Maine Memory Network

The Waldo-Hancock Bridge

The Waldo-Hancock Bridge is in the process of being dismantled after over 70 years of service. The Maine State Archives has a number of records related to the history of this famous bridge that are presented in this exhibition.

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.

Student Exhibit: Medicine in Times Past

Inspired by Dr. Greenleaf Wilbur's medical box at the Skowhegan History House, this exhibit highlights some Mainers in the medical field of the past and the stories they had.

Student Exhibit: Save the Skowhegan Grange & Granges in General

A brief history of the Grange in Skowhegan, its importance to community history, and a plea to save it from destruction.

Patriotism Shared

Post office clerks began collecting strong red, white, and blue string, rolling it onto a ball and passing it on to the next post office to express their support for the Union effort in the Civil War. Accompanying the ball was this paper scroll on which the clerks wrote messages and sometimes drew images.

Cooks and Cookees: Lumber Camp Legends

Stories and tall tales abound concerning cooks and cookees -- important persons in any lumber camp, large or small.

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Business as Usual

"About this picture, one critic commented: "Copies can be viewed in barrooms, taverns, hotels, restaurants, and museums throughout the country."

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

"Stevens told the faithful, "...we can see prohibition looming up all the way from Mt. Kineo in the east to Mt."

Music in Maine - Music Education

"… together, and musical experiences in childhood can accelerate brain development, especially in language, reading skills, and mathematical learning."

A Town Is Born: South Bristol, 1915

After being part of the town of Bristol for nearly 150 years, residents of South Bristol determined that their interests would be better served by becoming a separate town and they broke away from the large community of Bristol.

Music in Maine - Opera, Orchestras and Stages

"… must be so note perfect in that role that nothing can disconcert you."¬¬ Brunnhilde costume worn by Lillian Nordica in 1898Nordica Memorial…"

400 years of New Mainers

Immigration is one of the most debated topics in Maine. Controversy aside, immigration is also America's oldest tradition, and along with religious tolerance, what our nation was built upon. Since the first people--the Wabanaki--permitted Europeans to settle in the land now known as Maine, we have been a state of immigrants.

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.

Gifts From Gluskabe: Maine Indian Artforms

According to legend, the Great Spirit created Gluskabe, who shaped the world of the Native People of Maine, and taught them how to use and respect the land and the resources around them. This exhibit celebrates the gifts of Gluskabe with Maine Indian art works from the early nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries.

The Shape of Maine

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Eye in the Sky

In 1921, Guy Gannett purchased two competing Portland newspapers, merging them under the Portland Press Herald title. He followed in 1925 with the purchase the Portland Evening Express, which allowed him to combine two passions: photography and aviation.

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.

War Through the Eyes of a Young Sailor

Eager to deal with the "Sesech" [Secessionists], young deepwater sailor John Monroe Dillingham of Freeport enlisted in the U.S. Navy as soon as he returned from a long voyage in 1862. His letters and those of his family offer first-hand insight into how one individual viewed the war.

Commander George Henry Preble

George Henry Preble of Portland, nephew of Edward Preble who was known as the father of the U.S. Navy, temporarily lost his command during the Civil War when he was charged with failing to stop a Confederate ship from getting through the Union blockade at Mobile.

The Nativist Klan

In Maine, like many other states, a newly formed Ku Klux Klan organization began recruiting members in the years just before the United States entered World War I. A message of patriotism and cautions about immigrants and non-Protestants drew many thousands of members into the secret organization in the early 1920s. By the end of the decade, the group was largely gone from Maine.