Van Buren developed from the settlement of Acadian and French-Canadian families beginning in the late eighteenth century. Milling operations developed in the following century. The town momentarily became an educational center for the region. Priests from the Society of Mary established a college with grades ranging from high school to the baccalaureate; the school's first building was completed in 1887.

The exact location of the photograph is uncertain. But, with the sidewalk running on the north side of Main Street, the photograph likely looks westward and away from the Catholic church. The sidewalk is also seen in MMN item 148639.

The card bears no date. The ascribed date is based on a postcard with a similar design, also published by H. Hackett, which bears a 1906 postmark.

No person named Hackett is yet known to have lived in Van Buren at this time. The publisher may have been a member of the Hackett family who owned a department store in Caribou.