Keywords: Old Portland
- Historical Items (346)
- Tax Records (386)
- Architecture & Landscape (7)
- Online Exhibits (132)
- Site Pages (92)
- My Maine Stories (23)
- Lesson Plans (1)
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
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.
Exhibit
Home: The Longfellow House & the Emergence of Portland
The Wadsworth-Longfellow house is the oldest building on the Portland peninsula, the first historic site in Maine, a National Historic Landmark, home to three generations of Wadsworth and Longfellow family members -- including the boyhood home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The history of the house and its inhabitants provide a unique view of the growth and changes of Portland -- as well as of the immediate surroundings of the home.
Exhibit
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…"
Exhibit
Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - The Privy
"Chamber pot and lid, Portland, ca. 1875Maine Historical Society In urban areas, there wasn’t space to do this so a permanent "privy vault" was…"
Exhibit
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…"
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Acknowledgements
"… Village Peabody Essex Museum Pingree Family Portland Museum of Art Portland Public Library Madelyn Provancher Rumford Historical Society Saint…"
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - A Call to Temperance
"X Portland Riot Broadsides, Portland, 1849 Courtesy of a Private Collection These broadsides commemorate the famous bawdyhouse gunfights in…"
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Taverns, People, and Scenes
"Plan of Ann (now Park) Street, Portland, ca. 1802Maine Historical Society Plan of Ann Street, Portland, ca."
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Influential & Interesting Documents
"Her cargo, sold locally as "Old Dart Rum",brought high prices and, in the estimate of historian William Goold, raised the spirits of all Portland."
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Quenching the Thirst
"… antics caused friction as well, for as the Old Soldiers Refrain boasts, "But if we get too tipsy on prohibition gin, the police, always ready, the…"
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Women Leaders and Temperance
"Home of Mrs. Lillian M.W. Stevens, Portland, ca. 1910Greater Portland Landmarks Home of Lillian M. N. Stevens Postcard, ca."
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Reform and Repeal
"… Historical Society I'm Making Whoopie-e at Old Orchard Beach, 1938 Postcard Collections of Maine Historical Society, a gift from Charles E."
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Society Copes
"Old Collingswood Rye Whiskey ca. 1920s Courtesy of Drew D. Masterman This whiskey is labeled "For Family and Medicinal Purposes," the only way…"
Exhibit
Hermann Kotzschmar: Portland's Musical Genius
During the second half of the 19th century, "Hermann Kotzschmar" was a familiar household name in Portland. He spent 59 years in his adopted city as a teacher, choral conductor, concert artist, and church organist.
Exhibit
Anshe Sfard, Portland's Early Chassidic Congregation
Chassidic Jews who came to Portland from Eastern Europe formed a congregation in the late 19th century and, in 1917, built a synagogue -- Anshe Sfard -- on Cumberland Avenue in Portland. By the early 1960s, the congregation was largely gone. The building was demolished in 1983.
Exhibit
Horace W. Shaylor: Portland Penman
Horace W. Shaylor, a native of Ohio, settled in Portland and turned his focus to handwriting, developing several unique books of handwriting instruction. He also was a talented artist.
Exhibit
Port of Portland's Custom House and Collectors of Customs
The collector of Portland was the key to federal patronage in Maine, though other ports and towns had collectors. Through the 19th century, the revenue was the major source of Federal Government income. As in Colonial times, the person appointed to head the custom House in Casco Bay was almost always a leading community figure, or a well-connected political personage.
Exhibit
Westbrook Seminary: Educating Women
Westbrook Seminary, built on Stevens Plain in 1831, was founded to educate young men and young women. Seminaries traditionally were a form of advanced secondary education. Westbrook Seminary served an important function in admitting women students, for whom education was less available in the early and mid nineteenth century.
Exhibit
Memorializing Civil War Veterans: Portland & Westbrook
Three cemeteries -- all of which were in Westbrook during the Civil War -- contain headstones of Civil War soldiers. The inscriptions and embellishments on the stones offer insight into sentiments of the eras when the soldiers died.
Exhibit
A Portland newspaper wrote about an ice storm of January 28, 1886 saying, "The city of Portland was visited yesterday by the most inconvenient storm of the season."
Exhibit
A City Awakes: Arts and Artisans of Early 19th Century Portland
Portland's growth from 1786 to 1860 spawned a unique social and cultural environment and fostered artistic opportunity and creative expression in a broad range of the arts, which flowered with the increasing wealth and opportunity in the city.
Exhibit
Following his historic flight across the Atlantic in May 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh commenced a tour across America, greeted by cheering crowds at every stop. He was a day late for his speaking engagement in Portland, due to foggy conditions. Elise Fellows White wrote in her diary about seeing Lindbergh and his plane.
Exhibit
From Sewers to Skylines: William S. Edwards's 1887 Photo Album
William S. Edwards (1830-1918) was a civil engineer who worked for the City of Portland from 1876-1906. Serving as First Assistant to Chief Engineer William A. Goodwin, then to Commissioner George N. Fernald, Edwards was a fixture in City Hall for 30 consecutive years, proving indispensable throughout the terms of 15 Mayors of Portland, including all six of those held by James Phineas Baxter. Edwards made significant contributions to Portland, was an outstanding mapmaker and planner, and his works continue to benefit historians.
Exhibit
Evergreens and a Jolly Old Elf
Santa Claus and evergreens have been common December additions to homes, schools, businesses, and other public places to America since the mid nineteenth century. They are two symbols of the Christian holiday of Christmas whose origins are unrelated to the religious meaning of the day.