Maine Memory Network

Thursday Club's New Year's Day party, Biddeford, 1930

Contributed by: McArthur Public Library Date: 1930-01-02 Location: Biddeford Media: Photographic print

Swedish Baptist Church of New Sweden, ca. 1938

Contributed by: New Sweden Historical Society Date: circa 1938 Location: New Sweden Media: Photographic print

House for Jessie Wright, Cape Elizabeth, 1913-1924

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1913–1924 Location: Cape Elizabeth Client: Jessie Wright Architect: John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens Architects

Baptist Church, Sanford, 1888

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1888 Location: Sanford Client: Sanford Baptist Church Architect: Stevens & Cobb Architects

Great War and Armistice Day

In 1954, November 11 became known as Veterans Day, a time to honor American veterans of all wars. The holiday originated, however, as a way to memorialize the end of World War I, November 11, 1918, and to "perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations." Mainers were involved in World War I as soldiers, nurses, and workers on the homefront aiding the military effort.

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.

New Portland: Bridging the Past to the Future - West New Portland Village Schools

"… Historical Society Great Works School in West New Portland X West New Portland was only known to have two different schools."

New Portland: Bridging the Past to the Future - New Portland: Bridging the Past to the Future

"Someone who made his way to the front during the Civil War was a Mr. Charles Knapp of New Portland. During his time fighting, he earned many…"

Civil War Soldier comes home after 158 years
by Jamison McAlister

Civil War Soldier comes home after 158 years

Elizabeth Mantis Spiliopoulos: passion for life & Greek heritage
by Biddeford Cultural & Heritage Center

A spunky 99-year-old shares her crystal-clear recollections of all the changes in her lifetime

Longfellow Studies: "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport"

Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Longfellow's poem "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport" opens up the issue of the earliest history of the Jews in America, and the significant roles they played as businessmen and later benefactors to the greater community. The history of the building itself is notable in terms of early American architecture, its having been designed, apparently gratis, by the most noted architect of the day. Furthermore, the poem traces the history of Newport as kind of a microcosm of New England commercial cities before the industrialization boom. For almost any age student the poem could be used to open up interest in local cemeteries, which are almost always a wealth of curiousities and history. Longfellow and his friends enjoyed exploring cemeteries, and today our little local cemeteries can be used to teach little local histories and parts of the big picture as well. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited the Jewish cemetery in Newport, RI on July 9, 1852. His popular poem about the site, published two years later, was certainly a sympathetic portrayal of the place and its people. In addition to Victorian romantic musings about the "Hebrews in their graves," Longfellow includes in this poem references to the historic persecution of the Jews, as well as very specific references to their religious practices. Since the cemetery and the nearby synagogue were restored and protected with an infusion of funding just a couple years after Longfellow's visit, and later a congregation again assembled, his gloomy predictions about the place proved false (never mind the conclusion of the poem, "And the dead nations never rise again!"). Nevertheless, it is a fascinating poem, and an interesting window into the history of the nation's oldest extant synagogue.