Maine Memory Network

A-Frame, Fairfield, ca. 1970

Contributed by: L.C. Bates Museum / Good Will-Hinckley Homes Date: circa 1970 Location: Fairfield Media: Photographic print

Christmas tree frame work, Presque Isle, 1959

Contributed by: Presque Isle Historical Society Date: 1959 Location: Presque Isle Media: Photographic print

Buckfield Library, Buckfield, 1900-1906

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1900–1906 Location: Buckfield Client: John D. Long Architect: John Calvin Stevens

Farm-yard Frames

Throughout New England, barns attached to houses are fairly common. Why were the buildings connected? What did farmers or families gain by doing this? The phenomenon was captured in the words of a children's song, "Big house, little house, back house, barn," (Thomas C. Hubka <em>Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn, the Connected Farm Buildings of New England,</em> University Press of New England, 1984.)

From Sewers to Skylines: William S. Edwards's 1887 Photo Album

William S. Edwards (1830-1918) was a civil engineer who worked for the City of Portland from 1876-1906. Serving as First Assistant to Chief Engineer William A. Goodwin, then to Commissioner George N. Fernald, Edwards was a fixture in City Hall for 30 consecutive years, proving indispensable throughout the terms of 15 Mayors of Portland, including all six of those held by James Phineas Baxter. Edwards made significant contributions to Portland, was an outstanding mapmaker and planner, and his works continue to benefit historians.

Early Maine Photography - Landscape Photography - Page 2 of 2

"While exhibiting traditional braced frame construction with a rafter-purlin roof, the framing members are circular sawed, as are the piles of boards…"

Early Maine Photography - Occupational

"Another young man sat for a Bowdoinham photographer in his fraternal garb of sash, belt, hat, and sword."

My life as a revolutionary knitter
by Katharine Cobey

Moving to Maine and confronting knitting stereotypes

The Oakfield Inn
by Rodney Duplisea

This is a summarized article about the opening of the Oakfield Inn. It appeared in the Bangor Daily

World War I and Our Community

Grade Level: 9-12 Content Area: Social Studies
Learn about World War I using primary sources from Maine Memory Network and the Library of Congress.

Longfellow Studies: Longfellow Amongst His Contemporaries - The Ship of State DBQ

Grade Level: 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Preparation Required/Preliminary Discussion: Lesson plans should be done in the context of a course of study on American literature and/or history from the Revolution to the Civil War. The ship of state is an ancient metaphor in the western world, especially among seafaring people, but this figure of speech assumed a more widespread and literal significance in the English colonies of the New World. From the middle of the 17th century, after all, until revolution broke out in 1775, the dominant system of governance in the colonies was the Navigation Acts. The primary responsibility of colonial governors, according to both Parliament and the Crown, was the enforcement of the laws of trade, and the governors themselves appointed naval officers to ensure that the various provisions and regulations of the Navigation Acts were executed. England, in other words, governed her American colonies as if they were merchant ships. This metaphorical conception of the colonies as a naval enterprise not only survived the Revolution but also took on a deeper relevance following the construction of the Union. The United States of America had now become the ship of state, launched on July 4th 1776 and dedicated to the radical proposition that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. This proposition is examined and tested in any number of ways during the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. Novelists and poets, as well as politicians and statesmen, questioned its viability: Whither goes the ship of state? Is there a safe harbor somewhere up ahead or is the vessel doomed to ruin and wreckage? Is she well built and sturdy or is there some essential flaw in her structural frame?