Keywords: Thoughtfulness
Item 5486
Rebecca Usher account of Abraham Lincoln visit, Virginia, ca. 1870
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1865 Location: City Point; Hollis Center Media: Paper
Item 19230
Choice Thoughts from Longfellow board game, 1890
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1890 Media: Paper
Exhibit
John P. Sheahan, 1st Maine Cavalry, 31st Maine Infantry
John P. Sheahan of Dennysville served in the 1st Maine Cavalry from August 1862 until March 1864 when he was commissioned as a lieutenant in Co. E of the 31st Maine Infantry. His letters reveal much about the life of a soldier, including political views and thoughts about the war.
Exhibit
Lock of George Washington's Hair
Correspondence between Elizabeth Wadsworth, her father Peleg Wadsworth and Martha Washington's secretary about the gift of a lock of George Washington's hair to Eliza.
Site Page
Historic Hallowell - Poem of the 1896 Flood by William Lewis
"… was 10 feet under without any food Hope was thought to be lost after the second day, When on the third the water flowed away."
Site Page
Farmington: Franklin County's Shiretown - Lillian Nordica, Farmington, ca. 1911
"… Nordica." The date is uncertain, but it is thought she presented it to the library trustees on the occasion of her last public performance in…"
Story
Thoughts of Freedom
by Raymond
Painting my thoughts and loves while incarcerated at Maine State Prison
Story
I have thought about Vietnam almost every day for 48 years
by Ted Heselton
Working as a heavy equipment operator in Vietnam
Lesson Plan
Longfellow Studies: "The Slave's Dream"
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
In December of 1842 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Poems on Slavery was published. "The Slave's Dream" is one of eight anti-slavery poems in the collection. A beautifully crafted and emotionally moving poem, it mesmerizes the reader with the last thoughts of an African King bound to slavery, as he lies dying in a field of rice. The 'landscape of his dreams' include the lordly Niger flowing, his green-eyed Queen, the Caffre huts and all of the sights and sounds of his homeland until at last 'Death illuminates his Land of Sleep.'
Lesson Plan
Longfellow Studies: The Acadian Diaspora - Reading "Evangeline" as a Feminist and Metaphoric Text
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Evangeline, Longfellow's heroine, has long been read as a search for Evangeline's long-lost love, Gabrielle--separated by the British in 1755 at the time of the Grand Derangement, the Acadian Diaspora. The couple comes to find each other late in life and the story ends. Or does it?
Why does Longfellow choose to tell the story of this cultural group with a woman as the protagonist who is a member of a minority culture the Acadians? Does this say something about Longfellow's ability for understanding the misfortunes of others?
Who is Evangeline searching for? Is it Gabriel, or her long-lost land of Acadia? Does the couple represent that which is lost to them, the land of their birth and rebirth? These are some of the thoughts and ideas which permeate Longfellow's text, Evangeline, beyond the tale of two lovers lost to one another. As the documentary, Evangeline's Quest (see below) states: "The Acadians, the only people to celebrate their defeat." They, as a cultural group, are found in the poem and their story is told.