Maine Memory Network

Newspaper columnist Harold Boyle, 1982

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1982-08-26 Location: Portland Media: Photographic print

Falmouth Gazette, 1785

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1785 Media: Ink on paper

A Handwritten Community Newspaper

The eight issues of South Freeport's handwritten newspaper, distributed in 1859, provided "general interest and amusement" to the coastal community.

Eye in the Sky

In 1921, Guy Gannett purchased two competing Portland newspapers, merging them under the Portland Press Herald title. He followed in 1925 with the purchase the Portland Evening Express, which allowed him to combine two passions: photography and aviation.

Portland Press Herald Glass Negative Collection - Aerial Photography

"Today, the images allow us to glimpse at the past through one of the most significant media influences in Maine."

Portland Press Herald Glass Negative Collection - Icons & Influencers

"… journalism began during the American Civil War, newspapers seldom used photography to illustrate or enhance stories until nearly seventy years…"

A first encounter with Bath and its wonderful history
by John Decker

Visiting the Maine Maritime Museum as part of a conference

My father, Earle Ahlquist, served during World War II
by Earlene Chadbourne

Earle Ahlquist used his Maine common sense during his Marine service and to survive Iwo Jima

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.