Maine Memory Network

Taber Wagon

The Taber farm wagon was an innovative design that was popular on New England farms. It made lifting potato barrels onto a wagon easier and made more efficient use of the horse's work. These images glimpse the life work of its inventor, Silas W. Taber of Houlton, and the place of his invention in the farming community

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.

Cosmopolitan stylings of Mildred and Madeleine Burrage

Born in Portland, sisters Mildred Giddings Burrage (1890-1983) and Madeleine Burrage (1891-1976) were renowned artists and world travelers. Mildred's experiences studying painting in Paris and Italy, and the sisters' trips to Mexico and Guatemala inspired their artwork and shared passions for cosmopolitan and stylish attire. Housed at Maine Historical Society, The Burrage Papers include selections of original advertising drawings called "line sheets" from Parisian fashion houses dating from 1928 to 1936. Images of Madeleine's gemstone jewelry and Mildred's artwork accompany intimate family photographs of the sisters.

Samplers: Learning to Sew

Settlers' clothing had to be durable and practical to hold up against hard work and winters. From the 1700s to the mid 1800s, the women of Maine learned to sew by making samplers.

Music in Maine - Community and School Marching Bands

"He worked and lived on Sugar Island, harvesting fire wood for the Penobscot Communities on Olamon and Indian Islands."

Music in Maine - Music in Maine

"Lumberjack work chants and sailor shanties differ from operas sung by 19th century Maine divas. Yet they are all uniquely Maine sounds."

Music in Maine - Country Music

"Curless worked with luminaries of the generation before him, like Hal Lone Pine and Al Hawkes, and toured with Betty Cody in the 1970s."

Music in Maine - Music Makers

"1890Maine Historical Society Bruns worked as a cabinet maker with the W. A. Allen Company making stairs, columns, and other architectural elements."

Music in Maine - Music and Television

"… rolled up jeans, bare feet, and her father’s work shirt. Tina Warming Lichtenberg performed on the Dave Astor Show from 1962 to 1966, mostly doing…"

Music in Maine - Music stores

"Bull Moose has always worked closely with local musicians and venues, adding millions of dollars directly into the local music economy."

Music in Maine - Sacred Music

"… five sons, moved to Maine in 1946 where Zimelman worked as a cantor at Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland. A musical family, all five Zimelman…"

Music in Maine - HEAR

"… Historical Society While many inventors worked on harnessing electromagnetic waves, Italian Guglielmo Marconi created the Wireless Telegraph and…"

Music in Maine - Music Education

"Music helps the body and the mind work together, and musical experiences in childhood can accelerate brain development, especially in language…"

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.

Music in Maine - Bluegrass Music

"… to his musical accomplishments, Al Hawkes worked to document and preserve the history of Maine’s bluegrass and country traditions."

Music in Maine - Radio Cowboys and Country Music

"… audiences through CBC broadcasts and in 1953 working as regulars on the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree radio show in West Virginia."

Chansonetta Stanley Emmons: Staging the Past

Chansonetta Stanley Emmons (1858-1937) of Kingfield, Maine, experimented with the burgeoning artform of photography. Starting in 1897, Emmons documented the lives of people, many in rural and agricultural regions in Maine and around the world. Often described as recalling a bygone era, this exhibition features glass plate negatives and painted lantern slides from the collections of the Stanley Museum in Kingfield on deposit at Maine Historical Society, that present a time of rapid change, from 1897 to 1926.

Maine Streets: The Postcard View

Photographers from the Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Co. of Belfast traveled throughout the state, especially in small communities, taking images for postcards. Many of these images, taken in the first three decades of the twentieth century, capture Main Streets on the brink of modernity.

Lillian Nordica: Farmington Diva

Lillian Norton, known as Nordica, was one of the best known sopranos in America and the world at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. She was a native of Farmington.

Amazing! Maine Stories

These stories -- that stretch from 1999 back to 1759 -- take you from an amusement park to the halls of Congress. There are inventors, artists, showmen, a railway agent, a man whose civic endeavors helped shape Portland, a man devoted to the pursuit of peace and one known for his military exploits, Maine's first novelist, a woman who recorded everyday life in detail, and an Indian who survived a British attack.

Maine Through the Eyes of George W. French

George French, a native of Kezar Falls and graduate of Bates College, worked at several jobs before turning to photography as his career. He served for many years as photographer for the Maine Development Commission, taking pictures intended to promote both development and tourism.

Horace W. Shaylor: Portland Penman

Horace W. Shaylor, a native of Ohio, settled in Portland and turned his focus to handwriting, developing several unique books of handwriting instruction. He also was a talented artist.

Home: The Longfellow House & the Emergence of Portland

The Wadsworth-Longfellow house is the oldest building on the Portland peninsula, the first historic site in Maine, a National Historic Landmark, home to three generations of Wadsworth and Longfellow family members -- including the boyhood home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The history of the house and its inhabitants provide a unique view of the growth and changes of Portland -- as well as of the immediate surroundings of the home.

Dressing Up, Standing Out, Fitting In

Adorning oneself to look one's "best" has varied over time, gender, economic class, and by event. Adornments suggest one's sense of identity and one's intent to stand out or fit in.