Keywords: Portland Maine
- Historical Items (6630)
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- Architecture & Landscape (417)
- Online Exhibits (218)
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- My Maine Stories (79)
- Lesson Plans (13)
Online Exhibits
Your results include these online exhibits. You also can view all of the site's exhibits, view a timeline of selected events in Maine History, and learn how to create your own exhibit. See featured exhibits or create your own exhibit
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - The Continuing Debate
"… a series of award-winning articles in the Portland Press Herald last year, and the state's well-publicized tough drunk-driving laws also keep the…"
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Overview & Introduction
"Overview & Introduction Cache of liquor, Portland, 1920Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media Maine played a central role in the United…"
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Society Copes
"Even Portland's prestigious Cumberland Club was raided and caught with booze. "Vanilla fooled me for a few days."
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A Snapshot of Portland, 1924: The Taxman Cometh
In 1924, with Portland was on the verge of profound changes, the Tax Assessors Office undertook a project to document every building in the city -- with photographs and detailed information that provide a unique view into Portland's architecture, neighborhoods, industries, and businesses.
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - 1865 to 1919: The Drys Gain New Adherents and Leaders
"During the 1870s, alcoholics including former Portland liquor-dealer Francis Murphy, Gardiner businessman J.K. Osgood, and Bangor physician Dr."
Exhibit
Hermann Kotzschmar: Portland's Musical Genius
During the second half of the 19th century, "Hermann Kotzschmar" was a familiar household name in Portland. He spent 59 years in his adopted city as a teacher, choral conductor, concert artist, and church organist.
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Anshe Sfard, Portland's Early Chassidic Congregation
Chassidic Jews who came to Portland from Eastern Europe formed a congregation in the late 19th century and, in 1917, built a synagogue -- Anshe Sfard -- on Cumberland Avenue in Portland. By the early 1960s, the congregation was largely gone. The building was demolished in 1983.
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WWI Memorial Trees along Portland's Baxter Boulevard
On Memorial Day of 1920, the City of Portland planted 100 Linden trees on Forest Avenue, each dedicated to the memory of one military service member who had died in World War I, or who had served honorably.
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The Irish on the Docks of Portland
Many of the dockworkers -- longshoremen -- in Portland were Irish or of Irish descent. The Irish language was spoken on the docks and Irish traditions followed, including that of giving nicknames to the workers, many of whose given names were similar.
Exhibit
Liberty Threatened: Maine in 1775
At Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775, British troops attempted to destroy munitions stored by American colonists. The battles were the opening salvos of the American Revolution. Shortly, the conflict would erupt in Maine.
Exhibit
Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - Streetscape, 1790-1930
"… the site did -- with the addition in 1907 of the Maine Historical Society headquarters. Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr."
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Port of Portland's Custom House and Collectors of Customs
The collector of Portland was the key to federal patronage in Maine, though other ports and towns had collectors. Through the 19th century, the revenue was the major source of Federal Government income. As in Colonial times, the person appointed to head the custom House in Casco Bay was almost always a leading community figure, or a well-connected political personage.
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The boundaries of Maine are the product of international conflict, economic competition, political fights, and contested development. The boundaries are expressions of human values; people determined the shape of Maine.
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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.
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Why Study the History of Drinking?
"… History of Drinking? The history of drinking in Maine and America is rich and complex. It began with the earliest European settlement, and it…"
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - 1620 to 1820: New England's Great Secret
"… Coming of Drink to New England (1620–1820) For Maine's early European settlers, alcohol was a social institution, a medicine, and an actively…"
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Westbrook Seminary: Educating Women
Westbrook Seminary, built on Stevens Plain in 1831, was founded to educate young men and young women. Seminaries traditionally were a form of advanced secondary education. Westbrook Seminary served an important function in admitting women students, for whom education was less available in the early and mid nineteenth century.
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Shaarey Tphiloh, Portland's Orthodox Synagogue
Shaarey Tphiloh was founded in 1904 by immigrants from Eastern Europe. While accommodating to American society, the Orthodox synagogue also has retained many of its traditions.
Exhibit
Workers in Maine have labored in factories, on farms, in the woods, on the water, among other locales. Many of Maine's occupations have been determined by the state's climate and geographical features.
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In 1857, when Daniel Cough left Amoy Island, China, as a stowaway on a sailing ship from Mt. Desert Island he was on his way into history as the first Chinese person to make his home in Maine. He was soon followed by a cigar maker and a tea merchant who settled in Portland and then by many more Chinese men who spread all over Maine working mostly as laundrymen.
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Memorializing Civil War Veterans: Portland & Westbrook
Three cemeteries -- all of which were in Westbrook during the Civil War -- contain headstones of Civil War soldiers. The inscriptions and embellishments on the stones offer insight into sentiments of the eras when the soldiers died.
Exhibit
Maine Medical Center, Bramhall Campus
Maine Medical Center, founded as Maine General Hospital, has dominated Portland’s West End since its construction in 1871 on Bramhall Hill. As the medical field grew in both technological and social practice, the facility of the hospital also changed. This exhibit tracks the expansion and additions to that original building as the hospital adapted to its patients’ needs.
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Music in Maine - Drum, Portland, ca. 1854
"Drum, Portland, ca. 1854 Contributed by Maine Historical Society Description Noble and Cooley of East Granville, Massachusetts started…"
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Doing Good: Medical Stories of Maine
Throughout Maine’s history, individuals have worked to improve and expand medical care, not only for the health of those living in Maine, but for many around the world who need care and help.