Maine Memory Network

Dyar rural school building, Strong, ca. 1910

Contributed by: Strong Historical Society Date: circa 1910 Location: Strong Media: Photographic print

Rural electrification brochure, ca. 1935

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1935 Media: Ink on paper

Phillips Rural School Buiding & Outhouse, Phillips, 1897

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1897 Location: Phillips Client: Town of Phillips Architect: Coombs, Gibbs, and Wilkinson Architects

St. Albans Apartment Project, FMHA Rural Rental Housing, St. Albans, 1976-1978

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1976–1978 Location: St. Albans Client: St. Albans Apartment Architect: Eaton W. Tarbell

Chansonetta Stanley Emmons: Staging the Past

Chansonetta Stanley Emmons (1858-1937) of Kingfield, Maine, experimented with the burgeoning artform of photography. Starting in 1897, Emmons documented the lives of people, many in rural and agricultural regions in Maine and around the world. Often described as recalling a bygone era, this exhibition features glass plate negatives and painted lantern slides from the collections of the Stanley Museum in Kingfield on deposit at Maine Historical Society, that present a time of rapid change, from 1897 to 1926.

Making Paper, Making Maine

Paper has shaped Maine's economy, molded individual and community identities, and impacted the environment throughout Maine. When Hugh Chisholm opened the Otis Falls Pulp Company in Jay in 1888, the mill was one of the most modern paper-making facilities in the country, and was connected to national and global markets. For the next century, Maine was an international leader in the manufacture of pulp and paper.

Early Maine Photography - Occupational

"… dress and her old rocking chair indicate a rural origin for this tintype. Tintype of woman knitting, ca. 1870Maine Historical Society"

Early Maine Photography - Family Groups

"… Historical Society The faces of pre-Civil War rural Maine are symbolized in a daguerreotype of John R."

Hand carrying water in Marshfield
by Dorothy Gardner

Ways of getting water in rural Maine. From fetching water from a stream to having a well.

My father's world - the old farm in Richmond, Maine
by Donald C. Cunningham

A story about my father and our family.

Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride Companion Curriculum

Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8 Content Area: Social Studies
These lesson plans were developed by Maine Historical Society for the Seashore Trolley Museum as a companion curriculum for the historical fiction YA novel "Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride" by Jean. M. Flahive (2019). The novel tells the story of Millie Thayer, a young girl who dreams of leaving the family farm, working in the city, and fighting for women's suffrage. Millie's life begins to change when a "flying carpet" shows up in the form of an electric trolley that cuts across her farm and when a fortune-teller predicts that Millie's path will cross that of someone famous. Suddenly, Millie finds herself caught up in events that shake the nation, Maine, and her family. The lesson plans in this companion curriculum explore a variety of topics including the history of the trolley use in early 20th century Maine, farm and rural life at the turn of the century, the story of Theodore Roosevelt and his relationship with Maine, WWI, and the flu pandemic of 1918-1920.

Longfellow Studies: The Village Blacksmith - The Reality of a Poem

Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
"The Village Blacksmith" was a much celebrated poem. Written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the poem appeared to celebrate the work ethic and mannerisms of a working man, the icon of every rural community, the Blacksmith. However, what was the poem really saying?