Old Pictorial Map of Penobscot Bay, Maine by Phillips 1940: Bangor, Camden, Belfast, Blue Hill, US 1

A Decorative Map of Penobscot Bay Region, created by Luther S. Phillips in 1940, celebrates Maine’s storied coast from Camden to Blue Hill and from Islesboro to Bangor. Conceived as a county-and-state pictorial map with thematic depth, it braids navigational clarity with artistic flourish. North stands crisp at the top beneath a decorative compass rose, while a highly ornate cartouche frames the region’s essentials and lends a heraldic gravitas. Across the water, an illustrated sailing vessel salutes centuries of maritime enterprise, its wake threading among named islands and harbors. Every component is intentional: place-names are carefully lettered, shorelines are sculpted with an engraver’s poise, and annotations hover like marginalia, inviting close reading. This is a map to explore as much as consult.

Phillips renders terrain with contour lines and spot heights, translating the Camden Hills’ uplift and Blue Hill’s rounded summit into legible relief. The sweep of the Penobscot River broadens toward the bay, gathering tributaries and lakes that bead the interior, while coves and necks articulate the indented coast. U.S. Route 1 traces the shoreline, tying Camden, Belfast, and Blue Hill to smaller townships and ferry landings; inland roads climb toward Bangor, the head of navigation and the region’s largest city. Harbors, ports, bridges, and landmark buildings are shown and named, their positions clarifying the choreography of work and travel. The result is a living geography: islands like Islesboro sit not as abstractions but as communities connected by roads, wharves, and water.

History speaks from the upper margin. Notes recall the bay’s European acquaintance in 1525, when the Portuguese navigator Estêvão Gomes christened it Baya Fermosa—Beautiful Bay. Another annotation evokes the shimmering mirage of Norumbega as described in 1569, the fabled New World city that once haunted early maps along this very riverine coast. Phillips does not adjudicate the legend; instead, he sets it alongside tangible memory—the catastrophic fire of April 30, 1911, which reshaped Bangor and the region’s fortunes. These callouts animate the landscape with time, turning capes and channels into stages for exploration, ambition, and resilience. Even the ship that traverses the bay becomes a narrative device, bridging centuries of cod, timber, and schooner trade with 20th‑century highways and evolving coastal industry.

Design intelligence governs every inch. The ornate cartouche distills key information, while balanced ornament keeps the eye moving without obscuring function. The compass rose, crisp and luminous, steadies bearings as the labels march confidently along shorelines and river bends. Phillips’ palette of symbols—tiny buildings for civic landmarks, neat ticks for roads and highways, and fine contours with spot heights—expresses hierarchy at a glance. Relief reads cleanly, so that a sailor or motorist can intuit where hills shoulder the coast and where valleys funnel weather. The composition trusts scale and clarity to do the work, creating a map legible at a glance yet rewarding in detail, as hospitable to the armchair traveler as to the field researcher.

Luther S. Phillips emerges here as both cartographer and storyteller, working in the American pictorial tradition that flourished in the 1930s and 1940s. His draughtsmanship is disciplined, yet his line retains warmth, allowing history, topography, and daily life to coexist on a single sheet. He builds a regional portrait rather than a mere chart: Bangor’s bustle, Camden’s hills, Belfast’s harbor, Blue Hill’s peninsula, and Islesboro’s island lanes are all given voice and relation. Scholars will prize the dates and toponyms; navigators, the lucid bearings; collectors, the idiosyncratic grace. Above all, the map captures Penobscot Bay’s enduring identity—a confluence of river and sea, timber and sail, myth and measure—rendered with the measured confidence of a practiced hand.

Cities and towns on this map

• Bangor - largest city in the area.
• Camden
• Belfast
• Blue Hill
• Islesboro (notable but smaller population)
• Rockland (not specifically mentioned, but nearby and relevant in context)

Notable Features & Landmarks

• Contour lines indicating relief.
• Compass rose showcasing cardinal directions.
• Historic events annotated in the upper margin.
• Cartouche summarizing key information about the region.
• Illustrated vessels, notably a ship representing maritime history.
• Various landmarks depicted alongside their names.
• Roads and highways connecting various towns and significant locations.

Historical and design context

• Creator: Luther S. Phillips
• Year Created: 1940
• Map Type: County or State Thematic and Pictorial Map
• Content & Themes: Integrates geographical features with historical annotations, roads, rivers, lakes, highways, islands, ports, buildings, and landmarks.
• Content & Themes: Significant historical events noted, such as the description of Norumbega in 1569 and the fire on April 30, 1911.
• Historical Context: Mentions of the bay's discovery by Gomes in 1525, named "Baya Fermosa."
• Purpose: Functions as both a navigational tool and an artistic representation, serving historians, cartographers, and enthusiasts.

Please double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.

This map looks great at every size, but I always recommend going for a larger size if you have space. That way you can easily make out all of the details.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 70in (180cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.

The fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.

If you’re looking for something slightly different, check out my collection of the best old maps to see if something else catches your eye.

Please contact me to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.

This would make a wonderful birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, work leaving, anniversary or housewarming gift for someone from the areas covered by this map.

This map is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or you can buy it framed. The frame is a nice, simple black frame that suits most aesthetics. Please get in touch if you'd like a different frame colour or material. My frames are glazed with super-clear museum-grade acrylic (perspex/acrylite), which is significantly less reflective than glass, safer, and will always arrive in perfect condition.