Maine Memory Network

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Influential & Interesting Documents

"1803-1831 Watercolor Collections of Maine Historical Society This watercolor shows nearly every type of vessel involved in the Caribbean rum trade…"

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Drinking: Elegance and Debauchery

"… Hampden House Bar, 1837Maine Historical Society and Maine State Museum Hampden House Bar, 1840 John Martin (1823-1904) Watercolor and pen…"

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Business as Usual

"1920Maine Historical Society John Ford ca. 1920 Collections of Maine Historical Society, Gannett Glass Plate Negative Collection One of the major…"

Music in Maine - HEAR

"… Medical Center, Portland, 1965Maine Historical Society Radios Montgomery Ward radio, Mapleton, 1929Haystack Historical Society While many…"

Monuments to Civil War Soldiers

Maine supplied a huge number of soldiers to the Union Army during the Civil War -- some 70,000 -- and responded after the war by building monuments to soldiers who had served and soldiers who had died in the epic American struggle.

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

"… from a private residence to a historic house museum, preserving the history of the Wadsworth and Longfellow families."

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

"As early as 1850 the house was recognized as a historic site. Over the years many people have described the house and left a record of their…"

Farm-yard Frames

Throughout New England, barns attached to houses are fairly common. Why were the buildings connected? What did farmers or families gain by doing this? The phenomenon was captured in the words of a children's song, "Big house, little house, back house, barn," (Thomas C. Hubka <em>Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn, the Connected Farm Buildings of New England,</em> University Press of New England, 1984.)

The Arrival of Winter

The astronomical arrival of winter -- also known as the winter solstice -- marks the year's shortest day and the season of snow and cold. It usually arrives on December 21.

Music in Maine - Military Marching Bands

"Maine Historical Society and Maine State Museum The earliest marching bands in the United States were part of military units, used during drills and…"

Music in Maine - Radio Cowboys and Country Music

"1950Maine Historical Society The Lone Pine Mountaineers, Bangor, ca. 1940Maine Historical Society Born in Pea Cove near Old Town, Harold…"

Summer's Favorite Game

Baseball often is called the National Pastime. For many people, baseball is encountered in the backyard and down the street, a game played by a few or the full contingent of a team.

Northern Threads: Penobscot mocassins

A themed exhibit vignette within "Northern Threads, Part I," about telling stories through Indigenous clothing, featuring an essay by Jennifer Sapiel Neptune (Penobscot.)

Blueberries to Potatoes: Farming in Maine

Not part of the American "farm belt," Maine nonetheless has been known over the years for a few agricultural items, especially blueberries, sweet corn, potatoes, apples, chickens and dairy products.

The Public Face of Christmas

Christmas, a Christian holiday observed by many Mainers, has a very public, seasonal face that makes it visible to those of all beliefs.

Atherton Furniture

LeBaron Atherton's furniture empire consisted of ten stores, four of which were in Maine. The photos are reminiscent of a different era in retailing.

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.

Maine Sweets: Confections and Confectioners

From chocolate to taffy, Mainers are inventive with our sweet treats. In addition to feeding our sweet tooth, it's also an economic driver for the state.

Wiscasset's Arctic Connection

Scientist, author and explorer Donald B. MacMillan established Wiscasset as his homeport for many of the voyages he made to the Arctic region starting in the early 1920s.

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."

Luxurious Leisure

From the last decades of the nineteenth century through about the 1920s, vacationers were attracted to large resort hotels that promised a break from the noise, crowds, and pressures of an ever-urbanizing country.

Strike Up the Band

Before the era of recorded music and radio, nearly every community had a band that played at parades and other civic events. Fire departments had bands, military units had bands, theaters had bands. Band music was everywhere.

Music in Maine - Bluegrass Music

"… Foggy Dew, Westbrook, 1956Maine Historical Society Musician and television repair man, Al Hawkes, founded the Event Records label in Westbrook in…"

Auto Racing in Maine: 1911

The novelty of organized auto racing came to Maine in 1911 with a hill-climbing event in Poland and speed racing at Old Orchard Beach. Drivers and cars came from all over New England for these events.