Maine Memory Network

Wendell B. Willett identification card, Saco, 1942

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1942 Location: Saco Media: Ink on paper, photograph

Leonard Leavitt, Lewiston, 1984

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1984 Media: Photographic print

Wired! How Electricity Came to Maine

As early as 1633, entrepreneurs along the Piscataqua River in southern Maine utilized the force of the river to power a sawmill, recognizing the potential of the area's natural power sources, but it was not until the 1890s that technology made widespread electricity a reality -- and even then, consumers had to be urged to use it.

Longfellow: The Man Who Invented America

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a man and a poet of New England conscience. He was influenced by his ancestry and his Portland boyhood home and experience.