Maine Memory Network

Music in Maine - MAKE

"… their talents and performing in operas, vaudeville, and so-called “Wild West” shows. They met and sang with people from other Indigenous…"

Music in Maine - Community and School Marching Bands

"… and Clouthier department store, and played vaudeville stages in New York. Franco Bands Alphonse Cote, Lewiston, 1918Franco-American…"

Music in Maine - Music Makers

"… in Michigan, he and his wife Emma performed on vaudeville stages including in New York, Boston, Washington DC and Philadelphia."

Le Théâtre

Lewiston, Maine's second largest city, was long looked upon by many as a mill town with grimy smoke stacks, crowded tenements, low-paying jobs, sleazy clubs and little by way of refinement, except for Bates College. Yet, a noted Québec historian, Robert Rumilly, described it as "the French Athens of New England."

Music in Maine - Opera, Orchestras and Stages

"She was a mezzo-soprano and performed in vaudeville shows, where she met my grandfather, Bruce Poolaw."

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.

Remembering Mellie Dunham: Snowshoe Maker and Fiddler

Alanson Mellen "Mellie" Dunham and his wife Emma "Gram" Dunham were well-known musicians throughout Maine and the nation in the early decades of the 20th century. Mellie Dunham also received fame as a snowshoe maker.

History in Motion: The Era of the Electric Railways

Street railways, whether horse-drawn or electric, required the building of trestles and tracks. The new form of transportation aided industry, workers, vacationers, and other travelers.

Washington County Through Eastern's Eye

Images taken by itinerant photographers for Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company, a real photo postcard company, provide a unique look at industry, commerce, recreation, tourism, and the communities of Washington County in the early decades of the twentieth century.