Maine Memory Network

Bogdanove studio, Monhegan, 1935

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1935-07-21 Location: Monhegan Media: Photographic print

Mary Lane McMillan, ca. 1910

Contributed by: Hollingsworth Fine Arts Date: circa 1910 Location: New Rochelle; Rome Media: Photographic print

Patterson studio, Cape Elizabeth, 1925

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1925 Location: Cape Elizabeth Client: C. R. Patterson Architect: John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens Architects

Moulton residence elevations, Falmouth, 2008-2009

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 2008–2009 Location: Falmouth Client: Bessie Moulton Architect: Carol A. Wilson; Carol A. Wilson, Architect

Capturing Arts and Artists in the 1930s

Emmie Bailey Whitney of the Lewiston Journal Saturday Magazine and her husband, noted amateur photographer G. Herbert Whitney, captured in words and photographs the richness of Maine's arts scene during the Great Depression.

A City Awakes: Arts and Artisans of Early 19th Century Portland

Portland's growth from 1786 to 1860 spawned a unique social and cultural environment and fostered artistic opportunity and creative expression in a broad range of the arts, which flowered with the increasing wealth and opportunity in the city.

Early Maine Photography - Studio Portraits

"Studio Portraits Studio Portrait Slideshow Click on image for full slideshow Beginning the 1840s, photographers sought to make the connection…"

Blue Hill, Maine - The Musical Culture of Blue Hill

"He then proceeded to open a recording studio and launched a new label, Neworld. The Bagaduce Chorale: In 1974 Mary Cheney Gould founded the…"

Scientist Turned Artist Making Art Out of Trash
by Ian Trask

Bowdoin College alum returns to midcoast Maine to make environmentally conscious artwork

One View
by Karen Jelenfy

My life as an artist in Maine.

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.