Maine Memory Network

Portland Society for Natural History building, ca. 1862

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1862 Location: Portland Media: Ink on paper

Leatherback turtle display at the Portland Society of Natural History, ca. 1965

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1965 Location: Portland Media: Photographic print

Assessor's Record, 18-28 Elm Street, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Portland Natural History Society Use: Land only

York Institute, Saco, 1926

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1925–1926 Location: Saco Client: York Institute Architect: John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens Architects

CODE RED: Climate, Justice & Natural History Collections

Explore topics around climate change by reuniting collections from one of the nation's earliest natural history museums, the Portland Society of Natural History. The exhibition focuses on how museums collect, and the role of humans in creating changes in society, climate, and biodiversity.

Designing Acadia

For one hundred years, Acadia National Park has captured the American imagination and stood as the most recognizable symbol of Maine’s important natural history and identity. This exhibit highlights Maine Memory content relating to Acadia and Mount Desert Island.

Mount Desert Island: Shaped by Nature - A Short History of Mount Desert Island

"… been seen as a place of abundant resources and natural beauty, where hardy people worked together to carve life and a community out of the rugged…"

Biddeford History & Heritage Project - HISTORY

"Two long thin fingers of land create a large, naturally protected pool. Saco River from old White's Wharf, Biddeford, 2010."

From Naturalists to Environmentalists
by Andy Beahm

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

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
by Doug Hitchcox, Staff Naturalist at Maine Audubon

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the Portland Society of Natural History Collections

Wabanaki Studies: Stewarding Natural Resources

Grade Level: 3-5 Content Area: Science & Engineering, Social Studies
This lesson plan will introduce elementary-grade students to the concepts and importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Indigenous Knowledge (IK), taught and understood through oral history to generations of Wabanaki people. Students will engage in discussions about how humans can be stewards of the local ecosystem, and how non-Native Maine citizens can listen to, learn from, and amplify the voices of Wabanaki neighbors to assist in the future of a sustainable environment. Students will learn about Wabanaki artists, teachers, and leaders from the past and present to help contextualize the concepts and ideas in this lesson, and learn about how Wabanaki youth are carrying tradition forward into the future.

Wabanaki Studies: Out of Ash

Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 Content Area: Science & Engineering, Social Studies
This lesson plan will give middle and high school students a broad overview of the ash tree population in North America, the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) threatening it, and the importance of the ash tree to the Wabanaki people in Maine. Students will look at Wabanaki oral histories as well as the geological/glacial beginnings of the region we now know as Maine for a general understanding of how the ash tree came to be a significant part of Wabanaki cultural history and environmental history in Maine. Students will compare national measures to combat the EAB to the Wabanaki-led Ash Task Force’s approaches in Maine, will discuss the benefits and challenges of biological control of invasive species, the concept of climigration, the concepts of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and how research scientists arrive at best practices for aiding the environment.