Inventing Vacationland – Scott Andrews

Scarborough Historical Society Meeting, 2:00 p.m., September 8, 2019, at the Scarborough Public Library.

Following a short Historical Society meeting on September 8th, Scott Andrews will present a program “Inventing Vacationland”.

Maine has officially advertised itself as “Vacationland” since 1916. Before then it was touted as “The Nation’s Playground” and “Sportsmen’s Paradise.” Today the business of tourism and recreation plays host to more than 33 million visitors who spend more than $6 billion each year, by far Maine’s biggest industry.

Maine has been a preeminent destination for rusticators, tourists, vacationers and recreational enthusiasts of all stripes and all seasons for nearly two centuries, beginning with Henry David Thoreau and a coterie of painters.

How did Maine become a vacation mecca? What were the milestones? Who were the key actors? What did they do and where did they do it? That’s the subject of Inventing Vacationland, a fascinating PowerPoint slideshow and talk by Scott Andrews that will be presented at the Scarborough Public Library on September 8th, at 2 PM. 

The Jocelyn was a grand hotel of the Victorian era that stood on Prouts Neck in Scarborough between 1890 and 1909. This image is among many that will be shown Sept. 8 when the Scarborough Historical Society hosts Inventing Vacationland, a presentation and talk about the history of Maine tourism by Scott Andrews, at 2 p.m. at the Scarborough Public Library.
(photo courtesy Scarborough Historical Society)

Inventing Vacationland will touch on issues of transportation, accommodations, amenities, activities, arts, and recreation from before the Civil War to the present day. Scarborough played a key role in this story. Much material for Inventing Vacationland was contributed by the Scarborough Historical Society and the Prouts Neck Historical Society.

About the presenter: Scott Andrews earned a B.A. in history from the University of Chicago, an M.B.A. from the Chicago Booth School of Business and an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics. He has been involved in the Maine tourism industry since his teenage years when he worked at his family’s campground in Oxford County. A longtime lifestyle journalist, Andrews has written about two thousand articles on the arts, recreation, and tourism for a variety of local and national publications.