Maine Memory Network

Electrical worker climbing irons, ca. 1954

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1954 Media: Iron, aluminum, leather

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.

400 years of New Mainers

Immigration is one of the most debated topics in Maine. Controversy aside, immigration is also America's oldest tradition, and along with religious tolerance, what our nation was built upon. Since the first people--the Wabanaki--permitted Europeans to settle in the land now known as Maine, we have been a state of immigrants.

John Martin: Expert Observer - Elmer Ellsworth Martin, Bangor, 1865

"… mother, Clara Cary Martin (1836-1902), stories; climbing a tree at center, and showing his father, John Martin (1823-1904), "what he and Junior…"

Mantor Library, University of Maine Farmington

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A Maine Family's story of being Prisoners of War in Manila
by Nicki Griffin

As a child, born after the war, I would hear these stories - glad they were finally written down