Maine Memory Network

James Otis Kaler, South Portland, ca. 1905

Contributed by: An individual through South Portland Public Library Date: circa 1905 Location: South Portland Media: Photographic print

New tennis courts, South Portland, 1944

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1944-07-24 Location: South Portland Media: Photographic print

South Portland Housing Authority aided housing for the elderly, South Portland, 1972

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1972 Location: South Portland Client: City of South Portland Architect: Wadsworth, Boston, Dimick, Mercer & Weatherill

Redbank Village: A Victory Housing Project of the Federal Public Housing Authority, South Portland, 1942

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1942 Location: South Portland Client: Federal Public Housing Authority Architect: John Howard Stevens John Calvin Stevens II Architects

A Town Is Born: South Bristol, 1915

After being part of the town of Bristol for nearly 150 years, residents of South Bristol determined that their interests would be better served by becoming a separate town and they broke away from the large community of Bristol.

Amazing! Maine Stories

These stories -- that stretch from 1999 back to 1759 -- take you from an amusement park to the halls of Congress. There are inventors, artists, showmen, a railway agent, a man whose civic endeavors helped shape Portland, a man devoted to the pursuit of peace and one known for his military exploits, Maine's first novelist, a woman who recorded everyday life in detail, and an Indian who survived a British attack.

Rum, Riot, and Reform - 1865 to 1919: The Drys Gain New Adherents and Leaders

"Turner of Bath was one of the first medical authorities to describe alcoholism as a disease. In 1864, he opened America's first "inebriate asylum" in…"

Mantor Library, University of Maine Farmington

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

History of Forest Gardens
by Gary Libby

This is a history of one of Portland's oldest local bars

August 12, 1967 was the most significant day of my life
by Bob Small

How the Vietnam war affected my life

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.