Maine Memory Network

Letter of thanks from Female Orphan Asylum, Portland, 1856

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1856-10-15 Location: Portland Media: Ink on paper

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Santa Claus at the Healey Asylum, Lewiston, ca. 1950

Contributed by: Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries Date: circa 1950 Location: Lewiston Media: Photographic print

28-40 Mellen Street, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Asylum Use: Asylum

139-151 Pleasant Avenue, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Female Orphan Asylum Use: Orphan Asylum

Sweetser Children's home, Saco, 1948-1951

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1948–1951 Location: Saco Client: unknown Architect: John Howard Stevens and John Calvin Stevens II Architects

Pigeon's Mainer Project: who decides who belongs?

Street artist Pigeon's artwork tackles the multifaceted topic of immigration. He portrays Maine residents, some who are asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants—people who are often marginalized through state and federal policies—to ask questions about the dynamics of power in society, and who gets to call themselves a “Mainer.”

From French Canadians to Franco-Americans

French Canadians who emigrated to the Lewiston-Auburn area faced discrimination as children and adults -- such as living in "Little Canada" tenements and being ridiculed for speaking French -- but also adapted to their new lives and sustained many cultural traditions.

Mercy Hospital - Portland Hospitals Before Mercy

"… Hospital, the mentally ill could go to the State Asylum for the Insane in Augusta, and the poor could receive some degree of care in the almshouse."

Rum, Riot, and Reform - 1865 to 1919: The Drys Gain New Adherents and Leaders

"In 1864, he opened America's first "inebriate asylum" in Binghamton, New York, to help cure its sufferers."

Born in Bangor 1936
by Priscilla M. Naile

Spending time at the Bangor Children's Home