Maine Memory Network

Letter about living conditions in Aroostook County, ca. 1845

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1845 Media: Ink on paper

  view a full transcription

Police siren, Portland, ca. 1820

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1820 Location: Portland Media: Wood, iron

Capt. John Deering house, 1884-1919

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1884–1919 Location: Portland; Portland; Kennebunkport Client: John W. Deering Architect: John Calvin Stevens

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Politics and Enforcement

"The Liquor Enforcement Commission, an arm of state government, hired deputies (known as Sturgis Men) to track down offending citizens and…"

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Quenching the Thirst

"… how major communities enforced or failed to enforce liquor laws. Bunker found Bangor "the one place east of Boston where you can enter a gilded…"

Bangor Police Museum

View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.

City of Portland Planning & Urban Development

View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.

Mike Remillard shares his in-depth knowledge of our community
by Biddeford Cultural & Heritage Center

You will learn a lot from Mike's fascination with many topics from church organs to submarines.

Used, Abused, Battered, and Confused
by Anonymous (Maine Correctional Center)

The experience of domestic violence and the criminal justice system in Maine

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?