Editing Camden, Maine (section)

==History==

[[Penobscot people|The Penobscot Nation]] have lived in the area for thousands of years. They called it Megunticook, meaning "great swells of the sea", a reference to the silhouette of the Camden Hills (more visibly seen on a bright night). 

Although part of the [[Waldo Patent]], Europeans did not attempt to colonize it until after the [[French and Indian War]], around 1771–1772. They were led by James Richards, who built a home at the mouth of the Megunticook River. Others soon followed, squatting on Penobscot land and attempting to [[farming|farm]] the broken and often mountainous terrain. An early home in the area was the [[Conway House (Camden, Maine)|Conway House]], a [[Cape Cod (house)|Cape Cod style]] home built in 1770. In 1962, it was purchased and renovated into a history museum.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/sketcheshistory00lockgoog <!-- quote=History of Maine. --> John Lymburner Locke, ''Sketches of the History of the Town of Camden, Maine'' 1859]</ref>

When [[Castine, Maine|Castine]] was held by the [[Great Britain|British]] in 1779 after the military loss of the [[Penobscot expedition]], Camden became a rendezvous point and encampment for the [[United States|Americans]], who were commanded by Major George Ulmer. During a raid, the British burned a [[sawmill]]. 

On February 17, 1791, the [[Massachusetts General Court]] incorporated Megunticook Plantation as Camden, named after [[Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden]], a member of the [[Parliament of Great Britain|British Parliament]] and proponent of [[civil liberties]]. During the [[War of 1812]], a [[artillery battery|battery]] was built atop [[Mount Battie]] near the village. It had both a 12- and [[Ordnance QF 18 pounder|18-pounder]] gun, but no gunner qualified to operate them. Nevertheless, the fort's appearance of readiness kept the British at bay.<ref name=Coolidge>{{Cite book  | last = Coolidge  | first = Austin J.|author2=John B. Mansfield  | title = A History and Description of New England| publisher = A.J. Coolidge  | year = 1859| location = Boston, Massachusetts| pages = [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ/page/n116 82]–83| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ| quote = coolidge mansfield history description new england 1859.  }}</ref>

When peace returned, Camden grew rapidly. The Megunticook River provided excellent [[water power]] sites for [[watermill|mills]]. In addition to sawmills and [[gristmill]]s, by 1858 the town had [[carriage]] factories, [[window sash|sash]] and [[window shutter|blind]] factories and [[blacksmith]] shops. There were six [[shipyard]]s, launching ten to twelve vessels annually. By 1886, the town also made [[foundry]] products, [[railroad car]]s, [[woolen]]s and paper mill [[felting]]s, [[anchor]]s, wedges, plugs and [[treenail]]s, [[lumber|planking]], powder kegs, [[excelsior (wood wool)|excelsior]], [[mattress]]es, powder, [[tinware]], [[oakum]], wool rolls, [[boot]]s and [[shoemaking|shoes]], [[leather]], [[flour]] and meal, corn [[broom]]s and [[barrel]]s. Camden was second only to nearby [[Rockland, Maine|Rockland]] in the lucrative manufacture of [[lime (mineral)|lime]], excavated at [[quarry|quarries]] and processed in [[kiln]]s before being shipped to various ports around the United States until 1891, when [[Rockport, Maine|Rockport]] was set off as a separate town. As the 19th century came to an end, Camden was very much a shipbuilding town with the H.M. Bean Yard launching the largest four-masted schooner ''Charlotte A. Maxwell'' and the first six-master ever built-the ''George W. Wells''.<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Varney   | first = George J.   | title = Gazetteer of the state of Maine. Camden   | place = Boston   | publisher = Russell   | year = 1886   | url = http://history.rays-place.com/me/camden-me.htm   | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130201051028/http://history.rays-place.com/me/camden-me.htm   | url-status = dead   | archive-date = February 1, 2013   | access-date = May 10, 2008   }}</ref>

In the 1880s, sportsmen and "rusticators," began to discover the natural beauty of Camden during the summer and autumn, becoming seasonal residents. Sarah Orne Jewett's stories of nostalgia for the sea, Camden's scenery, fine old homes of sea captains, and the paintings of Fitz Hugh Lane, Frederick Church, and Childe Hassam evoked a romantic vision of Maine and induced many to come to stay at the Bayview House Hotel, Ocean House, and Mrs. Hosmer's Boarding House. In 1880, Edwin Dillingham built the first purpose-built summer cottages in Camden on Dillingham Point. Thereafter, the summer colony at Camden quickly grew to include some of the wealthiest, most prominent families in the country.  These new summer residents from Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., and even Chicago, built large, rambling Shingle Style "cottages" along High Street, Bay View Street and on Beauchamp Point to rival those in Bar Harbor. The summer people arrived on the Boston Boats or on the Maine Central Railroad at Rockland. Local residents, who had formerly gone to sea to earn a living, found jobs as caretakers, gardeners, cooks and carpenters to the rich and powerful.

