Maine Memory Network

Student Exhibit: Can You Help Our Free Skowhegan Public Library?

The Skowhegan Free Public Library was built in 1889 with money donated by Abner Coburn and the town of Skowhegan. Mr. Coburn left $30,000 in his will towards the building of the library. In 2005, for the library to fully keep up with their programs need to make some renovations. These changes would allow for more use of technology, more room for children's programs, and provide handicap accessibility.

The Establishment of the Troy Town Forest

Seavey Piper, a selectman, farmer, landowner, and leader of the Town of Troy in the 1920s through the early 1950s helped establish a town forest on abandoned farm land in Troy. The exhibit details his work over ten years.

Civil Defense: Fear and Safety

In the 1950s and the 1960s, Maine's Civil Defense effort focused on preparedness for hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters and a more global concern, nuclear war. Civil Defense materials urged awareness, along with measures like storing food and other staple items and preparing underground or other shelters.

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

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

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

"The Wadsworth Era: 1786-1807 Silhouette of Peleg Wadsworth, Portland, ca. 1800Maine Historical Society Peleg and Elizabeth Wadsworth lived in…"

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

"The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland "It is but right that the house should belong to the public… Henry always loved the old home above any…"

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…"

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

"Researching Your Home Every House has a History Peleg Wadsworth deed of land to Stephen Longfellow, Portland, 1827Maine Historical Society…"

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

"The House, 1786-1960 "…but happier is he whose heart rides quietly at anchor in the peaceful haven of home." – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to his…"

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

"Census, Timeline Pages from the manuscript United States census, taken every 10 years, show the changing nature of the Longfellow household -- and…"

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…"

Putting Men to Work, Saving Trees

While many Mainers were averse to accepting federal relief money during the Great Depression of the 1930s, young men eagerly joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of President Franklin Roosevelt's most popular programs. The Maine Forest Service supervised the work of many of the camps.

John Hancock's Relation to Maine

The president of the Continental Congress and the Declaration's most notable signatory, John Hancock, has ties to Maine through politics, and commercial businesses, substantial property, vacations, and family.

Colonial Cartography: The Plymouth Company Maps

The Plymouth Company (1749-1816) managed one of the very early land grants in Maine along the Kennebec River. The maps from the Plymouth Company's collection of records constitute some of the earliest cartographic works of colonial America.

Settling along the Androscoggin and Kennebec

The Proprietors of the Township of Brunswick was a land company formed in 1714 and it set out to settle lands along the Androscoggin and Kennebec Rivers in Maine.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

William King

Maine's first governor, William King, was arguably the most influential figure in Maine's achieving statehood in 1820. Although he served just one year as the Governor of Maine, he was instrumental in establishing the new state's constitution and setting up its governmental infrastructure.

Lock of George Washington's Hair

Correspondence between Elizabeth Wadsworth, her father Peleg Wadsworth and Martha Washington's secretary about the gift of a lock of George Washington's hair to Eliza.

Student Exhibit: A Civil War Soldier from Skowhegan

Alexander Crawford a soldier from Skowhegan, was born in 1839 on a farm on the Dudley Corner Road in Skowhegan. He served in the Civil War and returned to Skowhegan to run the family farm.

Great War and Armistice Day

In 1954, November 11 became known as Veterans Day, a time to honor American veterans of all wars. The holiday originated, however, as a way to memorialize the end of World War I, November 11, 1918, and to "perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations." Mainers were involved in World War I as soldiers, nurses, and workers on the homefront aiding the military effort.