers were highly skilled. Many people of different backgrounds worked together in the quarries, including African Americans and European immigrants from Italy, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Scotland, and England.

The introduction of reinforced (with steel rods) concrete spelled the doom of Maine’s granite industry in the early 1900s. City planners and architects wanted taller buildings, granite was too heavy to build skyscrapers, and concrete was easier to transport and cost less. Today, Maine’s granite quarries continue to produce granite products for many uses, but on a much smaller scale.

Optional Activity:

1. Pick one option from the following list of Maine industries.
   • Fishing
   • Granite quarrying
   • Shoe making
   • Shipbuilding
   • Agriculture
2. Using the internet or books, research the types of tools used in that industry during different time periods. Choose a tool that looks interesting to you. 
3. On a document or piece of paper, include a picture (or your own drawing) of each tool and describe:
   1. What it does
   2. How it works. 
   3. Reflect: How did this tool make life easier or harder for workers? Would you want to use it? 

Reflection Questions:

• In some of these sources you see people using tools in different Maine industries. Do you think the tools were helpful? Find one example to share. 
• Based on these sources or your own life experience, what are some ways that technology changes over time? 
• Have you ever used any of the tools or machines you saw in the sources? Would you want to – why or why not? 
• Do you think new technology is good or bad? Why? 
• If you could invent a new tool to do work for you, what would it be? 

Maine Industry Primary Source Sets developed in collaboration between the Maine State Archives, Maine State Library, and Maine State Museum.