Collaborative Projects, Past Recipients 2008-2015

Digitization Projects, 2011-2013

Berwick Historical Society, with the help of Berwick Public Library, to digitize a number of the historic photos in its collection in preparation for the town of Berwick's 300th anniversary in 2013. View Digitized Items

Boothbay Region Historical Society, to digitize 70+ images, including 10 glass plate negatives, from the Society's extensive photograph collection. View Digitized Items

Bridgton Historical Society, to scan and upload 300 of its more than 2,700 1930s-era property tax assessment cards. Each card has data about the town structure on the front and back, and includes a photograph. The Historical Society will focus on downtown buildings. View Digitized Items

Camden Public Library, to digitize the entire Edna St. Vincent Millay Collection. The collection was started by a former assistant librarian at the library-Corinne Sawyer, who was a high school classmate, and good friend, of Millay-and has been added to substantially over time. View Digitized Items

Hartland Public Library, in conjunction with the Hartland, Palmyra, and St. Albans Historical Societies, to digitize a variety of photographs, artifacts, and documents in those towns' collections.
View Digitized Items from Hartland Historical Society
View Digitized Items from St. Albans Historical Society

Portland's Maine Irish Heritage Center, to digitize photographs in its collection that create a visual portrait of life among the Irish immigrant population in Portland over time. Material in the collections dates to the 1870s. View Digitized Items

Monson Historical Society, to digitize part of a collection of more than 3,500 glass plates that were donated by a private collector in 2009. Taken by two town photographers from 1890 to 1919, the plates capture portraits, street images, slate quarry mining, cottage life on Lake Hebron, and more. View Digitized Items

Robert A. Frost Memorial Library, to digitize its local history collection. Particular attention will be paid to a collection of materials on the Nichols Barn, an area-wide tourist attraction in the early 1900s, and Loring Air Force Base, in operation from the mid-1950s to 1994. View Digitized Items

South Bristol Historical Society, in conjunction with South Bristol School, to research, digitize, and upload to Maine Memory items focusing on the town's origins and unique qualities. Among other topics, students will examine factors leading to secession from Bristol in 1915. Eventually, an exhibit will be created based on their work. View Digitized Items

Topsham Historical Society, in collaboration with the Town of Topsham's History Committee and Topsham Public Library, to digitize photographs, documents, and artifacts related to the town's extensive collection of 19th century firefighter muster competitions. View Digitized Items

Walker Memorial Library, in Westbrook, to digitize a number of historic photos in its collection in advance of the city's 200th anniversary in 2014. View Digitized Items

Waterford Historical Society, to add to its items currently on Maine Memory Network by digitizing 100 photos dating from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. View Digitized Items

Westport Island History Committee, to digitize artifacts relating to the life of Samuel Tarbox's family and property. Like many early settlers, Tarbox (1780-1861) had his hand in several aspects of island life-fishing, shipping, farming, and governance. He also owned the building that is now the Squire Tarbox Inn, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. View Digitized Items

Winslow Historical Preservation Committee, to inventory, digitize, and upload to MMN suitable images from its collections. The Committee's holdings amount to approximately 500 photographs and documents. View Digitized Items

Exhibit Projects, 2011-2013

Baldwin Historical Society, to create an exhibit about aspects of early 19th century daily life in the town. View Exhibit

Cary Library in Houlton, to digitize an 1837-1843 account ledger integral to the history of Aroostook County, and to create an exhibit using parts of this ledger, supplemented with other items from the Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum. View Exhibit

Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine, to create an online exhibit about the experience of Franco-American children throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Oral histories with Franco adults recalling aspects of their childhood, as well as Franco children today, may be part of the project. View Exhibit

Friendship Museum, with the Friendship Village School, to build a Maine Memory exhibit related to historic Friendship wharves. Old photographs, postcards, commercial documents, diaries, artifacts, and interviews with descendents of wharf owners will provide the basis for the project. View Exhibit

Great Cranberry Island Historical Society, to create an online exhibit about "Squire" William Pitt Preble and his wife, Abigail, an important family in the town in the mid-1800s. Preble took depositions from masters of ships wrecked nearby; Abigail was the first president of the Ladies Aid. View Exhibit

Kennebec Valley Community College, in collaboration with Coastal Enterprises, to digitize the college's substantial archives, and to create two online exhibits about the history of the college. The first exhibit will be a story about KVCC's first independent campus (1978-1986), the Gilman Street School, which was recently redeveloped into low-income housing.

