Maine Memory Network

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Overview & Introduction

"… Cache of liquor, Portland, 1920Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media Maine played a central role in the United States' gradual—and sometimes…"

Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland

"… House Nearly HiddenMaine Historical Society When Peleg Wadsworth built his house in 1785, what is now Congress Street in Portland was on the rural…"

Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - The Longfellow Era: 1807-1901

"Greenleaf, ca. 1840Maine Historical Society Mary Longfellow Greenleaf was the sixth child of Stephen and Zilpah Longfellow."

Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - The Wadsworth Era: 1786-1807

"1800Maine Historical Society Peleg and Elizabeth Wadsworth lived in the house they built from 1786 to 1807."

Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - The Privy

"… Preble block, Portland, 1877Maine Historical Society John Corey, a dry goods merchant with a store on Middle Street, built the house around 1850…"

Rum, Riot, and Reform - 1620 to 1820: New England's Great Secret

"1850Maine Historical Society The Coming of Drink to New England (1620–1820) For Maine's early European settlers, alcohol was a social institution, a…"

Rum, Riot, and Reform - 1919 to 1934: The Nation Follows Maine Into Prohibition

"… liquor bottles, Portland, 1927Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media The dream of outlawing the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcoholic…"

Rum, Riot, and Reform - 1820 to 1865: Temperance and the Maine Law

"1 banner, ca. 1848Maine Historical Society An Era of Reform By 1820, changes in religious attitudes in New England led to a widespread era of reform."

Rum, Riot, and Reform - 1865 to 1919: The Drys Gain New Adherents and Leaders

"Murphy, Wiscasset, 1872Maine Historical Society New Leaders Between the Civil War and the end of World War I, the anti-liquor cause, now led by both…"

Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - Streetscape, 1790-1930

"… with the addition in 1907 of the Maine Historical Society headquarters. Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr."

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.

Summer Camps

Maine is home to dozens of summer-long youth camps and untold numbers of day camps that take advantage of water, woods, and fresh air. While the children, counselors, and other staff come to Maine in the summer, the camps live on throughout the year and throughout the lives of many of the campers.

CODE RED: Climate, Justice & Natural History Collections

Explore topics around climate change by reuniting collections from one of the nation's earliest natural history museums, the Portland Society of Natural History. The exhibition focuses on how museums collect, and the role of humans in creating changes in society, climate, and biodiversity.

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.

Wired! How Electricity Came to Maine

As early as 1633, entrepreneurs along the Piscataqua River in southern Maine utilized the force of the river to power a sawmill, recognizing the potential of the area's natural power sources, but it was not until the 1890s that technology made widespread electricity a reality -- and even then, consumers had to be urged to use it.

Laboring in Maine

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.

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.

In Time and Eternity: Shakers in the Industrial Age

"In Time and Eternity: Maine Shakers in the Industrial Age 1872-1918" is a series of images that depict in detail the Shakers in Maine during a little explored time period of expansion and change.

Field & Homefront: Bethel during the Civil War

Like many towns, Bethel responded to the Civil War by sending many soldiers and those at the homefront sent aid and supported families. The town grew during the war, but suffered after its end.

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

"1970Maine Historical Society The Cumberland County Civic Center opened in Portland on March 3, 1977, with the rock band ZZ Top as the first concert."

Music in Maine - Sacred Music

"Melodeon, West Cumberland, ca. 1850Maine Historical Society Melodeons are keyboard instruments invented in Buffalo, New York in the 1830s."

Music in Maine - Bluegrass Music

"… Association of Maine X Allerton & Alton: Cumberland Ridge Runners, circa 1948 Courtesy of the Bluegrass Music Association of Maine X…"

Portland Hotels

Since the establishment of the area's first licensed hotel in 1681, Portland has had a dramatic, grand and boisterous hotel tradition. The Portland hotel industry has in many ways reflected the growth and development of the city itself. As Portland grew with greater numbers of people moving through the city or calling it home, the hotel business expanded to fit the increasing demand.

Back to School

Public education has been a part of Maine since Euro-American settlement began to stabilize in the early eighteenth century. But not until the end of the nineteenth century was public education really compulsory in Maine.