Maine Memory Network

Day's Jewelers opened at 489 Congress Street in 1927. Their business expanded from selling and repairing jewelry and timepieces to include radios, stereos, television sets, appliances, and cameras.

In 1949, Day's renovated the 489 Congress Street building at the cost of $500,000. The bones of the Morton Block still exist underneath the façade created by the Day's construction.

Maine Historical Society purchased the former Day's Jewelry building at 489 Congress Street in the 1990s and renovated the space into the current museum galleries and administrative offices.

A teacher, historian, and author, Elizabeth Ring (1902-1997) began her long service to MHS starting in 1948. She was the first woman elected to MHS's governing board. For generations, Maine Historical Society was, as Ring described it, "a good old boys club," but she worked to break barriers for women's leadership. Born in Orono, Ring was MHS's Vice-President from 1954 to 1970. Prior to her election, the office had been mostly ceremonial, but Ring turned it into an active station to promote Maine history.

Ring's tenure at MHS was concurrent with her work at Portland's Deering High School as a history teacher from 1944 to 1969. She left an impression on generations of students, and took up-and-coming historians such as Earle Shettleworth, Jr., William David Barry, and Nicholas Noyes under her guidance.

Ring served as MHS's Acting Director and librarian from 1963 to 1966, just before MHS hired the first full-time director. Ring professionalized MHS with staff hires, and by creating job titles. She was active politically and led the fight for equal pay for female public school teachers.

Financial pitfalls in the 1950s, reports of overworked staff, and lack of collections storage space led to a 1960s rebellion at MHS.

A group of young leaders dubbed the "Young Turks" challenged established MHS officers. A record number of members participated in the 1969 annual meeting, but the Young Turks, attempting to unseat traditional leadership, only managed to win one seat on the new Administrative Organization Committee. However, as William B. Jordan, Jr. (1927-2015) noted, they had accomplished their goal, "to awaken interest in the Society."

The Young Turks ushered in new perspectives and helped to transition MHS from a quiet Yankee institution to an outward facing organization in 2022.

John Marshall Brown (1838-1907) of Portland met Alida Carroll (1844-1911) of Washington D.C. while he was serving in the Civil War. The couple married in 1866, living in Portland and at Thornhurst, their farm on Falmouth Foreside.

The Browns are the namesakes of MHS's Alida Carroll and John Marshall Brown Library. After a restoration and expansion project in 2009, MHS re-dedicated the building to the Browns, recognized their commitment to Maine history.

John Marshall Brown first engaged with MHS while he was studying at Bowdoin College, graduating in the class of 1860. An active member, he spearheaded MHS’s physical move back to Portland and supported the publication of MHS’s Documentary History of the State of Maine (1869-1916). Alida Carroll Brown was active in Maine chapters of the Colonial Dames and Daughters of the American Revolution.

Brown worked for the family’s real-estate firm, J.B. Brown & Sons, which once owned the current MHS museum building—hence the name Brown Street. His father, John Bundy Brown found initial success in the dry goods business like the Portland Sugar Company, which brought molasses, farmed through slave labor in Cuba, into Portland. Resources from this successful business helped support the Brown's future ventures, including the Maine Historical Society.

Anne Longfellow Pierce's gift specified the construction of a library building to house the Maine Historical Society’s collection. Initially built in 1907, the library underwent an extensive restoration and expansion project between 2007 and 2009, creating a state-of-the-art research and collections care facility. Re-dedicated as the Alida Carroll and John Marshall Brown Library, it created a new 13,000 square foot wing, named for former Maine governor Horace A. Hildreth. The addition provides climate-controlled collections storage, and a physical home for MHS digital projects, including the Maine Memory Network.

Launched in 2001, the Maine Memory Network, a nationally recognized digital history platform shares collections, stories, and resources about Maine history. Operated by MHS, the collective includes offerings from nearly 300 contributing partners, such as Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the National Park Service, featured in this exhibition.

Nicholas Noyes joined MHS at age five and became a life member in 1963. Noyes worked as a student volunteer with Elizabeth Ring in the 1960s. After graduating from Columbia University's library school, Noyes joined the MHS staff in 1988. Noyes first worked in reference, becoming Head of Library Services, and finally Collections Librarian before retiring in 2020 after thirty-two years at MHS. In 2021, MHS presented Noyes with a Librarian Emeritus position, the first of its kind at MHS.

A primary public face of Maine Historical Society, Noyes supported far-ranging efforts through his vast knowledge of Maine history and MHS collections, and oversaw a period of modernization and professionalization in the MHS Research Library. Noyes represents a significant era in MHS history, and its conversion into a modern twentyfirst century research and cultural institution.