Campbell's Book Store, 1952 and 1959

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Creator

Collection

Portland Press Herald Still-Film Negatives Collection

Document Type

Still Image

Call number of Original

93184A (exterior view), and 71020 (interior view)

Contributing Institution

Portland Public Library Special Collections & Archives

Location

Portland, Cumberland, Maine, USA

Creation Date

12-12-1952

Format of Original

4 x 5" gelatin silver negatives

Description

Views of Campbell's Book Store, 604 Congress Street.
The store was a fixture in downtown Portland, from 1935 - 1974, with a national clientele. Owned by Charles E. Campbell (1888 - 1985), Portland High School Class of 1903 and manager of the book department at Loring, Short, and Harmon until opening his own shop, he was an authority among bibliophiles and librarians near and far.

"Portland is an unusually good book town," Campbell told the Evening Express in 1952. "Salesmen tell me that many a town twice Portland's size can't support a book store. The difference isn't level of personal income; it's the level of intellectual interest." He added, "This is a business of minute detail."

Following his retirement in 1974, at age 86, Campbell rented an office next door, on the 3rd floor of 602A Congress Street, where he provided book-finding and antiquarian ordering services. When he closed the retail book store, he sold his inventory to the University of Maine Portland-Gorham Library.

Left image: Exterior view of Campbell's Book Store (604 Congress Street), from northwest.
Photo published in the Evening Express, on 20 June 1959.

Right image: Charles E. Campbell helping customer Mrs. L.M. Sellick, of Yarmouth, in the book store.
Photo published in the Evening Express, on 12 December 1952.

Recommended Citation

"Campbell's Book Store, 1952 and 1959" (1952). Businesses & Buildings - Portland Press Herald Still Film Negatives. 590.
https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/pphnegs_images_business/590