Maine Memory Network

Wooden grave marker, New Sweden, 1894

Contributed by: New Sweden Historical Society Date: 1894-12-21 Location: New Sweden Media: Wood

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Woodbury K. Dana's grave, Westbrook, 1924

Contributed by: Walker Memorial Library Date: 1924-05-18 Location: Westbrook Media: Photograph, ink on paper

Graves property, S. Side Seashore Avenue, Peaks Island, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Clarence L. Graves Use: Summer Dwelling

Assessor's Record, 36 Saunders Street, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Charles E. Graves Use: Garage

Lash residence, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1995-1997

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1995–1997 Location: Greenwich Clients: James Lash; Deborah Lash Architect: Patrick Chasse; Landscape Design Associates

Cape Elizabeth Shipwrecks

The rocky coastline of Cape Elizabeth has sent many vessels to their watery graves.

Fallen Heroes: Jewish Soldiers and Sailors, The Great War

Thirty-four young Jewish men from Maine died in the service of their country in the two World Wars. This project, including a Maine Memory Network exhibit, is meant to say a little something about some of them. More than just names on a public memorial marker or grave stone, these men were getting started in adult life. They had newly acquired high school and college diplomas, they had friends, families and communities who loved and valued them, and felt the losses of their deaths.

John Martin: Expert Observer - Annie Martin Snow casket at grave, Bangor, 1889

"Annie Martin Snow casket at grave, Bangor, 1889 Contributed by Maine Historical Society and Maine State Museum Description John Martin…"

Presque Isle: The Star City - Presque Isle High School Basketball Team 1913

"… Allan, McGauflin, Blanchard Back row: Mgr Graves and Coach Faulkner. View additional information about this item on the Maine Memory Network…"

USCG Boot Camp Experience, Vietnam War era
by Peter S. Morgan, Jr.

"Letters to the Wall" Memorial Day

Civil War Soldier comes home after 158 years
by Jamison McAlister

Civil War Soldier comes home after 158 years

What Remains: Learning about Maine Populations through Burial Customs

Grade Level: 6-8 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies, Visual & Performing Arts
This lesson plan will give students an overview of how burial sites and gravestone material culture can assist historians and archaeologists in discovering information about people and migration over time. Students will learn how new scholarship can help to dispel harmful archaeological myths, look into the roles of religion and ethnicity in early Maine and New England immigrant and colonial settlements, and discover how to track changes in population and social values from the 1600s to early 1900s based on gravestone iconography and epitaphs.

Longfellow Studies: "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport"

Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Longfellow's poem "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport" opens up the issue of the earliest history of the Jews in America, and the significant roles they played as businessmen and later benefactors to the greater community. The history of the building itself is notable in terms of early American architecture, its having been designed, apparently gratis, by the most noted architect of the day. Furthermore, the poem traces the history of Newport as kind of a microcosm of New England commercial cities before the industrialization boom. For almost any age student the poem could be used to open up interest in local cemeteries, which are almost always a wealth of curiousities and history. Longfellow and his friends enjoyed exploring cemeteries, and today our little local cemeteries can be used to teach little local histories and parts of the big picture as well. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited the Jewish cemetery in Newport, RI on July 9, 1852. His popular poem about the site, published two years later, was certainly a sympathetic portrayal of the place and its people. In addition to Victorian romantic musings about the "Hebrews in their graves," Longfellow includes in this poem references to the historic persecution of the Jews, as well as very specific references to their religious practices. Since the cemetery and the nearby synagogue were restored and protected with an infusion of funding just a couple years after Longfellow's visit, and later a congregation again assembled, his gloomy predictions about the place proved false (never mind the conclusion of the poem, "And the dead nations never rise again!"). Nevertheless, it is a fascinating poem, and an interesting window into the history of the nation's oldest extant synagogue.