Maine Memory Network

Lincoln County through the Eastern Eye

The Penobscot Marine Museum’s photography collections include nearly 50,000 glass plate negatives of images for "real photo" postcards produced by the Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company of Belfast. This exhibit features postcards from Lincoln County.

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.

Student Exhibit: The Great By-Pass

The debate over a proposed bridge and bypass in Skowhegan in 2005.

Washington County Through Eastern's Eye

Images taken by itinerant photographers for Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company, a real photo postcard company, provide a unique look at industry, commerce, recreation, tourism, and the communities of Washington County in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Sagadahoc County through the Eastern Eye

The Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company of Belfast, Maine. employed photographers who traveled by company vehicle through New England each summer, taking pictures of towns and cities, vacation spots and tourist attractions, working waterfronts and local industries, and other subjects postcard recipients might enjoy. The cards were printed by the millions in Belfast into the 1940s.

A Handwritten Community Newspaper

The eight issues of South Freeport's handwritten newspaper, distributed in 1859, provided "general interest and amusement" to the coastal community.

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

"For Peleg, like many in the era, the home was also the site of his work. Immediately next to the house Peleg built a warehouse he used to store and…"

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

"… Society John Corey, a dry goods merchant with a store on Middle Street, built the house around 1850. He lived here first with his mother."

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

"Attached to the house is a two-story "store" that Peleg Wadsworth built in 1785. The gable end faces the street."

Waldoboro Fire Department's 175 Years

While the town of Waldoboro was chartered in 1773, it began organized fire protection in 1838 with a volunteer fire department and a hand pump fire engine, the Water Witch.

Most Inconvenient Storm

A Portland newspaper wrote about an ice storm of January 28, 1886 saying, "The city of Portland was visited yesterday by the most inconvenient storm of the season."

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Reform and Repeal

"2093, B2F6 X Shall We have a State Liquor Store in our Town (or City)?, 1936 Waterville Collections of Maine Historical Society, a gift from…"

Shepard Cary: Lumberman, Legislator, Leader and Legend

Shepard Cary (1805-1866) was one of the leading -- and wealthiest -- residents of early Aroostook County. He was a lumberman, merchant, mill operator, and legislator.

The World's Largest Oxen

Named for the two largest things in Maine at the turn of the 20th century, Mt. Katahdin and Granger of Stetson, were known as the Largest Oxen in the World. Unable to do farm work because of their size, they visited fairs and agricultural events around the Northeast.

Valentines

Valentines Day cards have long been a way to express feelings of romance or love for family or friends. These early Valentines Day cards suggest the ways in which the expression of those sentiments has changed over time.

Princeton: Woods and Water Built This Town

Princeton benefited from its location on a river -- the St. Croix -- that was useful for transportation of people and lumber and for powering mills as well as on its proximity to forests.

Ice: A Maine Commodity

Maine's frozen rivers and lakes provided an economic opportunity. The state shipped thousands of tons of ice to ports along the East Coast and to the West Indies that workers had cut and packed in sawdust for shipment or later use.

Nuclear Energy for Maine?

Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Wiscasset generated electricity from 1972 until 1996. Activists concerned about the plant's safety led three unsuccessful referendum campaigns in the 1980s to shut it down.

The Washburns of Livermore

Members of the Washburn family of Livermore participated in the Civil War in a variety of ways -- from Caroline at the homefront, to Samuel at sea, Elihu, as a Congressman from Illinois, and Israel governor of Maine. The family had considerable influence politically on several fronts.

Sarah Sampson: Caring for Soldiers, Orphans

Sarah Sampson of Bath went to war with her husband, a captain in the 3rd Maine Regiment. With no formal training, she spent the next four and a half years providing nursing and other services to soldiers. Even after her husband became ill and returned to Maine, Sampson remained in the Washington, D.C., area aiding the sick and wounded.

Student Exhibit: Ice Harvesting

Ice Harvesting was a big industry on the Kennebec River. Several million tons of ice could be harvested in a few weeks. In 1886 the Kennebec River topped the million ton on ice production.

Music in Maine - Longfellow Family Music

"Jacob S. Paine of Portland owned the music store where the Longfellows purchased the piano, published sheet music, and founded the Portland…"

Music in Maine - HEAR

"… and Record Players Interior of Saco Music Store, ca. 1897Dyer Library/Saco Museum Victor Victrola, 1914Southern Aroostook Agricultural…"

Music in Maine - Community and School Marching Bands

"… at Strawbridge and Clouthier department store, and played vaudeville stages in New York. Franco Bands Alphonse Cote, Lewiston…"