Bide-a-While, Bar Harbor, ME A Standard Oil Fortune Summers in Maine As principals in the formidable Standard Oil trust, the Harkness family occupied a rarified position within America’s Gilded Age aristocracy. For this new class of industrial magnates, wealth was not merely accumulated; it was performed on a national stage. Elite summer resorts like Bar Harbor, Maine, served as crucial venues for this performance—places where families of immense fortune could solidify their social standing,...

Learn about the history of Belfair Plantation in Bluffton

The 1600s were a time of fierce European competition for control of North America. Spain held Florida, the Southwest, and much of the...