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Historical Items

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Item 30998

Canadian National Club, Biddeford, ca. 1910

Contributed by: McArthur Public Library Date: 1910-10-17 Location: Biddeford Media: Photograph on board

Item 33642

Congres National de Raquetteurs, Biddeford, 1979

Contributed by: Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries Date: 1979 Location: Biddeford Media: Ink on paper

Item 33644

Program, Convention National des Raquetteurs, Lewiston, 1976

Contributed by: Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries Date: 1976 Location: Lewiston Media: Ink on paper

Online Exhibits

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Exhibit

Camp Tekakwitha brochure, Leeds, ca. 1940

From French Canadians to Franco-Americans

French Canadians who emigrated to the Lewiston-Auburn area faced discrimination as children and adults -- such as living in "Little Canada" tenements and being ridiculed for speaking French -- but also adapted to their new lives and sustained many cultural traditions.

Exhibit

La St-Jean in Lewiston-Auburn

St-Jean-Baptiste Day -- June 24th -- in Lewiston-Auburn was a very public display of ethnic pride for nearly a century. Since about 1830, French Canadians had used St. John the Baptist's birthdate as a demonstration of French-Canadian nationalism.

Exhibit

Les Raquetteurs

In the early 1600s, French explorers and colonizers in the New World quickly adopted a Native American mode of transportation to get around during the harsh winter months: the snowshoe. Most Northern societies had some form of snowshoe, but the Native Americans turned it into a highly functional item. French settlers named snowshoes "raquettes" because they resembled the tennis racket then in use.

Site Pages

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Site Page

Biddeford History & Heritage Project - The Civil War/Reconstruction Era as Experienced in Biddeford & Saco - Page 9 of 17

"… Biddeford during the 1860s, thousands of French Canadian, Irish, and some west European immigrants migrated to Biddeford and Saco to work in…"

Site Page

Biddeford History & Heritage Project - VII. Flow and ebb: the effects of industrial peak & global upheaval (1900-1955) - Page 1 of 3

"… in no small part due to the many talented French-Canadians who had moved here. One of the most famous musicians of this time was Pierre Painchaud…"