This vintage real photo postcard features a photograph of Domhegan, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s (1828-1914) summer home. Domhegan was located at Simpson’s Point, in Brunswick, Maine. The house was on Casco Bay and Chamberlain enjoyed sailing in the area. He paid one thousand dollars for the property which at the time was a shipyard. He used Domhegan as his summer house and as an artist colony. Chamberlain buried his war horse “Charlemagne” on the Domhegan property. He gave the horse a Christian funeral. Chamberlain was a college professor at Bowdoin college in Maine when the civil war broke out. He joined the Union Army and became a highly respected and decorated military officer. He was one of the major heroes of the battle of Gettysburg, when he led a desperate and surprise bayonet attack against Confederate forces. Chamberlain won the Medal of Honor for his bravery and leadership actions. He left the Army as a Brigadier General. After the war he served four terms as the Governor of Maine and then returned to Bowdoin College to serve as it’s President. He died in 1914 as a result of complications from one of his civil war wounds. Unfortunately, in 1940 Domhegan burned down to the ground. Helen, the writer of this postcard, tells her Aunt Emma, that she stays at Domhegan every summer. She praises the photograph of the house but points out that the property’s pier and water are not visible in the photo. This undivided back postcard was postmarked in 1906. Chamberlain was still alive during Helen’s visits. One wonders if she and her family had some familial or social connection to Chamberlain. SOLD
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