Students from Bowdoin college investigated topics and wrote papers related to the folklore and folklife of Maine communities, including beliefs of fishermen, cookery, farm life, Prohibition and rum-running, mill work, Bath Iron Works, lobstering, quilting, folk medicine, ghosts,lighthouse keeping, boat building, lumbering, ship building, carpentry, hunting, and storytelling.

A collection of 73 separate accessions containing interviews with Mainers on a wide range of topics relating to life and work in the state of Maine, conducted 1972-1983 by Lynn Franklin, a journalist who specialized in cultural stories, occupational lore, life histories, and human interest stories. Of special interest are Franklin's interviews relating to lobstering, woods work, guides and canoe building, boats and boat building, and rural education.