Maine Memory Network

W.G. Webber Drugstore Trade Card, Bath, ca. 1895

Contributed by: Patten Free Library Date: circa 1895 Location: Bath Media: Ink on paper

Union candlepin bowling men's league, Biddeford, ca. 1955

Contributed by: Biddeford Mills Museum Date: circa 1955 Location: Biddeford Media: Photographic print

Making Paper, Making Maine

Paper has shaped Maine's economy, molded individual and community identities, and impacted the environment throughout Maine. When Hugh Chisholm opened the Otis Falls Pulp Company in Jay in 1888, the mill was one of the most modern paper-making facilities in the country, and was connected to national and global markets. For the next century, Maine was an international leader in the manufacture of pulp and paper.

A Celebration of Skilled Artisans

The Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, an organization formed to promote and support skilled craftsmen, celebrated civic pride and members' trades with a parade through Portland on Oct. 8, 1841 at which they displayed 17 painted linen banners with graphic and textual representations of the artisans' skills.

Historic Hallowell - The Hallowell Union Fire Club

"The Hallowell Union Fire Club Union Fire Club, Fire Bucket, Hallowell, 1805Hubbard Free Library The Union Fire Club of Hallowell, Maine…"

Historic Hallowell - The Union Fire Club of Hallowell, Musters, & Carnivals

"… The Union Fire Club of Hallowell, Musters, & Carnivals Nicole Bodge, Josh Cowing, Haley Houdlette, Signe Lynch, Quinton Stebbins Masquerade…"

A Lifelong Romance with Retail
by George A Smith

Maine's once plentiful small retail stores.

30 years of business in Maine
by Raj & Bina Sharma

30 years of business, raising a family, & showcasing our culture in Maine

Primary Sources: The Maine Shipyard

Grade Level: 9-12 Content Area: Social Studies
This lesson plan will give students a close-up look at historical operations behind Maine's famed shipbuilding and shipping industries. Students will examine primary sources including letters, bills of lading, images, and objects, and draw informed hypotheses about the evolution of the seafaring industry and its impact on Maine’s communities over time.

Longfellow Studies: Longfellow Amongst His Contemporaries - The Ship of State DBQ

Grade Level: 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Preparation Required/Preliminary Discussion: Lesson plans should be done in the context of a course of study on American literature and/or history from the Revolution to the Civil War. The ship of state is an ancient metaphor in the western world, especially among seafaring people, but this figure of speech assumed a more widespread and literal significance in the English colonies of the New World. From the middle of the 17th century, after all, until revolution broke out in 1775, the dominant system of governance in the colonies was the Navigation Acts. The primary responsibility of colonial governors, according to both Parliament and the Crown, was the enforcement of the laws of trade, and the governors themselves appointed naval officers to ensure that the various provisions and regulations of the Navigation Acts were executed. England, in other words, governed her American colonies as if they were merchant ships. This metaphorical conception of the colonies as a naval enterprise not only survived the Revolution but also took on a deeper relevance following the construction of the Union. The United States of America had now become the ship of state, launched on July 4th 1776 and dedicated to the radical proposition that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. This proposition is examined and tested in any number of ways during the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. Novelists and poets, as well as politicians and statesmen, questioned its viability: Whither goes the ship of state? Is there a safe harbor somewhere up ahead or is the vessel doomed to ruin and wreckage? Is she well built and sturdy or is there some essential flaw in her structural frame?