By 1898, when the production of picture postcards began, Bar Harbor had become one of America's leading summer resorts and second only to Newport, Rhode Island, in wealth and social standing. For the next six decades, the postcard recorded the transformation of this coastal island community into a middle class tourist destination. Grand hotels, seaside mansions, and elegant gardens made way for roadside cabins and motels catering to automobile travelers. Bar Harbor features many never-before-published postcards from the collections of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, the Bar Harbor Historical Society, and the Penobscot Marine Museum.

Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. has served as the director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission since 1976. In 2004, Gov. John Baldacci appointed Shettleworth as Maine's state historian and reappointed him in 2008. He has coauthored or authored six other Arcadia publications.