The Maine Lobster: From Bait to Paper Art
- Shannon Cyr
- May 14
- 6 min read
Before it became Maine’s most recognizable symbol, the lobster was fertilizer, bait, prison food, surrealist art, couture, and even a sitcom soulmate. Here’s how one crustacean pulled off one of the strangest reinventions in Maine history.
Maine Lobster Cards
Adding a lobster to our Maine Symbols greeting card collection was a no-brainer. Few symbols are as immediately associated with Maine as the red lobster. For most people, it’s the first thing that comes to mind when they think of Maine—and not by accident.
Over time, the lobster has become more than a source of livelihood along the coast. It has evolved into one of Maine’s most enduring visual symbols.
Let’s take a look at how we got here.
The Cod Craze
The lobster's story actually begins with cod.
By the late 15th century, Europe had a fish problem. Demand was enormous. Populations were rebounding after the devastation of the Black Death, cities were growing, and Catholic fasting rules prohibited meat on many religious observances, making fish a vital, high‑demand food source. At the same time, expanding militaries and merchant fleets also needed durable protein like fish that could be stored and transported at low cost.
There was just one problem: European fisheries were depleted from overfishing. The existing supply couldn’t satisfy a continent hungry for more fish than its waters could provide.
Then one voyage ignited a cod rush. John Cabot’s 1497 expedition to the coast of North America brought back reports of fishing grounds so rich they sounded almost implausible.
The idea of an endless bounty to meet the demand fueled a growing wave of commercial fishing expeditions to the new land. What these fishermen found was exactly what Europe needed.
North Atlantic cod were larger than their European counterparts, plentiful, and naturally suited to preservation. They could easily be salted, stored, transported, and sold at scale.
By the mid‑16th century, Basque, Portuguese, French, and Spanish fleets were crossing the Atlantic seasonally in pursuit of cod. Hundreds of ships and thousands of fishermen competed for cod in some of the richest fishing grounds on earth.
Cod is King
What began as a food-supply solution evolved into something much bigger. Between roughly 1550 and 1850, the transatlantic cod fishery grew into one of the most significant and lucrative commercial enterprises in the Atlantic world.
The cod trade did more than feed Europe. It helped shape trade networks, coastal infrastructure, and the early economy of northeastern North America. It also shaped how people first encountered lobster.
What About the Lobster?
Lobster was abundant in the North Atlantic, but it wasn’t the target catch. For the crews working these waters, lobsters were troublesome pests that swarmed and stripped baited lines meant for cod, tangled hooks, pinched fingers, and created a lot of extra work that pulled time and money from more profitable haul. When caught, lobsters might be used as emergency rations, but their more common uses were as fertilizer and cod bait.
It’s wild to imagine Maine lobster being used as bait when it’s considered a delicacy today. But for centuries, lobster was anything but prized.
From Pest to Poverty Food
By the early 1600s, seasonal fishing expeditions were giving way to permanent settlements along the Maine coast. Small colonial communities needed reliable food sources, especially during harsh winters and periods of scarcity.
Lobster was everywhere. It washed ashore after storms, could be gathered in shallow waters, and required far less effort than other forms of protein. What had once been a nuisance to cod fishermen became an easy, abundant food source for settlers, laborers, and the poor.
Abundance and accessibility shaped lobster’s reputation. What was plentiful became dismissible. Cheap and easy to catch, lobster became associated with poverty and desperation. Fed to prisoners, laborers, and indentured servants, it was viewed as a poverty food, not a luxury item.
Technology Changed the Market
The 19th century brought another major shift in the fishing industry. Industrial‑era technology changed how seafood could be preserved, transported, and sold — setting the stage for lobster’s remarkable reinvention.
Canning (1840s–1850s)
Canning created the first practical pathway for lobster to reach consumers beyond the coast, expanding access and introducing it to people with no historical connection to its low‑status reputation.
Railroad Expansion (1850s-1890s)
Rail transportation made it possible to move seafood quickly into inland cities, where people could experience fresh lobster for the first time. Far from the coast, it was no longer perceived as common or cheap, but as something exotic and special.
Refrigeration (late 1800s–early 1900s)
Refrigerated storage made distribution more reliable and scalable, helping cement lobster’s transformation from abundant coastal resource to premium seafood.
More Than a Meal
By the early 20th century, lobster’s transformation was well underway. As its availability changed, so did its meaning.
Fine Art
In 1936, surrealist artist Salvador Dalí introduced the Lobster Telephone, which reimagined the lobster as something strange, provocative, and undeniably artistic. Whether viewed as absurdist humor, surreal symbolism, or simply a wonderfully weird design choice, Dalí helped serve up the lobster as more than just a meal.
Fashion
A year later, the lobster made its way from surrealist art into high fashion. In 1937, designer Elsa Schiaparelli collaborated with Dalí on the now‑iconic Lobster Dress, placing a boldly illustrated crustacean on silk organza. Once associated with poverty and practicality, the lobster was now couture.
Tourism & Americana
As automobile travel and coastal tourism expanded in the 1950s, the lobster became a natural fit for advertising, postcards, and roadside Americana. Across coastal New England, and particularly in Maine, the lobster appeared on restaurant signs and travel imagery as a recognizable visual shorthand for coastal escape, seafood indulgence, and summer tradition.
Pop Culture
The lobster eventually made its way into mainstream entertainment and pop culture. In 1978, The B‑52’s released Rock Lobster, a new‑wave anthem that helped cement the lobster’s place in music history.
And, in the 1990s, the lobster took on a whole new meaning.
Friends famously turned the lobster into a symbol of destined romance with the soulmate metaphor, reinforcing its place beyond the dinner table and in mainstream culture.
Across art, fashion, tourism, and pop culture, the lobster became a recognizable symbol associated with creativity, luxury, nostalgia, and romance. Here in Maine, it’s all that—and a little more.
Maine Lobsters
For well over a century, lobster has been a driving force in Maine’s economy. What began as unwanted bycatch evolved into one of Maine’s most important exports.
In coastal communities, lobstering is more than a job; it’s a family tradition. Some families have worked the same waters for generations, waking before sunrise to haul traps and navigate the rocky Maine coast. Skills, routines, and hard‑earned knowledge are passed aboard working boats and around kitchen tables.
Lobstering depends on more than the boats heading out before dawn. Maine’s working waterfront includes the infrastructure that keeps the fishery moving, from traps and docks to the equipment that supports daily harvest operations.
The impact extends far beyond the lobstermen. Trap makers, boat builders, bait suppliers, processors, seafood businesses, restaurants, and small‑town economies all depend on the lobster fishery.
That ecosystem is visible all along Maine’s coast, where working harbors remain part of daily life and local identity.
This history helps explain why the lobster is one of Maine’s most recognizable symbols. It’s far more than a commercial export. It represents generations of labor, coastal tradition, and a relationship with the sea that helped shape Maine itself.
From Sea to Paper
The story of the Maine lobster doesn’t end at the water’s edge. This is where it becomes paper art.
Our Maine Lobster greeting cards are a small paper tribute to that legacy, honoring a symbol that remains deeply connected to Maine’s people, coastline, and way of life.
From Maine,
Shannon
