Maine Memory Network

From French Canadians to Franco-Americans

French Canadians who emigrated to the Lewiston-Auburn area faced discrimination as children and adults -- such as living in "Little Canada" tenements and being ridiculed for speaking French -- but also adapted to their new lives and sustained many cultural traditions.

Les Raquetteurs

In the early 1600s, French explorers and colonizers in the New World quickly adopted a Native American mode of transportation to get around during the harsh winter months: the snowshoe. Most Northern societies had some form of snowshoe, but the Native Americans turned it into a highly functional item. French settlers named snowshoes "raquettes" because they resembled the tennis racket then in use.

400 years of New Mainers

Immigration is one of the most debated topics in Maine. Controversy aside, immigration is also America's oldest tradition, and along with religious tolerance, what our nation was built upon. Since the first people--the Wabanaki--permitted Europeans to settle in the land now known as Maine, we have been a state of immigrants.

La Basilique Lewiston

Like many cities in France, Lewiston and Auburn's skylines are dominated by a cathedral-like structure, St. Peter and Paul Church. Now designated a basilica by the Vatican, it stands as a symbol of French Catholic contributions to the State of Maine.

La St-Jean in Lewiston-Auburn

St-Jean-Baptiste Day -- June 24th -- in Lewiston-Auburn was a very public display of ethnic pride for nearly a century. Since about 1830, French Canadians had used St. John the Baptist's birthdate as a demonstration of French-Canadian nationalism.

State of Mind: Becoming Maine

The history of the region now known as Maine did not begin at statehood in 1820. What was Maine before it was a state? How did Maine separate from Massachusetts? How has the Maine we experience today been shaped by thousands of years of history?

Le Théâtre

Lewiston, Maine's second largest city, was long looked upon by many as a mill town with grimy smoke stacks, crowded tenements, low-paying jobs, sleazy clubs and little by way of refinement, except for Bates College. Yet, a noted Québec historian, Robert Rumilly, described it as "the French Athens of New England."

Music in Maine - Community and School Marching Bands

"Franco Bands Alphonse Cote, Lewiston, 1918Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries Click to explore Franco…"

World War I and the Maine Experience

With a long history of patriotism and service, Maine experienced the war in a truly distinct way. Its individual experiences tell the story of not only what it means to be an American, but what it means to be from Maine during the war to end all wars.

Music in Maine - Radio Cowboys and Country Music

"… Pine” took off when he met his future spouse and Franco singer Rita Cote from Auburn in 1938. Married in 1940, Rita used the anglicized stage name…"

Music in Maine - Community Music

"… French dance traditions down to numerous younger Franco-American apprentices. After founding two Maine-based dance troupes – La Plume de Ma Tante…"

"We are growing to be somewhat cosmopolitan..." Waterville, 1911

Between 1870 and 1911, Waterville more than doubled in size, becoming a center of manufacturing, transportation, and the retail trade and offering a variety of entertainments for its residents.

Music in Maine - Music in Maine

"… reaching back 13,000 years are distinct from Franco chansons. Lumberjack work chants and sailor shanties differ from operas sung by 19th century…"

Music in Maine - MAKE

"… on Church-music, in order to aid the Native Americans to sing the praises of the Lord…but also to preserve several unwritten national tunes, kept…"

Music in Maine - Music and Television

"… national tv shows featuring teens and music like American Bandstand, Astor’s performance skits included music, dance, and comedy routines."

Music in Maine - Music Makers

"He played clarinet with the American Cadet Band, and violin with the American Cadet Band Orchestra. Soren Bruns' Violin, ca."

Music in Maine - Rock and Roll, Punk, and Elvis

"… Roll, was one of the most popular entertainers in American history. He played his first and only Maine show at the Augusta Civic Center on May 24…"

Music in Maine - Country Music

"… 1966 and1968, he joined the Buck Owens All American Music Show and appeared at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, and later as a regular member of…"

Music in Maine - Sacred Music

"… ran Tikva Records, a label specializing in Jewish American recordings in Manhattan, New York from the 1940s to the 1970s."

Music in Maine - Opera, Orchestras and Stages

"Lillian Nordica made her American opera debut in 1883. Adding to her list of roles, she sang the Brunnhilde of Die Walkure for the first time on any…"

Begin Again: reckoning with intolerance in Maine

BEGIN AGAIN explores Maine's historic role, going back 528 years, in crisis that brought about the pandemic, social and economic inequities, and the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

Fallen Heroes: Maine's Jewish Sailors and Soldiers

Thirty-four young Jewish men from Maine died in the service of their country in the two World Wars. This project, including a Maine Memory Network exhibit, is meant to say a little something about some of them. More than just names on a public memorial marker or grave stone, these men were getting started in adult life. They had newly acquired high school and college diplomas, they had friends, families and communities who loved and valued them, and felt the losses of their deaths.

Music in Maine - Longfellow Family Music

"Longfellow Family Music “Music is the universal language of humankind.” --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre Mer, 1835 Henry Wadsworth…"

Music in Maine - Military Marching Bands

"Military Marching Bands View of Portland Light Infantry Muster, ca. 1803 The Portland Light Infantry Muster with a drummer and a horn player in…"