L. C. Bates Museum (Good Will Home Association), to create an exhibit that depicts the history, nature trails, and monuments in the part of the Good-Will Hinckley known as SunSet Park, much of which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. View Exhibit

Leeds Historical Society, in partnership with Leeds Central School, to create an online exhibit about multi-faceted 19th century Leeds farmer, John Merrill, based in part on his diaries. View Exhibit

Maine Folklife Center, University of Maine, to create an online exhibit based on oral histories, documents, and photographs relating to Eastern Corporation of Brewer (1890-2004). The exhibit will chart the history of the company, which eventually employed up to 1,500 people, in the context of industrialization and de-industrialization of the United States. View Exhibit

Maine's First Ship, to create a virtual history of the 1607-1608 Popham Colony, including photos of artifacts from the archaeological digs of Fort Saint George (in present-day Phippsburg) now in the collections of the Maine State Museum. Maine's First Ship is a credit-bearing, summer program for high school students to construct a replica of the Virginia, the first English-built ship on the North American continent. View Exhibit

Maine Island Trail Association, to present the story of Little Chebeague Island's history and its relationship to regional, cultural, social, and environmental events and influences. The exhibit will cull from a variety of collections, including that of island expert Richard Innes. View Exhibit

Maine's Paper and Heritage Museum, located in Livermore Falls, to work with 7th grade students from Spruce Mountain Middle School and the Livermore/Livermore Falls Historical Society to investigate the origins and impact of the paper industry within the larger context of the Industrial Revolution. View Exhibit

Mantor Library, University of Maine at Farmington, to create an online exhibit about Farmington State Normal School, the predecessor of UMF. The exhibit will focus on the first half of the 20th century, highlighting the "cottage baby" program that was part of the Home Economics curricula. "History of UMF" students will contribute. View Exhibit

Moosehead Historical Society, to create an online exhibit about the many steamboats that cruised on the lake in the latter half of the 19th century, and the relation they had to the tourism and logging industries in the region. View Exhibit

New England Electric Railway Historical Society, aka Seashore Trolley Museum, in conjunction with York County Community College, to develop a virtual trolley tour of Maine from Kittery to Van Buren. This new exhibit by a longtime Maine Memory contributing partner will focus on major cities, destinations, and long-gone tourist attractions, and will feature hand-drawn maps from the museum's previously unpublished Atlas of Maine Electric Railways.

Norway Historical Society, to create an online exhibit about Norway as the snowshoe-making capital of the country from the 1890s to the 1960s, focusing on the life of Alanson "Mellie" Dunham (1853-1931), the foremost maker of handmade snowshoes during his lifetime. Among other accomplishments, he made snowshoes for Robert E. Peary's last two Arctic explorations. View Exhibit

Penobscot Marine Museum, in Searsport, to create online exhibits about Washington and Hancock Counties using photographs from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection. The Museum will consult with a number of historical societies in the communities to assist in captioning the images.

Princeton Public Library, to develop an online exhibit examining early industries in the town, especially lumbering. View Exhibit

Rockland Historical Society, in conjunction with Rockland Public Library, to digitize stereoptic images of Rockland and create an online exhibit about Rockland after the Civil War. View Exhibit

Sebago Historical Society, in collaboration with Spaulding Memorial Library, to create an online exhibit about Sebago during the Civil War-both the soldiers from Sebago who went to war, and the families on the homefront. Letters, stories, and memorabilia will provide the foundation for the exhibit. View Exhibit

Ski Museum of Maine, in collaboration with Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Club, to create an online exhibit about the World Cup Alpine Ski Races held at Sugarloaf in 1971. The event, held in conjunction with the Maine Office of Tourism, was broadcast by ABC's Wide World of Sports and put Sugarloaf on the world stage. View Exhibit

Stetson Historical Society, to tell the story of Katahdin and Granger, the "world's largest oxen." The oxen were raised around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. They were displayed at fairs and expositions all over New England and New York. View Exhibit

Vaughan Homestead Foundation, in Hallowell, to create an online exhibit about the original Vaughan family and its five succeeding generations.

