The Maine Memory Network currently contains historical items, including digital reproductions of photographs, paintings, manuscripts (handwritten journals and letters), newspaper articles, and museum objects. Roughly 50% of the items are from the Maine Historical Society, representing less than 1% of MHS collections. The other 50% are from over 270 Contributing Partners.
To further contextualize the historical items, we have created online exhibits, many of which bring together collections of multiple organizations. With the ambitious goal of providing a comprehensive gateway into Maine history, we have begun writing interpretive essays that will give a substantive overview of Maine history, from which users can access items, collections, exhibits, and educational resources.
The high standards of our content development may lower our volume of items, but it makes the website more valuable. For example, each item contains not only a catalog record but also a descriptive paragraph. All hand-written materials, including multi-page journals and letters, are fully transcribed. Even if a manuscript has 100 pages, we still consider it one historical item.
Digital images are created and archived according to high-resolution archival standards. Items are cataloged in Dublin Core format, and all standards are compatible with the Library of Congress. More information on our standards and procedures are available in the Contributing Partners section of this website.
For information about how to cite content found on Maine Memory Network please refer to our How To Cite Content from Maine Memory Network document.
