Maine Memory Network

City of Portland, Record of Naturalization Papers, 1850–1910

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1850–1910 Location: Portland Media: ink on paper

Buy United States Government War Savings Stamps World War I poster, ca. 1917

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1918 Media: Lithograph

400 years of New Mainers

Immigration is one of the most debated topics in Maine. Controversy aside, immigration is also America's oldest tradition, and along with religious tolerance, what our nation was built upon. Since the first people--the Wabanaki--permitted Europeans to settle in the land now known as Maine, we have been a state of immigrants.

From French Canadians to Franco-Americans

French Canadians who emigrated to the Lewiston-Auburn area faced discrimination as children and adults -- such as living in "Little Canada" tenements and being ridiculed for speaking French -- but also adapted to their new lives and sustained many cultural traditions.

Portland Press Herald Glass Negative Collection - "Twenty Nationalities, But All Americans"

""Twenty Nationalities, But All Americans" Twenty Nationalities, But All Americans View Immigration and Americanization slideshow Text by…"

Portland Press Herald Glass Negative Collection - Along the Waterfront

"Along the Waterfront X The Portland Press Herald and the Evening Express ran a regular column on what was going on on Portland's busy working…"

Aurore Morin & Huguette Paquette: immigrating to Biddeford
by Biddeford Cultural & Heritage Center

The experience of a young mother and her teenage sister making the transition from Quebec to Maine.

Immigration: Challenges and Opportunities in Maine

Grade Level: 9-12 Content Area: Social Studies
Learn about immigration in the United States using primary sources from Maine Memory Network and the Library of Congress.