"The goal of Down East has always been to hold a mirror up to Maine — its storied past and lively present — and to celebrate its flinty, independent character and unhurried way of life. As Maine has changed with the times, however, so has Down East. Today the state has come to embrace its future as well as its past. Accordingly, the magazine now focuses more on contemporary Maine life and what the future might bring and less on historical background and quaint rusticity. Booming circulation and advertising gains demonstrate the wisdom of this editorial shift."
Portland Public Library's collection of Down East is complete, and begins with the first issue, August 1954. The hard copies are available in the Portland Room.
Submissions from 2005
"North by East" piece on how Maine students follow a school calendar that is rar
"North by East" piece on how Maine was chosen by Virginia-based Smithfield Foods
"North by East" piece on how Portland's New Year's celebration, formerly sponsor
"North by East" piece on how some Maine beaches, such as Long Sands Beach in Yor
"North by East" piece on how some Maine towns are getting tougher about rural cl
"North by East" piece on how state law governs the order of questions on state v
"North by East" piece on how state senator Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, is respo
"North by East" piece on how the controversial widening of the Maine Turnpike, c
"North by East" piece on how the Maine Fire Marshal's Office stakes out parking
"North by East" piece on how the ratio of native Mainers to residents "from away
"North by East" piece on how the U.S. Special Forces recently participated in a
"North by East" piece on how vultures are unlikely harbingers of spring. They r
"North by East" piece on how wet conditions this spring might increase Maine's p
"North by East" piece on how with declining federal funds, Acadia National Park
"North by East" piece on interpreters for the Maine Medical Center in Portland,
"North by East" piece on "island cars," which are not as closely regulated as of
"North by East" piece on Jessica Muhlin, a University of Maine graduate student
"North by East" piece on Jim Corliss, owner of Newburgh-based Piper Mountain Chr
"North by East" piece on Lincolnville artist, Neil Welliver, who died April 5.
"North by East" piece on Longfellow's Greenhouses in Manchester, which has opene
"North by East" piece on lost-and-found items on Mount Desert Island that make t
"North by East" piece on Maine representative Barbara Merrill of Appleton, who h
"North by East" piece on Maine's distinction among the lower 48 states of having
"North by East" piece on Monhegan Island's successful "Doc on a Rock" program, w
"North by East" piece on new legislation and more rigorous enforcement of all-te
"North by East" piece on North Woods landmark, Pittston Farm, begun in the late
"North by East" piece on Old Orchard Beach's The Ballpark, for which the town wa
"North by East" piece on Portland City Hall's unsuccessful attempt to fight the
"North by East" piece on Portland regulations that require anyone doing business
"North by East" piece on Presque Isle High School, in the heart of Maine's large
"North by East" piece on Ray Huizenga of Florida, whose name will be attached to
"North by East" piece on some qualities that define the city of Portland and its
"North by East" piece on statistics related to the Maine Turnpike, its Transpass
"North by East" piece on statistics relating to the costs of the now-obsolete Ma
"North by East" piece on Ted Ames, Stonington lobsterman, marine biologist, and
"North by East" piece on the Casco Bay Lines $3 million passenger ferry, Aucocis
"North by East" piece on the closure of the venerable Boom Chain restaurant in G
"North by East" piece on the extremely small chance that a devastating tsunami w
"North by East" piece on the final Eastern Maine Class A basketball tournament h
"North by East" piece on the first live transatlantic standard radio broadcast b
"North by East" piece on the five warmest February days on record for Portland,
"North by East" piece on the growing number of Maine boats that are protected in
"North by East" piece on the increasing number of Mainers who are going to denti
"North by East" piece on the influx of retirees to the state, which has the thir
"North by East" piece on the landlocked Coast Guard Loran Station outside Caribo
"North by East" piece on the naming of the new Penobscot River bridge between Pr
"North by East" piece on the new glass-enclosed skywalk at the University of Sou
"North by East" piece on the perhaps too great success of the reintroduction of, Edgar Allen Beem
"North by East" piece on the pros and cons of a failed proposal in the Legislatu
"North by East" piece on the redesign of license plates for legislators, which a