Maine Memory Network

When Maine achieved statehood in 1820, residents no longer qualified for membership in the Massachusetts Historical Society. From March 15, 1820 to the founding of the Maine Historical Society on February 5, 1822, Maine residents were without a repository for their history. Forty-nine men passed the "Act to Incorporate the Maine Historical Society" with twenty-four more members joining in the first year. The White, affluent founders lived in communities from York to Lubec.

The Senate Chamber of the original Maine State House in Portland served as Maine Historical Society's first location from February to December of 1822. In 1832, Anna M. Bucknam painted a watercolor of the State House, seen to the right, as it looked in 1820. Also visible are the Cumberland County Court House, built in 1816, and the spire of the old First Parish Church on the right. The Portland Academy appears on the left. The Great Fire of 1866 destroyed the old State House, but Maine’s governmental meetings had previously moved to Augusta, named the new state capital in 1827.

Albion Keith Parris, the second governor of Maine, was the first president of the Maine Historical Society. Born in Hebron, Parris (1788-1857) graduated from Dartmouth College in 1806 and settled in Paris Hill. In 1815 he won a seat in Congress while Maine was still part of Massachusetts. He was a leader in the push for Maine statehood and served as governor of Maine from 1822 to 1827.

The founders were educated men with political, social, intellectual, religious, and educational clout. They consisted of attorneys, physicians, clergymen, and merchants. The membership had the ability to appoint "a President, Librarian and Treasurer, and such officers, as they may think proper," along with fiduciary and governance oversight of the fledgling organization. In 1822, they appointed Reverend Edward Payson as MHS's first librarian.

Women were not considered for membership, nor were non-Whites.

Bowdoin College, chartered in 1794 in Brunswick, was MHS's second location. We don't know for certain what building first housed MHS, but Massachusetts Hall and the Chapel are the probable candidates.

For nearly six decades, the Bowdoin College campus was Maine Historical Society’s home, with faculty overseeing the collections. Alpheus S. Packard (1798–1884) worked as a professor of Latin and Greek, mathematics, and religion at Bowdoin College, and was active in the Maine Historical Society. MHS members elected Packard to the post of librarian and cabinet keeper—an early name for curator—for a record-holding forty-six years, from 1835 to 1881.

Packard served twice as acting president of Bowdoin, and was the Bowdoin College librarian from 1869 to 1881. He was a member of the Royal Historical Society, the New York Historical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For the Maine Historical Society, Packard’s tenure as librarian and keeper was notable for its length, and also for its stability.

MHS moved back to Portland in 1880, occupying the third floor of the City Government Building until 1889. Known as the "Old City Hall" the building also housed the Portland Institute and Public Library.

The Portland Transcript newspaper reported MHS's move from Bowdoin College to Portland would, "result in enlarging the sphere of the Society's activity and usefulness" and suggested the new location was more accessible to MHS members and "visiting strangers."

In 1880, the Maine Historical Society's library numbered 11,000 bound books and an equal number of unbound pamphlets, along with a "cabinet of curiosities and historical relics." MHS's mission during this time period was to gather and preserve all documents relating to the early history of Maine, including letters, autographs, manuscript sermons, journals and diaries. Wealthy White men curated the collections for more than half of MHS's history, and their choices limited the scope of the collections, depending on preferences and interests.

The Baxter Building, designed by architect Francis Fassett, served as a new home for Maine Historical Society and the Portland Public Library. Philanthropist James Phinney Baxter gifted the building, facilitating both organizations' departure from Old City Hall in 1889.

The Baxter Building was 6,336 square feet, with the Public Library encompassing one wing, and MHS the other—including storage in the basement and a "fire-proof vault, twelve by thirteen feet in size." Sharing public space in the Baxter Building put pressures upon MHS to serve a wider visitorship, including allowing women as members.

Although they are not identified specifically, included in the photo are two men pivotal to MHS’s history, James Phinney Baxter and Francis Fassett.

James Phinney Baxter (1831-1921) began his prosperous career at the Baxter Canning Company. He supported many of Portland's cultural institutions and was a founder of the Portland Society of Art and the Portland Public Library. Baxter served as president of the Maine Historical Society for a record thirty years, from 1891 to 1921. He funded the construction of the Baxter Building in 1889 to house MHS and the Public Library. Baxter was mayor of Portland for six terms between 1893 and 1905.

Francis H. Fassett (1823-1908) was a Portland-based architect who built over 400 houses in Maine. Among his commissions are MHS's third location, the Baxter Building, as well as the Maine General hospital and churches across the state. MHS holds Fassett's architectural archive in the permanent collections.