Barry, William (1946 - )

Genre: Non-Fiction

Bill Barry, a Portland resident, is a research historian, book reviewer, editor, and freelance writer. He has also been a guest curator for a number of art and historical exhibits. These include 'Women Pioneers in Maine Art' (1981), 'Made in Maine: Michael Waterman' (1988), and 'Rum Riot and Reform: Maine and the History of American Drinking' (1999; with Nan Cumming)

His research and writing specialties are local and regional art, history and literature. He received an M.A. in American Cultural History from the University of Vermont. After his graduation in 1974, he was employed as Curator of Research at the Portland Museum of Art until the late 1970s. He now works as library research assistant for the Maine Historical Society (MHS) in Portland, and in 2005 was awarded the Neal Woodside Allen Jr., History Award by the MHS, recognizing and honoring outstanding contributions to the field of Maine history. Barry has been a frequent contributor to periodicals including Down East, Portland magazine, Antiques, and Maine History.

Selected Bibliography

  • Mr. Goodhue Remembers Portland: Scenes from the Mid-19th Century (1981) co-authored with Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr.
  • A Vignetted History of Portland Business, 1632-1982 (1982)
  • Tate House: Crown of the Maine Mast Trade (1982) with Frances W. Peabody
  • Pyrrhus Venture (1983) a historic novel written with Randolph Dominic
  • L.L. Bean, Inc., Outdoor Sporting Specialties: a Company Scrapbook (1987)
  • The History of Sweetser Children's Home: a Century and a Half of Service to Maine Children (1988)
  • On the Borders of Yankee Land; An Illustrated History of Maine (1990) with Patricia McGraw Anderson
  • The AIDS Project: A History (1997) ed. by Susan Cummings-Lawrence
  • Deering: A Social and Architectural History with Patricia McGraw Anderson (2010)
  • Maine: The Wilder Half of New England (2012)

Barry edited This was Stroudwater: 1727-1860, by Myrtle Kittridge Lovejoy (1985) and was co-editor, with Gael May McKibben, of A Passionate Intensity: The Life and Work of Dorothy Healy (1992).

He has contributed individual chapters to books such as Pilgrims and Pioneers: New England Women in the Arts (1987) and also wrote the introduction, with Earle Shettleworth, Jr., to American Domestic Architecture: A Late Victorian Style Book (1978), a reprint of Maine architect John Calvin Stevens' 1889 book.