Maine Memory Network

Grammar schools graduation program, Biddeford, June 1928

Contributed by: McArthur Public Library Date: 1928-06-24 Location: Biddeford Media: Ink on paper

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Pond School, St. Albans, 1922

Contributed by: St. Albans Historical Society Date: 1922-04-28 Location: St. Albans Media: Photographic print

Arthur R. Gould School Building for the State School for Boys, South Portland, 1921

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1921 Location: South Portland Client: State of Maine Architect: Harry S. Coombs

Alteration & School Addition to the Town Hall, Ellsworth, ca. 1953

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1953 Location: Ellsworth Client: Town of Ellsworth Architect: Alonzo J. Harriman Inc Architects Engineers

Back to School

Public education has been a part of Maine since Euro-American settlement began to stabilize in the early eighteenth century. But not until the end of the nineteenth century was public education really compulsory in Maine.

Away at School: Letters Home

Young men and women in the 19th century often went away from home -- sometimes for a few months, sometimes for longer periods -- to attend academies, seminaries, or schools run by individuals. While there, they wrote letters home, reporting on boarding arrangements and coursework undertaken, and inquired about the family at home.

Guilford, Maine - Guilford Schools

"… Piscataquis Community Middle School Guilford Public School, June 20, 1887Guilford Historical Society The 8th grade students at Piscataquis…"

Historic Hallowell - Hallowell Schools

"Hallowell Schools Warren Street School, Hallowell, ca. 1890Courtesy of Sumner A. Webber, Sr., an individual partner The founders of Hallowell…"

Sarah Jane Poli: Biddeford’s first female school superintendent
by Biddeford Cultural & Heritage Center

An Italian immigrant's daughter is key to a family grocery store and a leader in the school system

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

What happens when there are no more reunions planned.

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.

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.