Indian Place-Names of The Penobscot Valley and The Maine Coast (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780788448300)

This is one of the foremost authoritative sources for information on the Indian place-names of Maine. The area covered is the "drainage basin of the Penobscot River from the Great Fork at Medway downward, both sides of Penobscot Bay roughly speaking, lower Penobscot County, Waldo and Knox Counties, and western Hancock County." The book is arranged according to natural geography. Using a comparative analytic method the author extracted the meaning of the words from old maps, deeds, wills and other documents. She then compared the translations to the natural characteristics of the area and conferred with living Native Americans of the area.

This book was written with three classes of readers in mind: detail-oriented readers, wanting the spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of the terms discussed; students of history looking for places no longer located on current maps; and students of philology, archaeology, anthropology, and comparative language. An appendix (Joseph Nicolar's Penobscot Place-Names), a bibliography, and an index to full names and places add to the value of this work.