Maine Memory Network

An ever-growing resource documenting Maine's built and designed environment, this database includes architecture and landscape design commissions from ca. 1850 through the present. Represented works include Maine architects and designers; commissioned projects in Maine or for Maine residents; and to a lesser extent, out-of-state commissions by Maine architects. Read on.

The Beyond Borders project, a two and half year initiative (2020-2022) supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, was crafted to digitize and provide free, full-text online access to three of Maine Historical Society's oldest and most significant archival holdings: the Plymouth Company, also known as the Kennebec Proprietors (Coll. 60), the Pejepscot Proprietors (Coll. 61), and the Barclay (Coll. 26) Collections. These primary resources provide essential context for important contemporary topics such as Indigenous land and water rights; and the preservation and use of public lands. The Beyond Borders portal provides access to vital primary resources for framing scholarship, programs, exhibitions, and civic dialog about land and waterways in Maine. Read on.

In 1912, a multi-racial community of about forty-five people was evicted by the state of Maine from Malaga Island, just off the coast of Phippsburg. It was an act motivated by economics, racism, eugenics, and political retribution. Photographer Kate Philbrick and radio producer Rob Rosenthal produced "Malaga Island: A Story Best Left Untold" in collaboration with WMPG-FM and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine in 2009. This webpage archives the 2009 project at Maine Historical Society and on Maine Memory Network. The site was previously found at malagaislandmaine.org. Read on.

Maine played a central role in the United States' gradual—and sometimes riotous—move towards drinking reform. This exhibition covers a period from 1620 to 1934, highlighting the role that drink played in Maine's social, economic and political history, and profiling the events and leaders in Maine that catalyzed other States' and eventually the Nation's prohibition of alcohol. Read on.

The Freedom & Captivity digital collection in the Maine Memory Network, and the complete digital archive housed at Colby Special Collections, is a repository of personal testimonies, ephemera, memorabilia, artifacts, and visual materials that capture multiple dimensions of the experiences of incarceration for individuals, families, and communities, as well as for survivors of harm. Read on.

An interpretive introduction and overview of Maine Historical Society's historic dress collection from approximately 1775 to 1980. Featuring over 220 items from the collection, the site includes narratives, chronological groupings documenting trend and style, and themed image galleries highlighting special topics. The overview provides a contextualized history of fashion interpreted and illustrated through items held in the MHS Collection. Read on.

While the Missouri Compromise brought Maine into the Union as a free state in 1820, Maine's push for separation from Massachusetts did not begin in 1820, nor was it simply dictated by Congress. Since the founding of the United States, a consistent and longstanding local fight for independence had been underway and was steered by savvy leaders, mercantile pursuits, boundary fights and much more. Read on.

Maine's participation in the Civil War is legendary: heroes and heroines, a huge per capita participation rate, nurses, and homefront activities, as well as post-war remembrances. These pages pull together resources from Maine Memory Network and Maine History Online that explore and illuminate aspects of Maine and the Civil War. Read on.

The Story of Mercy Hospital began in the fall of 1918, with one of the greatest health crisis in the city's history, the pandemic known as the Spanish Influenza. This emergency, along with limited proper hospital facilities in the Portland area, prompted Bishop Walsh to enlist the help of the Sisters of Mercy. This relationship launched Mercy Hospital's commitment to the greater Portland community, through compassionate and high-quality healthcare. Read on.

When Peleg Wadsworth built his house in 1785, what is now Congress Street in Portland was on the rural outskirts of the community known as Falmouth. The house passed on to other family members and Portland changed around what remained a family home until 1901, when it became a historic house museum. Read on.