Keywords: Stories
Item 63065
Swan's Islanders recount their Island childhoods, 1930-1960
Contributed by: Swan's Island Historical Society Date: 1930–1960 Location: Swan's Island Media: Mp3
Item 8617
Interview with Clyde Sukeforth (Sukey), ca. 1930
Contributed by: Life Story Center Date: circa 1930 Location: Waldoboro; New York Media: Sound recording, MP3
Item 67814
Assessor's Record, 7-9 Oak Street, Portland, 1924
Owner in 1924: Charles Story Use: Garage
Item 67813
7-9 Oak Street, Portland, 1924
Owner in 1924: Louis Weinstein Use: Dwelling - Single family
Item 116466
Gorham Academy alterations, Gorham, 1909
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1909 Location: Gorham Client: Gorham Academy Architect: John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens Architects
Item 111230
Lorenzo De Medici Sweat Memorial, Portland, ca. 1910
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1909–1966 Location: Portland; Portland Client: Portland Society of Art Architect: John Calvin Stevens
Exhibit
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.
Exhibit
Student Exhibit: The Story of the Heywood Tavern
The story of the Heywood Tavern in Skowhegan.
Site Page
Mercy Hospital - Mercy Stories
"Mercy Stories Browse the My Maine Stories videos below to discover the incredible stories of the dedicated staff and supporters of Mercy Hospital."
Site Page
View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.
Story
Share your COVID-19 story for future generations
by Steve Bromage and Jamie Rice, Maine Historical Society
Learn how you can share your stories on Maine Memory Network
Story
If You Knew My Story
by Anonymous (Maine State Prison)
A story about incarceration in Maine
Lesson Plan
Longfellow Studies: Longfellow and Dickens - The Story of a Trans-Atlantic Friendship
Grade Level: 9-12
Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
What if you don't teach American Studies but you want to connect to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in meaningful ways? One important connection is Henry's friendship with Charles Dickens. There are many great resources about Dickens and if you teach his novels, you probably already know his biography and the chronology of his works. No listing for his association with Henry appears on most websites and few references will be found in texts. However, journals and diary entries and especially letters reveal a friendship that allowed their mutual respect to influence Henry's work.
Lesson Plan
Longfellow Studies: An American Studies Approach to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was truly a man of his time and of his nation; this native of Portland, Maine and graduate of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine became an American icon. Lines from his poems intersperse our daily speech and the characters of his long narrative poems have become part of American myth. Longfellow's fame was international; scholars, politicians, heads-of-state and everyday people read and memorized his poems. Our goal is to show that just as Longfellow reacted to and participated in his times, so his poetry participated in shaping and defining American culture and literature.
The following unit plan introduces and demonstrates an American Studies approach to the life and work of Longfellow. Because the collaborative work that forms the basis for this unit was partially responsible for leading the two of us to complete the American & New England Studies Masters program at University of Southern Maine, we returned there for a working definition of "American Studies approach" as it applies to the grade level classroom. Joe Conforti, who was director at the time we both went through the program, offered some useful clarifying comments and explanation. He reminded us that such a focus provides a holistic approach to the life and work of an author. It sets a work of literature in a broad cultural and historical context as well as in the context of the poet's life. The aim of an American Studies approach is to "broaden the context of a work to illuminate the American past" (Conforti) for your students.
We have found this approach to have multiple benefits at the classroom and research level. It brings the poems and the poet alive for students and connects with other curricular work, especially social studies. When linked with a Maine history unit, it helps to place Portland and Maine in an historical and cultural context. It also provides an inviting atmosphere for the in-depth study of the mechanics of Longfellow's poetry.
What follows is a set of lesson plans that form a unit of study. The biographical "anchor" that we have used for this unit is an out-of-print biography An American Bard: The story of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, by Ruth Langland Holberg, Thomas Y. Crowell & Company, c1963. Permission has been requested to make this work available as a downloadable file off this web page, but in the meantime, used copies are readily and cheaply available from various vendors. The poem we have chosen to demonstrate our approach is "Paul Revere's Ride." The worksheets were developed by Judy Donahue, the explanatory essays researched and written by the two of us, and our sources are cited below. We have also included a list of helpful links. When possible we have included helpful material in text format, or have supplied site links. Our complete unit includes other Longfellow poems with the same approach, but in the interest of time and space, they are not included. Please feel free to contact us with questions and comments.
