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Maine Forms of American Architecture
Deborah Thompson (ed.)
Published for the American Bicentennial in 1976, this substantial volume from the Colby College Museum of Art surveys the built history of Maine from its earliest settlements to the twentieth century. Edited by Deborah Thompson, it gathers essays by specialists—Richard Candee, Denys Peter Myers, and others—each taking a period, from vernacular colonial building through the Federal style and Greek Revival and beyond. Profusely illustrated in black-and-white with some color, it treats Maine not as a provincial footnote but as a place where distinctive regional forms met the great national styles. The result is part exhibition catalogue, part standard reference, still cited by preservationists and architectural historians. For anyone interested in New England building or the deep texture of Maine's towns and farmhouses, it remains a rich and authoritative resource.
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The editor
Deborah Thompson assembled and edited this collaborative volume, drawing contributions from a roster of architectural historians rather than writing it single-handed. The result reflects the museum-catalogue tradition: authoritative, multi-authored, and closely tied to objects and buildings.
The book
Maine Forms of American Architecture was a Bicentennial publication of the Colby College Museum of Art, produced with Down East. Across some 360 illustrated pages it traces Maine building from prehistoric settlement through vernacular colonial work, the Federal style, the Greek Revival, and later nineteenth-century modes, with essays by Richard M. Candee, Denys Peter Myers, William D. Shipman, and others.
How it has aged
As a survey it has stood up well; its period essays remain go-to references for Maine's architectural history and are still cited in preservation work. Scholarship has advanced, but the book's breadth and documentation keep it useful decades on.
For more context
It appeared amid the 1970s surge of Bicentennial-era interest in American regional building and historic preservation that produced many enduring state and local architectural surveys.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Deborah Thompson (ed.)
- Publisher
- Colby College Museum of Art / Down East Magazine
- Place of publication
- Camden, Maine
- Year
- 1976
- Edition
- First edition
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Art
- Location
- Maine
Places