Keywords: Personal writing
Item 29422
Brooks' Patent writing case, ca. 1864
Contributed by: McArthur Public Library Date: circa 1864 Location: Biddeford Media: Leather, cotton, glass, metal
Item 1464
Letter from Elizabeth Chase to Rebecca Usher, New York, 1865
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1865 Media: Ink on paper
Exhibit
Elise Fellows White: Music, Writing, and Family
From a violin prodigy in her early years to an older woman -- mother of two -- struggling financially, Skowhegan native Mary Elise Fellows White remained committed to music, writing, poetry, her extended family -- and living a life that would matter and be remembered.
Exhibit
Horace W. Shaylor: Portland Penman
Horace W. Shaylor, a native of Ohio, settled in Portland and turned his focus to handwriting, developing several unique books of handwriting instruction. He also was a talented artist.
Site Page
Blue Hill, Maine - Jonathan Fisher: Unlocking the Person Beyond the Parson
"… copies of ) over 3,000 sermons, and many types of writings on liturgical subjects. He also served his ministerial calling by producing a book with…"
Site Page
John Martin: Expert Observer - "A Society Lady of 1889," Bangor
"… case is not costly but shows that the wearer is a person of fine taste which a poor person has the priviledge to enjoy if they make a study of the…"
Story
Vietnam Memoirs
by David Chessey
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND MY OBSERVATION OF NATIONWIDE OPINIONS CONCERNING THE “VIET NAM" WAR
Story
In an Old, Abandoned Island House, I Found my Mentor and my Muse
by Robin Clifford Wood
An aspiring writer finds inspiration and a mentor from the past in an old island home.
Lesson Plan
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.
