Search Results

Keywords: Seafaring

Historical Items

View All Showing 2 of 350 Showing 3 of 350

Item 104896

Sarah Tibbetts hoping to visit husband in port, Westport Island, 1895

Contributed by: Westport Island History Committee Date: 1895 Location: Westport Island; Bath Media: Ink on paper

  view a full transcription

Item 104894

Sarah Tibbetts news about neighbors to John Tibbetts, Westport Island, 1895

Contributed by: Westport Island History Committee Date: 1895-05-05 Location: Westport Island Media: Ink on paper

  view a full transcription

Item 15183

Alexander Cameron, 1865

Contributed by: City of Brewer Date: 1865-04-04 Location: Brewer Media: Photographic print

Online Exhibits

View All Showing 2 of 11 Showing 3 of 11

Exhibit

The Life and Legacy of the George Tate Family

Captain George Tate, mast agent for the King of England from 1751 to the Revolutionary War, and his descendants helped shape the development of Portland (first known as Falmouth) through activities such as commerce, shipping, and real estate.

Exhibit

Cape Elizabeth Shipwrecks

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

Exhibit

Wiscasset's Arctic Connection

Scientist, author and explorer Donald B. MacMillan established Wiscasset as his homeport for many of the voyages he made to the Arctic region starting in the early 1920s.

Site Pages

View All Showing 2 of 59 Showing 3 of 59

Site Page

Friendship Museum

View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.

Site Page

Swan's Island: Six miles east of ordinary - III. Boom, bustle, bust: The Steamboat Years to WWII

"III. Boom, bustle, bust: The Steamboat Years to WWII Fishing and shipbuilding led the state of Maine into its “Golden Economic Age” in the 1850s, as…"

Site Page

Swan's Island: Six miles east of ordinary - Welcome to Swan's Island!

"Welcome to Swan's Island! Burnt Coat Harbor X Swan's Island, a six mile ferry ride out of Bass Harbor in Mount Desert Island, is the current…"

Lesson Plans

View All Showing 2 of 3 Showing 3 of 3

Lesson Plan

Bicentennial Lesson Plan

Primary Sources: The Maine Shipyard

Grade Level: 9-12 Content Area: Social Studies
This lesson plan will give students a close-up look at historical operations behind Maine's famed shipbuilding and shipping industries. Students will examine primary sources including letters, bills of lading, images, and objects, and draw informed hypotheses about the evolution of the seafaring industry and its impact on Maine’s communities over time.

Lesson Plan

Bicentennial Lesson Plan

Becoming Maine: The District of Maine's Coastal Economy

Grade Level: 3-5 Content Area: Social Studies
This lesson plan will introduce students to the maritime economy of Maine prior to statehood and to the Coasting Law that impacted the separation debate. Students will examine primary documents, take part in an activity that will put the Coasting Law in the context of late 18th century – early 19th century New England, and learn about how the Embargo Act of 1807 affected Maine in the decades leading to statehood.

Lesson Plan

Longfellow Studies: Longfellow Amongst His Contemporaries - The Ship of State DBQ

Grade Level: 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Preparation Required/Preliminary Discussion: Lesson plans should be done in the context of a course of study on American literature and/or history from the Revolution to the Civil War. The ship of state is an ancient metaphor in the western world, especially among seafaring people, but this figure of speech assumed a more widespread and literal significance in the English colonies of the New World. From the middle of the 17th century, after all, until revolution broke out in 1775, the dominant system of governance in the colonies was the Navigation Acts. The primary responsibility of colonial governors, according to both Parliament and the Crown, was the enforcement of the laws of trade, and the governors themselves appointed naval officers to ensure that the various provisions and regulations of the Navigation Acts were executed. England, in other words, governed her American colonies as if they were merchant ships. This metaphorical conception of the colonies as a naval enterprise not only survived the Revolution but also took on a deeper relevance following the construction of the Union. The United States of America had now become the ship of state, launched on July 4th 1776 and dedicated to the radical proposition that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. This proposition is examined and tested in any number of ways during the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. Novelists and poets, as well as politicians and statesmen, questioned its viability: Whither goes the ship of state? Is there a safe harbor somewhere up ahead or is the vessel doomed to ruin and wreckage? Is she well built and sturdy or is there some essential flaw in her structural frame?