Maine Memory Network

Maine Centennial Celebration #8 parade float, Portland, 1920

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media Date: 1920-07-05 Location: Portland Media: Glass Negative

Annie May Colby celebrating, Westport, 1944

Contributed by: Westport Island History Committee Date: 1944-05-03 Location: Westport Island; Woolwich; Bath Media: Photographic print

Bowdoin College Maine Festival, Brunswick, 1986

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1986 Location: Brunswick Client: Bowdoin College Architect: Carol A. Wilson

Mrs. Welch house alterations, Portland, 1938

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1938 Location: Portland Client: F. B. W. Welch Architect: John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens Architects

A Celebration of Skilled Artisans

The Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, an organization formed to promote and support skilled craftsmen, celebrated civic pride and members' trades with a parade through Portland on Oct. 8, 1841 at which they displayed 17 painted linen banners with graphic and textual representations of the artisans' skills.

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.

Historic Hallowell - History Celebrated, Threatened and Preserved

"History Celebrated, Threatened and Preserved West Side, Water Street, Hallowell, ca. 1900Hubbard Free Library Historic Hallowell, a book…"

Lubec, Maine - Lubec's 1911 Centennial Celebration - Page 1 of 2

"Lubec's 1911 Centennial Celebration by Ronald Pesha, Lubec Historical Society Lubec staged a grand celebration in 1911 observing the Town’s…"

63 year Presque Isle High School Class Reunion
by Kathryn E Joy

What happens when there are no more reunions planned.

2024 Maine History Maker Celebration Event
by Maine Historical Society

Maine Historical Society's 2024 Maine History Maker event, honoring Joan Benoit Samuelson.

Longfellow Studies: Celebrity's Picture - Using Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Portraits to Observe Historic Changes

Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 Content Area: Social Studies, Visual & Performing Arts
"In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?" Englishman Sydney Smith's 1820 sneer irked Americans, especially writers such as Irving, Cooper, Hawthorne, and Maine's John Neal, until Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's resounding popularity successfully rebuffed the question. The Bowdoin educated Portland native became the America's first superstar poet, paradoxically loved especially in Britain, even memorialized at Westminster Abbey. He achieved international celebrity with about forty books or translations to his credit between 1830 and 1884, and, like superstars today, his public craved pictures of him. His publishers consequently commissioned Longfellow's portrait more often than his family, and he sat for dozens of original paintings, drawings, and photos during his lifetime, as well as sculptures. Engravers and lithographers printed replicas of the originals as book frontispiece, as illustrations for magazine or newspaper articles, and as post cards or "cabinet" cards handed out to admirers, often autographed. After the poet's death, illustrators continued commercial production of his image for new editions of his writings and coloring books or games such as "Authors," and sculptors commemorated him with busts in Longfellow Schools or full-length figures in town squares. On the simple basis of quantity, the number of reproductions of the Maine native's image arguably marks him as the country's best-known nineteenth century writer. TEACHERS can use this presentation to discuss these themes in art, history, English, or humanities classes, or to lead into the following LESSON PLANS. The plans aim for any 9-12 high school studio art class, but they can also be used in any humanities course, such as literature or history. They can be adapted readily for grades 3-8 as well by modifying instructional language, evaluation rubrics, and targeted Maine Learning Results and by selecting materials for appropriate age level.

How Do Communities Represent Themselves

Grade Level: K-2 Content Area: Social Studies
Students learn about historical and current flags of Maine and work in small groups to create flags to represent their classroom/school communities.