Waldoboro Public Library, in conjunction with Waldoboro Fire Department and the Waldoboro Historical Society, to create an online exhibit about the fire department's 175 years in existence. View Exhibit

Waterville Public Library, to create an online exhibit about life in the city 100 years ago, focusing on business and economic development. The Library will also digitize items in its collection related to other topics including religion, education, music, transportation, and politics. View Exhibit

Wayne Library Association (Cary Memorial Library) , in conjunction with Wayne Historical Society, to create an online exhibit about opera singer Annie Louise Cary, who was born in Wayne. The exhibit will feature selected images of bookplates from a collection amassed to honor Cary. View Exhibit

Maine Community Heritage Project, 2008-2013

This year-long program brought together libraries, schools, and historical societies in 23 communities to construct a substantive local history site that lives on Maine Memory. For more information on MCHP, read the program overview.

2012-2013 Communities

Mount Desert Island brought together the MDI Historical Society, Northeast Harbor Library, the Mount Desert Island Regional School System, and Friends of Island History, to update and expand a pilot community history website on Maine Memory. View Website

The Western Foothills Region connected multiple historical societies, libraries, and schools in the district, as well as faculty and research assistants from University of Maine, Farmington, under the auspices of RSU #10. Participating towns included: Buckfield, Byron, Canton, Carthage, Dixfield, Mexico, Peru, Rumford, and Sumner. View Website

2011-2012 Communities

Strong, in western Maine, just north of Farmington, highlighted its notoriety as the home of the first registered Maine guide, Cornelia "Fly Rod" Crosby; its previous claim to fame as the "Toothpick Capital of the World"; the Civil War-to-Reconstruction era; and other topics of interest to the community. View Website

Surry, located between Blue Hill and Ellsworth, was home to the Surry Playhouse and is still home to the Surry Opera Company, both of which were featured. Other topics included the fishing industry, local businesses, contributions to war efforts, and Native American history in the area. View Website

Swan's Island, off Southwest Harbor, wove the MCHP into the school's grades 3-5 Swan's Island History unit, and a grades 6-8 history unit. Although a 2008 fire destroyed the Swan's Island library and most of the island's historical ephemera, the reborn Swan's Island Educational Society (SIES) has scanned numerous historic photos owned by community members, received new donations, and undertaken an oral history project. View Website

2008-2010/Pilot Communities

The following communities participated in MCHP during the original iteration of the program: Bangor, Bath, Biddeford, Blue Hill, Cumberland/North Yarmouth, Farmington, Guilford, Hallowell, Hampden, Islesboro, Lincoln, Lubec, New Portland, New Sweden (pilot project, 2006-2007), Presque Isle, Scarborough, Skowhegan (pilot project, 2006-2007), Thomaston. Visit their sites.

Local & Legendary: Maine in the Civil War, 2013-2015

Maine Historical Society (MHS) and Maine Humanities Council (MHC) collaborated on this NEH-funded program to engage Maine communities in their Civil War history. Project teams with representatives from 12 communities (two of which collaborated) created online exhibits based on local collections and stories, and ran "one book" programs in their communities.

View the completed online exhibits from teams in Belfast, Bethel, Gorham/Windham, Jay/Livermore, Pittsfield, Portland/Westbrook, Presque Isle, the Greater Rumford area, and Scarborough in Maine Memory's Civil War site. For more information on Local & Legendary, read the program overview.

For More Information

To learn more about community projects or becoming involved in Maine Memory, please contact the Maine Memory Network staff at info@mainememory.net or call 774-1822 x227.