E – M – L Brand Sardine Can Label, packed by the Lawrence Canning Co., Rockland, Maine, ca. 1910. Maine State Museum. Gift of Harold Bailey, 2018.17.
E – M – L Brand Sardine Can Label, packed by the Lawrence Canning Co., Rockland, Maine, ca. 1910. Maine State Museum. Gift of Harold Bailey, 2018.17.
Maine's sardine industry began when the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 disrupted the European sardine trade. By 1900, sixty-nine Maine canneries operated in Eastport, Lubec, and other areas Down East. According to the 1906 Maine Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics report, more than 100 children under 14 years old were working in the Eastport processing plants.