ECKSTORM, Fannie Hardy

Born 18 June 1865, Brewer, Maine; died 31 December 1946, Brewer, Maine

Daughter of Manly and Emeline F. Wheeler Hardy; married Jacob A. Eckstorm, 1893 (died 1899); children: two

Fannie Hardy Eckstorm devoted her life to preserving the heritage of the Penobscot region in Maine—its wildlife, folkways, ballads and stories. She absorbed the lore of lumbermen and trappers, of Native Americans and old settlers, of river and forest. From her father she learned to see with the precise eyes of the naturalist, to revere wilderness and the Native American, and to battle for resource conservation.

At Smith College, Eckstorm refined her interest in bird observation and began her study of Native Americans. After graduation in 1888, she returned to Brewer as superintendent of schools, but resigned over the issue of inadequate funding. Thereafter she devoted herself to writing as a means of persuasion and livelihood. Wed at age twenty-eight to an Episcopalian clergyman, Eckstorm bore two children before her husband died six years after their marriage. She returned to her old home in Brewer and continued writing. Her works treat three subject areas: birds, ballads and stories, and native Americans.

Eckstorm's first book-length works were on ornithology. Birdwatching had become an acceptable avocation for women. The Woodpeckers (1901) introduces the techniques of birdwatching, using the woodpecker family because these birds are so easily identified and studied. A larger, more philosophic concern informs the book, as well. She argues that evolutionary theories do not eliminate God but rather strengthen theistic faith.

By 1904 Eckstorm had turned her attention to recording various aspects of traditional culture in northern Maine. She saw this culture as threatened by technology, expanding population and industry, and unconcerned young people. She joined her father in campaigns to save wildlife and commenced research on ballads, place-name history, and folktales. The Penobscot Man (1904) was the first published book in this vein—a collection of tales of the daring men who ran the Penobscot River, men who kept the logs rolling downstream from the time the ice broke up in the spring until midsummer. The tales are of heroic, almost mythic figures whom Eckstorm observed as a child when they worked for her father. The Penobscot man, be he Native American or Irish or Italian, always puts his work first; lives for the ideals of honor, friendship, duty, sport, and "grim, stern, granite obstinacy"; and dies cheerfully—according to Eckstorm. The stories themselves are fascinating evocations of the region and period.

Collaborating with well-known scholars, she published two important works: Minstrelsy of Maine (1927) and British Ballads from Maine (1929). The latter work, based on Child's classification of English and Scottish ballads, collects both texts and airs from traditional singers in Maine. Before this pioneering work, it had been thought that New England had no ballad tradition like southern Appalachia and illiteracy was a necessary factor in the continued existence of balladry. The collaborators discovered that the Maine texts were preserved in the oldest British forms, often identical to those already collected in the southern Appalachians. They theorized that the Maine settlers and the southern highlanders had arrived at about the same time from the same locale in the British Isles. Both groups were relatively isolated until the 20th century, thus maintaining the more traditional forms.

Eckstorm's career as a regionalist culminated in her publication of the scholarly Indian Place-Names of the Penobscot Valley and the Maine Coast (1941). In this work she listed all the variants for place names and the histories of name changes, using the comparative analytic method as well as her own vast knowledge of the region. The work (reprinted several times) is still significant in the field.

Eckstorm's last work, also about the Native Americans of Maine, was published when she was eighty-one. Old John Neptune and Other Maine Indian Shamans (1945) is a narrative of a family of Penobscot Native Americans Eckstorm and her family had known for generations. These shamans or wizards were known for their clairvoyance. Eckstorm's own interest in psychic phenomena, as well as her fierce loyalty to Native American traditions, explains her belief in the shamans' powers. With this and her other works, Eckstorm left an invaluable written legacy that will long preserve the cultural traditions of northern Appalachia.

Other Works:

The Bird Book (1901). David Libbey, Penobscot Woodman and River-Driver (1907). The Handicrafts of the Modern Indians of Maine (1932).

The papers of Fannie Hardy Eckstorm are at the Bangor (Maine) Public Library and at the Smith College Archives.

Bibliography:

Reference works:

NAW, 1607-1950 (1971). Who Was Who in America (1950). Woman's Who's Who of America (1914-15).

Other references:

Bangor Daily News (10 Dec. 1910, 1 Jan. 1947). CSM (20 Oct. 1945). Nation (14 March 1928). NEQ (March 1953). SRL (19 April 1930). TLS (6 Feb. 1930). YR (Sept. 1928).

—MARGARET MCFADDEN-GERBER