Does technology change the way people work in Maine?

A blueberry winnower is a machine that cleans blueberries. The berries shuffle through the machine on belts while a fan blows away dirt, twigs, and leaves. They work through the machine and then fall into a collecting tray. 

Winnowing machines made it possible to clean the blueberries much faster than picking through them by hand. It is powered by cranking a handle.  

This machine was invented and built by Emil Rivers of Rockland, Maine. He started a company called Emil Rivers, Inc., and continued to sell winnowers until the 1970s.

Pictures can often be a powerful way to make a point, without using words. This photograph was taken by a photographer who worked for the Maine Department of Economic Development.    The Department was created in the 1930s to advertise Maine as a good place to do business.   It wanted to show that Maine had rich agricultural crops such as blueberries and potatoes.  

Wild blueberries can’t be planted and farmed like other food crops.  They grow from underground runners called rhizomes, and only like acidic, treeless, rocky soil and cold winters.   Harvesting was done by hand or with special rakes invented in 1910.  The first commercial harvest of wild blueberries happened in 1874, and it has grown to become one of Maine’s biggest industries.  More than 37,000 tons of berries are harvested each year, worth more than $250 million.   Some are canned, and some are sold fresh or frozen.

In this picture, the photographer focused on two children dumping hand-harvested blueberries into a winnowing machine, called a winnower.  The winnower separates the berries from twigs, leaves, and other debris.  Gathering blueberries happens in July and August, which are usually hot months in Maine.  It is tough, backbreaking work due to spending all day bent over to reach the berries.   Blueberries don’t like shade, so harvesting means many days in the open sun.  Children were paid just a few cents per pound of berries.

This picture shows men who worked at the Hall Quarry on Mount Desert Island in 1905. A quarry is a place where rock is harvested. 

There are both African American and white workers in this photo. You can see blocks of granite and the cranes and chains used to lift them. People from Scotland, Italy, Sweden, and different parts of America traveled to Mount Desert Island to work.  

Hall Quarry was very successful because of the high quality of the granite and easy access to deep ocean water nearby. Ships carried granite all over the eastern United States.

Hall Quarry had three company stores and several boarding houses that served as homes for these men. The boarding houses had small sleeping areas with stoves that heated only the main rooms downstairs. The area was called Quarrytown but had the nickname of Bed Bug Boulevard and Peanut Row.   

In 1905 when this picture was taken, the Arthur McMullen Granite Company ran the quarry operation.