It’s a journey he has taken before. Steve Berry, now 67, used to peddle the aerial photographs to farmers from Utica, N.Y., to Bangor.
Walk into any farmhouse and you can find them: oak framed aerial shots, in color, showing the property and buildings.
“The original photos became treasures to these families. They were their history,” Berry said.
But in his retirement to Vermont, Berry learned that the photos — 28 million of them — were piled in an Ohio warehouse, gathering dust, long forgotten. Always an entrepreneur — Berry used to work as an entertainment agent in Boston, representing such acts as Bobby Rydell — he had an idea: Go back to the farms and gather their histories. Write them down and publish a book.
State Aerial loved the idea, hired him on the spot, and Berry hit the road again, this time spending an hour to an hour and a half at each farm he visits.
“I’m going to have to live to 117 to get this project done,” he joked. Using stacks of the original photographs, sorted only by county, he knocks on the farmhouse door, introduces himself and asks about the farm. Everyone has been receptive, he said.
As he talks about his project, which will be published by State Aerial in separate 500-page hardcover books for each county, Berry’s passion about Maine agriculture and its history shines through.
“Maine is still small, family farms,” he said. “There isn’t factory farming here. I want to glorify that farm experience.”
Meanwhile, Berry is having the time of his life.
“I cannot believe the stories out there, up and down Maine’s roads. I’m looking for stories anywhere I can find them, but 99 percent of the stories are coming directly from the farmers.”
But there is sadness, too, at the loss of some of this history.
“Sometimes I find the location of the farm but there is nothing left. No barn. No house. Nothing to show that once there was a thriving farm there,” he said.
He gets nostalgic just looking at the photographs.
“You can look at any one of these pictures and trigger a memory. Maybe it’s grandfather on a tractor, maybe it’s summer harvesting or winter chores. I believe that 30 to 40 people are attached to each of these pictures,” he said.
Berry has nearly finished a similar project for the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont. “I got my feet wet with those three counties,” he said.
As the project unfolds, Berry is challenging every farming community in Maine to send him a story. It doesn’t have to be about farming, but that would be preferred. He wants the stories to reflect each community’s history and past.
“I’m asking for people to see the value of where this country came from,” he said. “These farms, these villages, these places speak to the American spirit, the Maine work ethic. And these stories will prove that this country is going to be OK.”
Anyone interested in sending in a historical story from their community may write to Berry at 143 Patterson Park, Waterbury, VT 05676, or call 802-279-0519.
Steve Berry
Looking down on history
Retiree gathers stories, aerial photos of Maine’s farms
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTOS BY SHARON MACK
Millions of black and white aerial photographs of Maine farms are being used to identify the properties and gather their histories for an upcoming series of books. Steve Berry of Vermont is visiting farms throughout the state to “create a picture of Maine’s agriculture history.’’
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487-3187