Maine Memory Network
Maine's Online Museum

Title: Women Spinning at Pepperell Mills, Biddeford, 1910

Contributed by: McArthur Public Library

Date: 1910

Location: Biddeford

Media: Black and White Photograph

Title: Women Cutting Rags, Brewer, ca. 1920

Contributed by: Maine Folklife Center, Univ. of Maine

Date: circa 1920

Location: Brewer

Media: Photograph

Title: Women sorting rags, Brewer, ca. 1920

Contributed by: Maine Folklife Center, Univ. of Maine

Date: circa 1920

Location: Brewer

Media: Photograph

Laboring in Maine

Workers in Maine have labored in factories, on farms, in the woods, on the water, among other locales. Many of Maine's occupations have been determined by the state's climate and geographical features.

Biddeford, Saco and the Textile Industry

The largest textile factory in the country reached seven stories up on the banks of the Saco River in 1825, ushering in more than a century of making cloth in Biddeford and Saco. Along with the industry came larger populations and commercial, retail, social, and cultural growth.

Wired! How Electricity Came to Maine

As early as 1633, entrepreneurs along the Piscataqua River in southern Maine utilized the force of the river to power a sawmill, recognizing the potential of the area's natural power sources, but it was not until the 1890s that technology made widespread electricity a reality -- and even then, consumers had to be urged to use it.