Maine Memory Network

Songs of Winnebago

An enduring element of summer camps is the songs campers sing around the campfire, at meals, and on many other occasions. Some regale the camp experience and others spur the camp's athletes on to victory.

Designing Acadia

For one hundred years, Acadia National Park has captured the American imagination and stood as the most recognizable symbol of Maine’s important natural history and identity. This exhibit highlights Maine Memory content relating to Acadia and Mount Desert Island.

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.

Hiking, Art and Science: Portland's White Mountain Club

In 1873, a group of men, mostly from Portland, formed the second known hiking club in the U.S., the White Mountain Club of Portland, to carry out their scientific interests, their love of hiking and camaraderie, and their artistic interests in painting and drawing the features of several of the White Mountains.

Music in Maine - Community Music

"According to Ives, poets and singers from the Maritimes, often considered the best lumber camp singers, heavily influenced logging musical traditions."

Music in Maine - Bluegrass Music

"… regarded country, bluegrass, and rockabilly songs, including by artists Dick Curless, Lenny Breau, Hal Lone Pine, and Betty Cody."

Music in Maine - MAKE

"… and craftspeople who make instruments, write songs, and make music in the home and community settings."

Music in Maine - Sacred Music

"Today the Sabbathday Lake Shakers sing about 1,000 songs as part of their active catalog. Shaker music originally concentrated on acapella march…"

Music in Maine - Music and Television

"… from local high schools who performed hit songs from the radio, often lip synching and sometimes singing live."

Music in Maine - Longfellow Family Music

"… the Longfellow family created and used manuscript song pages to entertain family and guests, including songs popular in the 1750s and early 1800s…"

Music in Maine - Music in Maine

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

Music in Maine - Radio Cowboys and Country Music

"… in the American South, a blend of English folk songs, Scots-Irish fiddle and dance music, sacred music, and banjo and blues from formerly enslaved…"

Music in Maine - Country Music

"The doom-filled trucking song hit #5 on the country Billboard chart in 1965, and Cash Box magazine named Curless the “Most Promising New Male…"

Music in Maine - Music Makers

"… Records in New York recorded White performing songs from her youth. She wrote in her diary, "Oh! My records! These new recordings make me happy."

Music in Maine - Military Marching Bands

"Directed by commanders, the drummer songs controlled infantry soldier’s daily activities, from morning Reveille to the Tattoo beat for bedtime."

Music in Maine - HEAR

"… broadcast came from Litchfield, and the first song played on WBLM was The Story in Your Eyes by The Moody Blues."

Music in Maine - Community and School Marching Bands

"… bid her claim..." Goldthwaite wrote other school songs, including one for Portland High School. 'The Purple and White,' Deering High School…"

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

"… every concert, every video, and listened to every song. I'd spend countless days and nights studying his mannerisms, wit, voice, and influence."

Music in Maine - Opera, Orchestras and Stages

"… on sharing and teaching Penobscot spiritual songs and dances in our community. During a time when it was illegal to do so, she disguised the events…"

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.

Samantha Smith's Questions

Samantha Smith, a Manchester schoolgirl, gained international fame in 1983 by asking Soviet leader Yuri Andropov whether he intended to start a nuclear war and then visiting the Soviet Union to be reassured that no one there wanted war.

We Used to be "Normal": A History of F.S.N.S.

Farmington's Normal School -- a teacher-training facility -- opened in 1863 and, over the decades, offered academic programs that included such unique features as domestic and child-care training, and extra-curricular activities from athletics to music and theater.

The Schooner Bowdoin: Ninety Years of Seagoing History

After traveling to the Arctic with Robert E. Peary, Donald B. MacMillan (1874-1970), an explorer, researcher, and lecturer, helped design his own vessel for Arctic exploration, the schooner <em>Bowdoin,</em> which he named after his alma mater. The schooner remains on the seas.

Inside the Yellow House

Photographer Elijah Cobb's 1985 portfolio of the Laura E. Richards House, with text by Rosalind Cobb Wiggins and Laura E. Putnam.