Maine Memory Network

Island Ledge Casino, Wells Beach, ca. 1915

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1915 Location: Wells Media: postcard

View of the square from the casino, Wells Beach, ca. 1915

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1915 Location: Wells Media: postcard

Assessor's Record, 11 Abbott Street, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Hellen Wells Use: Shed

81-83 Winter Street, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Mary Wells Use: Dwelling

Addition to the Wells Public Library, Wells, ca. 1992

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1992 Location: Wells Client: Town of Wells Architect: Wadsworth, Boston, Dimick, Mercer & Weatherill
This record contains 2 images.

Libby well-house, Portland, ca. 1885

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1885 Location: Portland Client: Charles F. Libby Architect: John Calvin Stevens

Commander George Henry Preble

George Henry Preble of Portland, nephew of Edward Preble who was known as the father of the U.S. Navy, temporarily lost his command during the Civil War when he was charged with failing to stop a Confederate ship from getting through the Union blockade at Mobile.

Home Ties: Sebago During the Civil War

Letters to and from Sebago soldiers who served in the Civil War show concern on both sides about farms and other issues at home as well as concern from the home front about soldiers' well-being.

Freedom & Captivity Portal

The Freedom & Captivity digital collection in the Maine Memory Network, and the complete digital archive housed at Colby Special Collections, is a repository of personal testimonies, ephemera, memorabilia, artifacts, and visual materials that capture multiple dimensions of the experiences of incarceration for individuals, families, and communities, as well as for survivors of harm.

Biddeford History & Heritage Project - The Civil War/Reconstruction Era as Experienced in Biddeford & Saco - Page 2 of 17

"Biddeford and Saco were well known for ice harvesting, granite cutting, and cotton textile manufacturing."

Rev James Wells Appointment as Chaplain for Maine in Civil War
by David Woodward

Certificate for Rev. Wells commissioned by Gov. Israel Washburn Jr. to serve in Maine 11th Regiment

A Story in a Stick
by Jim Moulton

A story about dowsing for a well in Bowdoin

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.

Longfellow Studies: Integration of Longfellow's Poetry into American Studies

Grade Level: 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
We explored Longfellow's ability to express universality of human emotions/experiences while also looking at the patterns he articulated in history that are applicable well beyond his era. We attempted to link a number of Longfellow's poems with different eras in U.S. History and accompanying literature, so that the poems complemented the various units. With each poem, we want to explore the question: What is American identity?