<gallery>
File:View of Camden, ME.jpg|Camden in 1906
File:Camden Mountains from Shore Road, Camden, ME.jpg|Camden Hills in 1906
File:High Street Looking South, Camden, ME.jpg|High Street in 1913
File:The Independent (1849) (14595451420).jpg|''Charlotte A. Maxwell'', a four-masted schooner built at Camden, launched in 1917
File:Curtis Island Light, Camden, ME.jpg|Curtis Island Light {{circa|1920}}
</gallery>

In November 1892, a fire fed by a strong easterly wind-burned the business district to the ground. Immediately, Camden businessmen drew together to make the investment required to build 12 large brick buildings, including the Camden Opera House and, controversially, the Masonic Temple (now the Lord Camden Inn).  The Great Fire, as it became known, did not discourage increasing numbers of affluent summer people from making Camden their summer enclave. Indeed, in 1897 a road was built to the top of Mt. Battie, one of the two mountains rising above the town, and an inn was erected at the summit. In 1898, a group of wealthy summer residents from Philadelphia established the Megunticook Golf Club on Beauchamp Point. And in 1901, the Whitehall Inn opened on High Street in an old mansion built by a sea captain, catering to a well-to-do clientele.  Around the turn of the century families such as Curtis, Bok, Keep, Gribbel, Dillingham and Borland not only built estates but their donations resulted in the [[Camden Public Library|public library]], the amphitheatre, which was designed by [[Fletcher Steele]], the Camden Harbor Park, which was designed by the [[Olmsted Brothers]], the Village Green, and the Camden Opera House.

===Camden Yacht Club===
The Philadelphia publishing tycoon, Cyrus Curtis, maintained a summer home and several yachts in Camden. Given the many other private yachts of the upper class that filled Camden Harbor as well, Curtis decided in 1912 to establish and build the Camden Yacht Club. In 2006, as part of the club's centennial celebrations, the Club published 'From steam to sail : 100 years of the Camden Yacht Club" <ref>James L. Bowditch, Rodney B. Plimpton, and Vaughan Lee 'From steam to sail : 100 years of the Camden Yacht Club' (Camden, Me. : Camdem Yacht Club, 2006)</ref> Yachting continues to thrive in Camden, particularly during the summer months, with the HAJ Boat racing fleet at the Yacht Club with the younger sailors in their turnabouts. In 1936 the cruise schooner business was started by Captain Frank Swift and the windjammer fleet continues to this day.

===Music and culture===
Music and cultural interests have long flourished in Camden.  In 1912, [[Edna St. Vincent Millay]] read "[[Renascence (poem)|Renascence]]," a poem she wrote from the top of Mt. Battie, to the guests at the Whitehall Inn, one of whom offered to pay her tuition to Vassar. After graduating from Vassar, she went on to write poetry and plays that made her one of the most famous women in America and an inspiration for the Roaring Twenties, winning the Pulitzer Prize. 

The French harpist, composer and conductor, [[Carlos Salzedo]], founded the internationally renowned Salzedo Summer Harp Colony in Camden and each summer held a Harp Festival in the amphitheater beside the library. Camden/Rockport also is home to Bay Chamber Concerts. Theatre productions at the Opera House and Shakespeare in the Amphitheatre enriched the lives of residents and summer visitors for generations. 

In the 1950s, artists and writers of significant reputation began moving to Camden and neighboring Rockport, where local artists organized Maine Coast Artists. Wayne Doolittle began publishing [[Down East, The Magazine of Maine|Down East Magazine]] in 1954, and in 1956 ''[[Carousel (film)|Carousel]]'' was filmed in Camden, followed by ''[[Peyton Place (film)|Peyton Place]]'' in 1957, because the quaint, old town with its picturesque harbor and scenery, looked like the picture-perfect American town.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} Since then Camden's setting has not gone unnoticed by [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] with Steven King's ''[[Thinner (film)|Thinner]]'' and ''[[Casper (film)|Casper]]'' in 1995, [[Todd Field]]'s ''[[In the Bedroom]]'' in 2001, and with the [[soap opera]] ''[[Passions (soap opera)|Passions]]'' using Camden for shots depicting the fictional town [[Harmony (Passions)|Harmony]].

The town is home to a summer Shakespeare festival, the Camden Shakespeare Company, which performs in an amphitheater behind the town library. During the second weekend of February, the annual [[U.S. National Toboggan Championships]] are held at the town-owned Camden Snow Bowl. This nationally known race started as a lark for something to do during the long Maine winters, and more than 20 years later is one of [[New England]]'s premier cold-weather events. The iced chute is {{convert|400|ft|m}} long, and the four-man teams attain speeds of up to {{convert|35|mi|km}} an hour.  Most racers arrive in costume, and 100% percent of race revenue is used to offset operating expenses for this recreation area.

Camden is the location of the 2001 [[HGTV]] Dream Home.

The Points North Institute, located in Camden and [[Rockport, Maine]], is organizing the annual [[Camden International Film Festival]] (''CIFF'') founded in 2005. It focuses exclusively on documentary film and building community among the professional filmmakers. The ''Points North Forum'' was launched in 2009 to provide debates about documentary developments on a par with peers. Over the following years more than 50 funders, broadcasters, distributors and producers have been participating annually. Further on, in 2015 as a partnership with [[Tribeca Film Institute]] the Camden/TFI Retreat was started, a week-long educational program. Additionally was introduced: the Shortform Editing Residency, the North Star Fellowship, Points North 1:1 Meetings, and the 4th World Indigenous Media Lab.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Camden has grown into a major documentary event |url=https://pointsnorthinstitute.org/about-us/our-story/ |access-date=July 18, 2020 |website=pointsnorthinstitute.org}}</ref>

<gallery>
File:Main Street, Camden.jpg|Main Street
File:Boats_at_dock_in_Camden,_Maine.jpg|Camden harbor
File:Camden Public Library.jpg|Public Library
File:First Congregational Church, Camden, Maine.jpg|Baptist Church
</gallery>