News & Announcements

Maine Historical Society partners with the University of Maine Press to publish the Finding Katahdin Resource Guide on Maine Memory Network


September 1, 2006

In the fall of 2001, the University of Maine Press published Finding Katahdin: An Exploration of Maine's Past. This rigorous text presents Maine history in a format and style that will appeal to students from grades seven through twelve. Written by talented author Amy Hassinger, the book was shepherded through its formulation by a committee of education and history professors, public school social studies teachers, and the University of Maine Press. Draft chapters from the book were tested in middle school classrooms, with feedback incorporated into the text. Mindful of the State of Maine's learning results, the book presents an articulate, thoughtful understanding of Maine history in a way that engages students and introduces them to the discipline of historical research and scholarship.

Finding Katahdin explores Maine in its various incarnations: as a land of prehistoric hunters and gatherers, a frontier where English, French, and Wabanaki cultures mix and clash, a mecca for a shifting mosaic of loggers, fishermen, farmers, shipbuilders, artists, tourists, and others. The narrative is exciting and varied, with sections of dialogue, excerpts from primary source documents, short biographies, and other devices that illuminate the history. The design of the text is graceful and straightforward, with many reproductions of paintings and photographs, as well as sidebars, charts, maps and document-reproductions.

An accompanying Resource Guide for Finding Katahdin is available on the Maine Memory Network. The Resource Guide provides classroom activities, lesson plans and other materials for classroom use to accompany the textbook. It is presented on the MMN in electronic format, along with "document packets," collections of historical source documents from the state's collecting organizations. Click here to access these online resources.

For more information:

Maine Historical Society
489 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101
207–774–1822
www.mainehistory.org
www.mainememory.net

Maine Historical Society preserves and shares Maine's story to enrich life in contemporary Maine.