Learning About Communities through Funerary Material Culture

The population of what we now know of as the State of Maine has changed throughout the centuries as people establish communities. Maine exists within unceded Wabanaki Homelands, which includes the Homelands of the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Abenaki peoples. Some of the earliest settler-colonial communities were French, who established Catholic missions and communities, and English, who established Protestant missions and communities. Many of the burial grounds throughout Maine reflect these earliest European and European-influenced customs, and changed over time. As towns grew, communities were primarily established around places of worship. One thing that all communities tend to have in common is a set of rituals or objects of material culture related to mourning and burying the dead, though what those customs are vary across communities and cultures, sometimes influencing each other.

Mabelle Martin's Casket, drawn by her father John Martin. Bangor, ME, 1899. MMN #100959.

Mabelle Martin, born in 1866, died of typhoid fever on March 25, 1899. John Martin drew this illustration of the scene of Mabelle's coffin in the parlor of the family home and included it in the Scrap and Sketch Book he wrote starting in 1888 in which he recounted his activities and recalled some of his history. The illustration is on page 154. Mabelle Martin had been a teacher and her father reported that teachers arranged the flowers for the casket and funeral.

MMN item #100959.