Contributed by Penobscot Marine Museum
Description
Sardine canneries lined Lubec’s wharves in the early 1900s. They operated day and night, employing hundreds of workers of all ages. Each cannery fabricated its own sardine cans until 1908, when the American Can Company opened and began manufacturing the cans.
In this photograph, children pose near the American Can Company plant built in Lubec village after its North Lubec factory burned. The first mechanized "tin" can manufacturer in Lubec, it soon erected a much larger building, and those shown here became warehouses.
In a few decades the company was turning out 350 million cans a year. Sardine production peaked in 1950 at 3,806,000 cases of 100 cans.
The can plant went out of business in 1972, and the last structures were moved in the early 1990s. The last sardine packer closed in the 1990s.
Lubec and Eastport canneries employed many children, attracting the attention of well-known documentary photographer and social reformer Lewis Hine. In August 1911 he photographed young workers, many under the age of 12, cutting and packing fish in local canneries.
About This Item
- Title: American Can Plant, Lubec, ca. 1910
- Creation Date: circa 1910
- Subject Date: circa 1910
- Location: Lubec, Washington County, ME
- Media: Glass Negative
- Dimensions: 12.75 cm x 17.75 cm
- Local Code: LB2007.1.101270
- Collection: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
- Object Type: Image
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
- Photographs--Maine
- Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company
- Postcards--Maine
- Container industry--Maine--Lubec
- American Can Company
- Fishing industry--Maine--Lubec
- Canned foods industry--Maine--Lubec
- Factories--Maine--Lubec
- Fish canneries--Maine--Lubec
- Children--Maine--Lube
For more information about this item, contact:
Penobscot Marine MuseumPO Box 498, 5 Church Street, Searsport, ME 04974
(207) 548-2529
Website
The copyright and related rights status of this item have not been evaluated. Please contact the contributing repository for more information.
Please post your comment below to share with others. If you'd like to privately share a comment or correction with MMN staff, please send us a message with this link.
