Keywords: Cooks
- Historical Items (520)
- Tax Records (49)
- Architecture & Landscape (6)
- Online Exhibits (46)
- Site Pages (93)
- My Maine Stories (36)
- Lesson Plans (15)
Online Exhibits
Your results include these online exhibits. You also can view all of the site's exhibits, view a timeline of selected events in Maine History, and learn how to create your own exhibit. See featured exhibits or create your own exhibit
Exhibit
Cooks and Cookees: Lumber Camp Legends
Stories and tall tales abound concerning cooks and cookees -- important persons in any lumber camp, large or small.
Exhibit
Sugar and Spice: Our Vintage Recipes
Sugar and Spice: Our Vintage Recipes showcases historic recipes, dating from the 18th century to the 1950s, like sweet treats, traditional favorites, promotional printings, medicinal concoctions, curious libations, and recipes that have fallen out of favor.
Exhibit
Desserts have always been a special treat. For centuries, Mainers have enjoyed something sweet as a nice conclusion to a meal or celebrate a special occasion. But many things have changed over the years: how cooks learn to make desserts, what foods and tools were available, what was important to people.
Exhibit
Wired! How Electricity Came to Maine
As early as 1633, entrepreneurs along the Piscataqua River in southern Maine utilized the force of the river to power a sawmill, recognizing the potential of the area's natural power sources, but it was not until the 1890s that technology made widespread electricity a reality -- and even then, consumers had to be urged to use it.
Exhibit
Maine's Untold Vegetarian History
Vegetarianism has deep roots in Maine and this first-of-its-kind exhibition explores this untold story.
Exhibit
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.
Exhibit
Maine Eats: the food revolution starts here
From Maine's iconic lobsters, blueberries, potatoes, apples, and maple syrup, to local favorites like poutine, baked beans, red hot dogs, Italian sandwiches, and Whoopie Pies, Maine's identity and economy are inextricably linked to food. Sourcing food, preparing food, and eating food are all part of the heartbeat of Maine's culture and economy. Now, a food revolution is taking us back to our roots in Maine: to the traditional sources, preparation, and pleasures of eating food that have sustained Mainers for millennia.
Exhibit
Prohibition in Maine in the 1920s
Federal Prohibition took hold of America in 1920 with the passing of the Volstead Act that banned the sale and consumption of all alcohol in the US. However, Maine had the Temperance movement long before anyone was prohibited from taking part in one of America's most popular past times. Starting in 1851, the struggles between the "drys" and the "wets" of Maine lasted for 82 years, a period of time that was everything but dry and rife with nothing but illegal activity.
Exhibit
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.
Exhibit
Trolleys were the cleanest and most efficient means of mass transit Maine has ever known.
Exhibit
Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - The Wadsworth Era: 1786-1807
"… that the Wadsworth family employed servants to cook, do laundry, clean and care for the family. Some lived in the house, while others worked during…"
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Society Copes
"We get thirty-five cents for it when they cook with it, and forty cents when they drink it." - R.E."
Exhibit
Maine's natural resources -- granite, limestone and slate in particular -- along with its excellent ports made it a leader in mining and production of the valuable building materials. Stone work also attracted numerous skilled immigrants.
Exhibit
Maine's corn canning industry, as illuminated by the career of George S. Jewett, prospered between 1850 and 1950.
Exhibit
Visitors to the Maine woods in the early twentieth century often recorded their adventures in private diaries or journals and in photographs. Their remembrances of canoeing, camping, hunting and fishing helped equate Maine with wilderness.
Exhibit
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.
Exhibit
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.
Exhibit
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.
Exhibit
Yarmouth's "Third Falls" provided the perfect location for papermaking -- and, soon, for producing soda pulp for making paper. At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, Yarmouth was an international leader in soda pulp production.
Exhibit
A Snapshot of Portland, 1924: The Taxman Cometh
In 1924, with Portland was on the verge of profound changes, the Tax Assessors Office undertook a project to document every building in the city -- with photographs and detailed information that provide a unique view into Portland's architecture, neighborhoods, industries, and businesses.
Exhibit
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."
Exhibit
Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - The Longfellow Era: 1807-1901
"… fragile health, Aunt Lucia ran the house — cooking, sewing, knitting — and managed the entire family."
Exhibit
Looking Out: Maine's Fire Towers
Maine, the most heavily forested state in the nation, had the first continuously operational fire lookout tower, beginning a system of fire prevention that lasted much of the twentieth century.
Exhibit
Summer Folk: The Postcard View
Vacationers, "rusticators," or tourists began flooding into Maine in the last quarter of the 19th century. Many arrived by train or steamer. Eventually, automobiles expanded and changed the tourist trade, and some vacationers bought their own "cottages."