Keywords: Snowshoe
Item 33300
Le Boucanier Snowshoe Club, Biddeford, 1927
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media Date: 1927-03-05 Location: Biddeford; Brunswick Media: Glass Negative
Item 79927
Mellie Dunham making snowshoes, Norway, 1924
Contributed by: Norway Historical Society Date: 1924 Location: Norway Media: Photographic print
Exhibit
In the early 1600s, French explorers and colonizers in the New World quickly adopted a Native American mode of transportation to get around during the harsh winter months: the snowshoe. Most Northern societies had some form of snowshoe, but the Native Americans turned it into a highly functional item. French settlers named snowshoes "raquettes" because they resembled the tennis racket then in use.
Exhibit
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.
Site Page
"He made snowshoes for Robert E. Peary’s Arctic explorations, with Peary noting the snowshoes never failed him."
Site Page
Mount Desert Island: Shaped by Nature - In the beginning, there were the Wabanaki…
"Penobscot snowshoes, ca. 1850Abbe Museum With the Europeans came new diseases and colonial wars. After 150 years of these conflicts, barely 1,000…"
Story
Becoming Master snowshoe makers
by Edmond and Brian J. Theriault
Making snowshoes has taken us from novices to world-class craftsmen over 40 years time.
Story
My father's world - the old farm in Richmond, Maine
by Donald C. Cunningham
A story about my father and our family.
Lesson Plan
Grade Level: 3-5
Content Area: Health Education & Physical Education, Social Studies
This lesson plan will introduce students to myriad communities in Maine, past and present, through the universal lens of sports and group activities. Students will explore and understand the history of many of Maine’s recreational pastimes, what makes Maine the ideal location for some outdoor sports, and how communities have come together through team activities throughout Maine’s history.
