Maine Memory Network

An exciting collaboration between the South Bristol Historical Society and the South Bristol School that started out as a way to celebrated the upcoming centennial of the town has resulted in this exhibit on the Maine Memory Network.

In order to tell the story of the somewhat unusual circumstances leading up to the town's formation, fifth and sixth graders, under the guidance of teacher Jason Bigonia, met with Historical Society volunteers throughout Fall 2012 and Winter 2013 to select images that help to document the Town's growth and its unique character.

Then back at the school, students and SBHS volunteers scanned, made catalog entries and interpreted the images the students had selected.

A Maine Memory Network Community Mobilization grant from the Maine Historical Society provided seed funding to purchase equipment and to allow teacher Bigonia and Historical Society volunteers to attend a training workshop for the project.

Bringing their new skills back to the classroom, these individuals worked with four teams of students, each team assigned a different aspect of the Town to research and document.

The students paid several move visits to the South Bristol Historical Society, a building many of them had never visited before.

Interpretation and critical thinking skills were very much a part of the project, as students actively researched their topics using both primary and secondary resources.

Once selected, images were scanned by the students following Maine Historical Society guidelines.

Cataloguing the images helped the students to hone their skills in close observation and accurate description.

The images were then uploaded to the Maine Memory Network.

Historical Society volunteers wrote an essay to bring all of the pieces together, and the end result of the collaborative effort is new content for the Maine Memory Network digital museum.

Of particular interest to the students during the evolution of the project was the contrast between modern South Bristol and images of the town from the early 1900s.

This component of the project, dubbed "Then and Now" by the students, involved taking photographs of buildings and street corners from as close as possible to the same aspect as century-old postcards and photos that had been scanned and placed on the Maine Memory Network website.

Linking these students to their town, and giving them a sense of place, has been a valuable outcome of this endeavor.

They have come away with a new appreciation for their local history as well as a touchstone to their ancestors, as many students' families have resided in the South Bristol for generations.

The South Bristol School Fifth Grade students who participated in the Maine Memory Network project were: Braxton Farrin, Jarrett Gulden, Emma Scott and Matthew Sewall.

South Bristol School Sixth Grade participants: Emmalie Blanchard, Christopher Burrow, Sophie Gamage, Rohan Glendinning, Haley Graves, Nickolas Griffin, Halle Hallowell, Ethan Jones, Samantha Lakin, Rachael Naylor, Patrick Preston and Chase Wilson.