Maine Memory Network

Dunstan Observation Post, Scarborough, ca. 1950

Contributed by: Scarborough Historical Society & Museum Date: circa 1950 Location: Scarborough Media: Photographic print

Ground Observer Corps. observation post, Strong, ca. 1942

Contributed by: Strong Historical Society Date: circa 1942 Location: Strong Media: Photo negative

David A. Calhoun house, Cape Elizabeth, 1904

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1904 Location: Cape Elizabeth Client: David A. Calhoun Architect: John Calvin Stevens

The Public Face of Christmas

Christmas, a Christian holiday observed by many Mainers, has a very public, seasonal face that makes it visible to those of all beliefs.

Giving Thanks

Cultures from the ancient Greeks and Chinese to contemporary societies have set aside time to give thanks, especially for the harvest. In 1941, the United States set a permanent date for the observance.

John Martin: Expert Observer - Canoe race, Kenduskeag Stream, Bangor, 1865

"… In the evening after the July 4, 1865 parade and observances in Bangor, ten Penobscot Indians in five birchbark canoes engaged in a race on the…"

John Martin: Expert Observer - Hampden House Bar, 1837

"… Journal," in which he described his life and his observations of the world around him. He wrote that he had not intended to illustrate the journal…"

Vietnam Memoirs
by David Chessey

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND MY OBSERVATION OF NATIONWIDE OPINIONS CONCERNING THE “VIET NAM" WAR

From Naturalists to Environmentalists
by Andy Beahm

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

Longfellow Studies: Celebrity's Picture - Using Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Portraits to Observe Historic Changes

Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 Content Area: Social Studies, Visual & Performing Arts
"In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?" Englishman Sydney Smith's 1820 sneer irked Americans, especially writers such as Irving, Cooper, Hawthorne, and Maine's John Neal, until Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's resounding popularity successfully rebuffed the question. The Bowdoin educated Portland native became the America's first superstar poet, paradoxically loved especially in Britain, even memorialized at Westminster Abbey. He achieved international celebrity with about forty books or translations to his credit between 1830 and 1884, and, like superstars today, his public craved pictures of him. His publishers consequently commissioned Longfellow's portrait more often than his family, and he sat for dozens of original paintings, drawings, and photos during his lifetime, as well as sculptures. Engravers and lithographers printed replicas of the originals as book frontispiece, as illustrations for magazine or newspaper articles, and as post cards or "cabinet" cards handed out to admirers, often autographed. After the poet's death, illustrators continued commercial production of his image for new editions of his writings and coloring books or games such as "Authors," and sculptors commemorated him with busts in Longfellow Schools or full-length figures in town squares. On the simple basis of quantity, the number of reproductions of the Maine native's image arguably marks him as the country's best-known nineteenth century writer. TEACHERS can use this presentation to discuss these themes in art, history, English, or humanities classes, or to lead into the following LESSON PLANS. The plans aim for any 9-12 high school studio art class, but they can also be used in any humanities course, such as literature or history. They can be adapted readily for grades 3-8 as well by modifying instructional language, evaluation rubrics, and targeted Maine Learning Results and by selecting materials for appropriate age level.

Portland History: Lemuel Moody and the Portland Observatory

Grade Level: 3-5 Content Area: Social Studies
Lemuel Moody and the Portland Observatory Included are interesting facts to share with your students and for students, an interactive slide show available on-line at Maine Memory Network. The "Images" slide show allows students to place historical images of the Observatory in a timeline. Utilizing their observation skills students will place these images in chronological order by looking for changes within the built environment for clues. Also available is the "Maps" slide show, a series of maps from key eras in Portland's history. Students will answer the questions in the slide show to better understand the topography of Portland, the need for an Observatory and the changes in the landscape and the population centers.