Maine Memory Network

First to leave the Portland pier for the Governors Convention, 1925

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media Date: 1925-06-29 Location: Portland Media: Glass Plate Negative

Executives at Cumberland Shipyard, South Portland, ca. 1918

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1918 Location: South Portland Media: Photographic print

Preliminary Planting Plan for Grounds, Augusta, 1920-1988

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1920–1988 Location: Augusta Client: State of Maine Architect: Olmsted Brothers

Skylands, Mount Desert, 1922-2000

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1922–2000 Location: Mount Desert Client: Martha Stewart Architect: Landscape Design Associates

Meshach P. Larry: Civil War Letters

Meshach P. Larry, a Windham blacksmith, joined Maine's 17th Regiment Company H on August 18, 1862. Larry and his sister, Phebe, wrote to each other frequently during the Civil War, and his letters paint a vivid picture of the life of a soldier.

Guarding Maine Rail Lines

Black soldiers served in Maine during World War II, assigned in small numbers throughout the state to guard Grand Trunk rail lines from a possible German attack. The soldiers, who lived in railroad cars near their posts often interacted with local residents.

Maine Historic Preservation Commission

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Maine State Archives

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Share your COVID-19 story for future generations
by Steve Bromage and Jamie Rice, Maine Historical Society

Learn how you can share your stories on Maine Memory Network

From Naturalists to Environmentalists
by Andy Beahm

The beginnings of Maine Audubon in the Portland Society of Natural History

Longfellow Studies: Longfellow Amongst His Contemporaries - The Ship of State DBQ

Grade Level: 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Preparation Required/Preliminary Discussion: Lesson plans should be done in the context of a course of study on American literature and/or history from the Revolution to the Civil War. The ship of state is an ancient metaphor in the western world, especially among seafaring people, but this figure of speech assumed a more widespread and literal significance in the English colonies of the New World. From the middle of the 17th century, after all, until revolution broke out in 1775, the dominant system of governance in the colonies was the Navigation Acts. The primary responsibility of colonial governors, according to both Parliament and the Crown, was the enforcement of the laws of trade, and the governors themselves appointed naval officers to ensure that the various provisions and regulations of the Navigation Acts were executed. England, in other words, governed her American colonies as if they were merchant ships. This metaphorical conception of the colonies as a naval enterprise not only survived the Revolution but also took on a deeper relevance following the construction of the Union. The United States of America had now become the ship of state, launched on July 4th 1776 and dedicated to the radical proposition that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. This proposition is examined and tested in any number of ways during the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. Novelists and poets, as well as politicians and statesmen, questioned its viability: Whither goes the ship of state? Is there a safe harbor somewhere up ahead or is the vessel doomed to ruin and wreckage? Is she well built and sturdy or is there some essential flaw in her structural frame?