Maine Memory Network

Advertising card, Portland Packing Co., ca. 1870

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1867 Location: Portland Media: Ink on paper

Portland Company engine, Portland, 1868

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1868-05-19 Location: Portland Media: watercolor on paper

Assessor's Record, 62-74 Alder Street, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Portland Terminal Company Use: Storage

Assessor's Record, 62-74 Alder Street, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Portland Terminal Company Use: Shed - Storage

Portland Packing Company, Portland, 1916-1918

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1916–1918 Location: Portland; Skowhegan Client: Portland Packing Company Architect: John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens Architects

Portland City Hall mechanical drawings, Portland, 1909-1911

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1909–1911 Location: Portland Client: City of Portland Architect: John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens Architects

Home: The Longfellow House & the Emergence of Portland

The Wadsworth-Longfellow house is the oldest building on the Portland peninsula, the first historic site in Maine, a National Historic Landmark, home to three generations of Wadsworth and Longfellow family members -- including the boyhood home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The history of the house and its inhabitants provide a unique view of the growth and changes of Portland -- as well as of the immediate surroundings of the home.

Portland Hotels

Since the establishment of the area's first licensed hotel in 1681, Portland has had a dramatic, grand and boisterous hotel tradition. The Portland hotel industry has in many ways reflected the growth and development of the city itself. As Portland grew with greater numbers of people moving through the city or calling it home, the hotel business expanded to fit the increasing demand.

Portland Water District

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

Portland Press Herald Glass Negative Collection - Portland Press Herald Glass Negative Collection

"With the introduction of the Portland Herald, Senator Hale and his Daily Press began to feel pressure from their lower advertising revenues."

Canadian immigrant founds worlds largest paper company in 1898
by Hugh J. Chisholm

Hugh J. Chisholm founded International Paper, which was the world's largest paper company in 1898.

Monument Square 1967
by C. Michael Lewis

The background story and research behind a commissioned painting of Monument Square.

World War I and the U.S. Home Front

Grade Level: 9-12 Content Area: Social Studies
Learn about World War I using primary sources from Maine Memory Network and the Library of Congress.

Longfellow Studies: An American Studies Approach to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was truly a man of his time and of his nation; this native of Portland, Maine and graduate of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine became an American icon. Lines from his poems intersperse our daily speech and the characters of his long narrative poems have become part of American myth. Longfellow's fame was international; scholars, politicians, heads-of-state and everyday people read and memorized his poems. Our goal is to show that just as Longfellow reacted to and participated in his times, so his poetry participated in shaping and defining American culture and literature. The following unit plan introduces and demonstrates an American Studies approach to the life and work of Longfellow. Because the collaborative work that forms the basis for this unit was partially responsible for leading the two of us to complete the American & New England Studies Masters program at University of Southern Maine, we returned there for a working definition of "American Studies approach" as it applies to the grade level classroom. Joe Conforti, who was director at the time we both went through the program, offered some useful clarifying comments and explanation. He reminded us that such a focus provides a holistic approach to the life and work of an author. It sets a work of literature in a broad cultural and historical context as well as in the context of the poet's life. The aim of an American Studies approach is to "broaden the context of a work to illuminate the American past" (Conforti) for your students. We have found this approach to have multiple benefits at the classroom and research level. It brings the poems and the poet alive for students and connects with other curricular work, especially social studies. When linked with a Maine history unit, it helps to place Portland and Maine in an historical and cultural context. It also provides an inviting atmosphere for the in-depth study of the mechanics of Longfellow's poetry. What follows is a set of lesson plans that form a unit of study. The biographical "anchor" that we have used for this unit is an out-of-print biography An American Bard: The story of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, by Ruth Langland Holberg, Thomas Y. Crowell & Company, c1963. Permission has been requested to make this work available as a downloadable file off this web page, but in the meantime, used copies are readily and cheaply available from various vendors. The poem we have chosen to demonstrate our approach is "Paul Revere's Ride." The worksheets were developed by Judy Donahue, the explanatory essays researched and written by the two of us, and our sources are cited below. We have also included a list of helpful links. When possible we have included helpful material in text format, or have supplied site links. Our complete unit includes other Longfellow poems with the same approach, but in the interest of time and space, they are not included. Please feel free to contact us with questions and comments.