Maine Memory Network

Structure Fire in Bangor, ca. 1940

Contributed by: Hose 5 Fire Museum Date: circa 1940 Location: Bangor Media: Photographic print

Pejepscot dam structure, Topsham, 1893

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1893-11-07 Location: Topsham Media: Photographic print

Assessor's Record, 108-112 Coyle Street, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: W Sawyer Use: Worthless Structure

63-65 Lancaster Street, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Herbert L. Berry Use: Worthless Structure

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

Gove residence, Falmouth, 1995-2005

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1995–2005 Location: Falmouth Client: Gove Architect: Carol A. Wilson; Carol A. Wilson Architect

Cape Elizabeth Shipwrecks

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

Practical Nursing in Waterville

The Maine School of Practical Nursing opened a facility in Waterville in 1957 and continued teaching practical nursing there until about 1980 when changes in the profession and in the state's educational structure led to its demise.

Mount Desert Island: Shaped by Nature - Second Generation & Permanent Structures at Asticou

"Second Generation & Permanent Structures at Asticou John II and Climena would outlive nine of their 11 children, most of whom died relatively young…"

Friends of Wood Island Light

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

Waponahki Rematriation
by Sherri Mitchell Weh’na Ha’mu Kkwasset

Women's leadership in Wabanaki communities

We Gonna Be Alright and Say It Loud
by Ryan Adams

Creating artwork during a period of social and cultural awakening

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?