Maine Memory Network

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…"

Power of Potential

The National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs (NFBPWC) held their seventh annual convention in Portland during July 12 to July 18, 1925. Over 2,000 working women from around the country visited the city.

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

"… Home: The Longfellow House & the Emergence of Portland View exhibit: A Snapshot of Portland, 1924: The Taxman Cometh View exhibit: Picturing Henry…"

Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - Census, Timeline

"View Selective Time of Portland  The selected timeline of Portland with population figures also provides insight into the growth and changes in the…"

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

"335 Congress Street, Portland, 1924City of Portland - Planning & Development We invite you to explore the history of your home and neighborhood, to…"

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

"The Privy Brown Street, Portland, ca. 1875Maine Historic Preservation Commission In 2006, while rebuilding the garden wall along the original…"

Enemies at Sea, Companions in Death

Lt. William Burrows and Commander Samuel Blyth, commanders of the USS Enterprise and the HMS Boxer, led their ships and crews in Battle in Muscongus Bay on Sept. 5, 1813. The American ship was victorious, but both captains were killed. Portland staged a large and regal joint burial.

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.

A Celebration of Skilled Artisans

The Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, an organization formed to promote and support skilled craftsmen, celebrated civic pride and members' trades with a parade through Portland on Oct. 8, 1841 at which they displayed 17 painted linen banners with graphic and textual representations of the artisans' skills.

Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - The House, 1786-1960

"… built their brick home on Back Street in Portland in 1785-1786, the surrounding town of Falmouth was small and rural."

The Life and Legacy of the George Tate Family

Captain George Tate, mast agent for the King of England from 1751 to the Revolutionary War, and his descendants helped shape the development of Portland (first known as Falmouth) through activities such as commerce, shipping, and real estate.

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

"Lucia, 13, and Harry, 12, attended school in Portland. The four youngest boys made up the rest of Elizabeth's charges."

Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - People of the Wadsworth-Longfellow House

"… House Wadsworth-Longfellow House, Portland, ca. 1880Maine Historical Society Only two families occupied the house – the family of Elizabeth…"

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

"He and his family frequently visited Portland. Anne Longfellow Pierce, Portland, ca. 1855Maine Historical Society Anne Longfellow Pierce…"

Working Women of the Old Port

Women at the turn of the 20th century were increasingly involved in paid work outside the home. For wage-earning women in the Old Port section of Portland, the jobs ranged from canning fish and vegetables to setting type. A study done in 1907 found many women did not earn living wages.

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.

Graduation Season

Graduations -- and schools -- in the 19th through the first decade of the 20th century often were small affairs and sometimes featured student presentations that demonstrated what they had learned. They were not necessarily held in May or June, what later became the standard "end of the school year."

George F. Shepley: Lawyer, Soldier, Administrator

George F. Shepley of Portland had achieved renown as a lawyer and as U.S. Attorney for Maine when, at age 42 he formed the 12th Maine Infantry and went off to war. Shepley became military governor of Louisiana early in 1862 and remained in the military for the duration of the war.

A Craze for Cycling

Success at riding a bike mirrored success in life. Bicycling could bring families together. Bicycling was good for one's health. Bicycling was fun. Bicycles could go fast. Such were some of the arguments made to induce many thousands of people around Maine and the nation to take up the new pastime at the end of the nineteenth century.

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

"Streetscape, 1790-1930 In 1790: X The Reuben Morton house, at left (northeast corner of Brown and Congress streets), is a two-story, wood-frame…"

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.

Longfellow: The Man Who Invented America

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a man and a poet of New England conscience. He was influenced by his ancestry and his Portland boyhood home and experience.

Fashionable Maine: early twentieth century clothing

Maine residents kept pace with the dramatic shift in women’s dress that occurred during the short number of years preceding and immediately following World War I. The long restrictive skirts, stiff collars, body molding corsets and formal behavior of earlier decades quickly faded away and the new straight, dropped waist easy-to-wear clothing gave mobility and freedom of movement in tune with the young independent women of the casual, post-war jazz age generation.

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.