Lumber history film on national registry

BUCKSPORT – The Library of Congress named a Maine film to the National Film Registry on Tuesday. It’s the first northern New England film to be so honored, and one of only a handful of works by an amateur filmmaker to be named to the registry since its establishment in 1989.

The film, “From Stump to Ship,” was made in 1930 by Alfred Ames, owner of a Maine lumber company. He documented his business with a 16 mm camera, showing horses hauling loads of logs through the woods, the spring drive on the Machias River, work in the sawmill, and the schooner Lucy Evelyn headed to New York.

The original silent 16 mm film is in Special Collections at the University of Maine’s Fogler Library and copies are distributed by Northeast Historic Film, the moving-image archives in Bucksport.